In 1959, US moviegoers were the first to experience a new kind of viewing experience called Percepto!, which was deployed for the first (and almost certainly the last) time in a film called The Tingler. A pathologist, played by Vincent Price, discovers a crayfish-like creature that feeds on fear, and attaches itself to its victims’ spines, and then “tingles” them to death. The only antidote is to SCREAM! FOR YOUR LIFE!, which, so the plotline goes, releases the fear, and with it, the claws of the crustation.

Director William Castle reportedly spent $250 000 in addition to the film’s budget to acquire electrical buzzers that were attached to the underside of some seats in larger cinemas. As the tension builds, the film is suddenly interrupted, and the houselights are brought up. Price’s character then tells the audience to keep calm. In Variety’s review from the time, two men (whom Castle had paid) rush into the theatre, and carry a woman who had fainted, (also part of the ruse) out on a stretcher. The film restarts, but then Price shouts: “Ladies and gentlemen, please do not panic. But scream! Scream for your lives! The tingler is loose in this theatre!”. This was the cue for the projectionist to start the seats buzzing, and then the screaming really started. The film did quite well, earning around $2mn from a $400 000 budget, some of which must almost certainly have been due to the Percepto! gimmick.