My review of 'The Abominable Dr. Phibes'
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THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES (1971)
(Directed by Robert Feust)
"Camp horror at its finest!"- Signed by MartialHorror.
Plot: A disfigured madman kills the doctors who failed to save the life of his wife in crazy ways, based on biblical curses.
Review:
“The Abominable Dr. Phibes” isn't Vincent Price's best movie, but it certainly is up there. The more I think about it, the more I realize that “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” was something that would only be made in the 70's. For reasons I'm not going to bother explaining- mainly because I'm not sure I understand them- the 70's contained some of the darkest and some of the cheesiest horror films ever made. It was the decade that brought us the iconic and goofy “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” along with the torture and rape filled “Last House on the Left”. It was as if the 70's wanted to have lots of fun, but in the wake of the Vietnam War and the highly publicized Manson murders, it felt guilty about it. The end result was that cinema was diverse. You saw some of the campiest movies of all time within various genres as well as some of the visceral and brutal films of all time. It was a confused decade, and capturing all of that confusion was “The Abominable Dr. Phibes”, a film that manages to be deeply unsettling, but also wonderfully cheesy.
I have to apologize in advance for the plot description. Every description of the story that I've read contained spoilers and now I can see why. It's hard to discuss the plot without revealing much of the revelations, the backstory, etc. But luckily, it's not as if the mystery is that important within movie, so I don't think it will matter. Taking place in the early 1900's, various Doctors of London are being killed in strange and bizarre ways. It turns out that the killer is Dr. Phibes (Vincent Price), a mastermind in engineering whose wife died when her doctors were unable to save her. He blames everyone involved and kills them in ways corresponding to the 10 biblical curses (although for some reason, the curses are out of order and some of them are made up for the movie). It's up to the head doctor, Vesalius (Joseph Cotten) and the head inspector on the case, Trout (Peter Jeffrey), to stop him.
“The Abominable Dr. Phibes” somehow manages to be both original yet familiar. On one hand, it's hard to watch this movie and not think of “House of Wax”, which also starred Price. Both films had Price's real face act as make-up for an ugly and disfigured face, which was obviously make-up over Price's real face. I'm pretty sure there is a joke there, but the influences are prominent. It's also hard to watch this movie and not think of the much later “Saw” at times. The final trap especially feels like something Jigsaw would dream up. It wouldn't surprise me if the exploits of Jigsaw were inspired by Dr. Phibes himself. But while- as of 2011- the concept is very familiar, they execute it in a very original fashion. I just want to know what it was like to write this. “Phibes covers Nurse's face in Brussels sprout juice and her face is eaten by locusts.” “Phibes has man wear a frog mask which slowly crushes his skull”. “Phibes uses catapult to fire a brass unicorn head, which impales doctor”. Every idea in this movie is so zany and outlandish that you never know what else it will throw at you. While much of this sounds gruesome, it really isn't. Much of the more gory moments are kept off-screen. The scenarios are goofy, but the witty dialogue shows that campy is not to be confused with lazy. In my experience, when effort is put into strong dialogue, it shows that there was a lot of effort put into the script in general.
But while basking in its campiness, “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” has some scary undertones. Yes, everything is zany and outlandish, but it's often unsettling to watch. When someone is attacked by a rat or a beast, they use close ups on the creature's mouths, which freaked me out for some reason. The animals are harmless in reality, but the director did a good job making them appear menacing. Other scenes are just gut wrenching in concept. One of the harshest moments in the whole film is when Phibes drains a victim of their blood. The scene is low key, not sleazy at all, but it's fairly upsetting. Finally, the films wicked sense of humor mixed in with its taboo breaking mentality makes you wonder how far it will go. Will the ending be a downer? Remember when being a downer used to be a surprise? Or will good prevail? This all leads to some excellent suspense, and I was biting my nails in anticipation. Finally, I liked Phibes real 'face'. The makeup is good and it is generally freaky. I love it when movies provide the right contrast. “Dr. Phibes” never goes too far. We're not talking “Bumbling sheriffs stumble onto a rape movie” contrast either. Like Vincent Price itself, it knows when to be restrained in its horror/humor, so nothing feels out of place or awkward.
Say what you will about the 70's, but art design became a lot cooler in the decade. “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” is filled to the brim with lavish colors, all of which contrast each other nicely. In a way, the film appears to be drawing inspirations from Euro-spy films. The sets are often over-the-top in design, which is awesome, and Phibes himself sometimes acts like a Bond villain. Either way, the film looks great, but keeps most of its visual craziness reserved for the base of Phibes. Once again, it knows not to go too far, so the visuals are never distracting but add flavor to the film. The camerawork is top notch too. The camera is almost always in the right place (although you see a wire on one of those bats pretty clearly) and the scene knows when to cut away. The technical aspects of the film are surprisingly good considering its budget, and the score is excellent too!
The final praise to be heaped goes to the acting, especially Vincent Price (Phibes). One thing that actually dismayed me is that Phibes can't talk due to a car accident which supposedly killed him. He has to use a device that he plugs into his throat to speak, giving him a robotic sounding voice. I've always liked Price's voice and his delivery of it was a strength of his. Luckily, Price gets to impress in a completely different kind of way. He can't 'speak', so relies on body motions and facial expressions and he manages to sell the performance wonderfully. You can feel his heartbreak, but this also happens to be one of Price's scarier performances. I love Price, but rarely am I intimidated by him. He was pretty frightening in “Masque of the Red Death”, but was a different kind of intensity. There, he was scary because there was something realistically humane about him when he did cruel things to people. Here, he's more of a movie monster, but the pale makeup and his intense eyes made him more effective than the bulk of movie monsters. I certainly wouldn't want to mess with him. The film benefits from a good cast in general, with Joseph Cotten being in top form as one would expect from him. Even if its only for a few minutes, I was glad Cotten and Price had some screen time together.
There is one major problem I have with the film that keeps it from being 'perfect'. I almost felt that the film needed to prioritize who it wanted to follow. Even when playing the villain, Vincent Price usually remains the main character, or at least is with the main character throughout most of the movie. Yet Phibes, while having plenty of screentime, isn't in it enough to be the main character. That's okay. Too much of Phibes might've been annoying and his presence can be felt even when he's not on the screen. But Cotten's Vesalius and Jeffrey's Trout can't be called the main characters either. Dr. Vesalius should've been more prominent in the film, because he was the more interesting character, but he only sometimes emerges as the main protagonist. Trout seems to have more screen time than him and he's certainly not the main character! I guess the intent may have been an ensemble piece, but I ended up wishing everyone- primarily Dr. Vesalious- had more screentime. I don't know, I just wish the film followed someone more closely. It's not a big deal, but it did bother me somewhat.
“The Abominable Dr. Phibes”, as I said, isn't Price's best film. I prefer “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “The Comedy of Terrors”, “House on Haunted Hill” and “Masque of the Red Death” for sure. I remember liking other films, such as “The Witchfinder General”, "The Raven" and “Theater of Blood” more than this one too. But “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” has a special place in my heart. It's zany, wild, strange and using Vincent Price's description of the director: “Mad”! It blends camp and horror effectively and Price gets something new to do. It really is a quintessential 70's film, but unlike most 70's movies that can be described as such, it lacks any of the problems I had with the decade. It never gets lost in its own madness, always remaining in control of itself.
Violence: Rated R worthy, albeit a light R. It's not too violent, but it might be more violent than you'd expect.
Nudity: None, unless you count that medical diaphragm which shows an explicit drawing of breasts.
Overall: Watch “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” if you like Vincent Price, campy horror or 70's horror. It's excellent when it comes to all three of them!
3.5/4 Stars
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