Phibes Undead?

And a follow-up question, which may also sound stupid...

What is the deal with the pieces of face flesh? Obviously Phibes is now a rotten corpse, and his face is partially decomposed, so what I'm asking is: Was Vincent Price's face the face of another person he killed (i.e. Leatherface/ Frankenstein's Creature)? Or did he somehow recreate his own face (i.e. Darkman)? ...In other words, did the living Dr. Phibes look like Vincent Price? Or did a victim type person of Dr. Phibes' look like Vincent Price?

In answer to your question, Phibes did not come back from the dead because he was'nt dead to begin with...according to the storyline, Phibes was trying to get home upon receiving word of his wife's emergency surgery, but his car crashed and he was presumed killed...his face was a result of the crash....by the way, if you have'nt seen it yet, there was a sequel, both available on DVD.Hope this helped!

While he is said in the first movie to have survived the crash, Phibes himself also claimed to be dead in both films. This is easily explained as a metaphoric use, his former life of happiness with his wife having ended with her death (and the crash), though his appearance doesn't hold up to that. Bad makeup effects notwithstanding, he seems too much of a dessicated corpse to be able to survive, clever machinations or not. And while seen to be eating and drinking, after a fashion, we do not see any aperature in the back of his neck into which he is actually placing such. The ambiguity is obviously intentional, and personally, while the unfocused and unfounded nonsense of other movies of the relative era and genre doesn't hold my interest, the way the Phibes movies deal with his existence is much preferred to more recent movies (and remakes) which seem to feel the need to over-explain everything to the audience.

I imagine it's already been proposed, but what if he really did die, and he's just a revenant kept alive via the use of some knowledge he gained in his arcane acoustical-religious studies? This might answer the mystery of Vulnavia, as well; perhaps he cut a metaphysical deal and has returned with an incarnation of Death accompanying him in the form of the lovely and transcendent (near-) mute? This would also add some extra meaning to the loving way he interacts with her (especially all that dancing), her mysterious appearance at the start of the first film and reappearance/disappearance in the second, and her change of actress (she simply incarnates in a new body). The extra irony of while she is apparently his servant, it is really quite the reverse situation, also suits her being Death. Of course, not explaining that on-screen also works, as if a viewer prefers she be clockwork or a clone or a mysterious cult member or whatever, she can be that, too.