Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun informal Something spine-tingling; a frightening book, film, etc.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Elbow Lippy Kids The first track to emerge from Elbow's upcoming fifth album via a live studio video posted on their website is a typically bruised and beautiful spine-tingler.

    F&M playlist 2011

  • "The Talented Mr. Ripley" is a high-end spine-tingler, and Robison lavishes on it the tasteful attention the story deserves.

    Karl Miller shines as 'Talented Mr. Ripley' at Round House Theatre 2010

  • These pictures may be less entertaining in the moment, but often end up shedding valuable perspective on the human condition -- insight you won't find in your average spine-tingler or farce.

    John Farr: Amidst Endless Options and Distractions, Are Serious Films An Endangered Species? 2009

  • Clinton could have delivered the address of a lifetime, a Churchillian spine-tingler.

    Dancing With The Enemy 2008

  • There are plenty of family secrets unearthed in pursuing the mysterious events at the orphanage, some a bit predictable, others out of the blue, and some just downright crazy, but cumulatively they make this more than a spine-tingler, they make it a layered piece of intrigue that really draws the viewer into the world on screen.

    THE ORPHANAGE | Obsessed With Film 2008

  • Also, Janet Leigh is an ordinary secretary whose plans are violently interrupted by a schizophrenic, in the outstanding spine-tingler – “Psycho”.

    Hitchcock…film style & technique set auteur apart! « Julian Ayrs & Pop Culture 2008

  • If this latest victory wasn't quite the spine-tingler that 2003's was, it's because the entire race had an air of inevitability about it.

    NEWSMAKERS 2007

  • Busy screenwriter Ehren Kruger (Arlington Road, Scream 3, The Ring) has set his latest spine-tingler there.

    Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine 2005

  • That film's now-familiar story, of a grossly malpracticing plastic surgeon and his three interconnected victims, did seem calculated to provoke, but the final product was surprisingly tame- more of a spine-tingler than torture porn.

    Slate Magazine Daniel Engber 2011

  • Later this year, the company releases a new film adaptation of Susan Hill's Victorian spine-tingler The Woman in Black, adapted by Jane "Kick-Ass" Goldman and starring Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe.

    Evening Standard - Home Nick Curtis 2011

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