Director and Producer William Castle was known throughout Hollywood as someone who could make a low budget film and turn it into a box office Dynamo. His specialty was the horror genre, where it was easy to gain attention with gimmicks. One of his most successful and renowned films was House on Haunted Hill, which starred Vincent Price.
For this film, Mr. Castle came up with "Extremo" which was sure to send many a chill to the audience. This gimmick merely consisted of a hidden skeleton hung from the theater ceiling. At various points in the film, the skeleton would be dropped from the ceiling to frighten the audience.
The gimmick was successful and the modestly budgeted film earned a large haul at the box office. The film caught Alfred Hitchcock's attention, inspiring him to make his own modestly budgeted film- Psycho.
