FEED A HUNGER FOR HORROR ON UNCLE VINCENT'S TREATS

By Caryn James

From The New York Times, 08.19.1994

To some people, Vincent Price is just another B-movie actor, but to the folks at Film Forum 2 he is the official patron saint of their Annual Festival of Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction.

A large, affectionate cult of moviegoers grew up watching Mr. Price, who died last year at the age of 82. No one was better at playing madmen oozing charm. Tim Burton, the director of Batman and Edward Scissorhands, is the most visible among those who idolize Mr. Price, but the feeling is easy to understand. The audience sensed that no matter how horrific a character he played, Mr. Price was in on the joke, like a favorite uncle who told deliciously scary bedtime stories.

"Saint Vincent," a weeklong tribute to Mr. Price, begins today at Film Forum, at 209 West Houston Street in the South Village. Today and tomorrow offers a real treat: the 1959 movie The Tingler, with Mr. Price as a scientist studying the effects of fear on the human body. When a woman literally dies of fright, Mr. Price's autopsy reveals the physical manifestation of the chill that runs up and down your spine: the Tingler, an object that looks like a giant caterpillar covered by a lobster shell. When the Tingler appears in close-up, it's hard to miss the string pulling it along.

Best of all, Film Forum will show The Tingler in a format called Percepto, which means the seats vibrate when Mr. Price's character yells: "Ladies and gentlemen, scream for your life! The Tingler is loose in the theater!" More comic than horrific, The Tingler is still a scream.

Sunday's feature is House of Wax, with Mr. Price as a mad sculptor, shown in Film Forum's first-rate 3-D format. The Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction series goes on through Sept. 15, featuring favorite movies from previous years' festivals. (Schedule and other information: 212 727-8110.) But this is the week that brings back the creepy fun of horror movies, and shows why Vincent Price must be looking down from above, laughing his kindly, maniacal laugh.