MovieChat Forums > Dr. Phibes Rises Again Discussion > Brilliant film

Brilliant film

posted 20 years ago by moroccanwaltz
8 replies | jump to latest

Even when I was in 4th grade, this and its prequel "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" were two of my favorite movies. In the first one Dr. Phibes employs the plagues of Egypt to seek revenge on the Doctors who failed to save his wife (that's not really a spoiler, you find that out up front) In this one he is off to Egypt in search of the river of eternal life. These films are dark and moody and campy all at the same time. Phibes is a brilliant Bricoleur of the murderous Rube Goldberg device. I still can't hear bagpipe music without thinking of a particular scene in this movie. The clockwork band is great, the pipe-organ speaking aid, Vulnavia (sp?) and all the brilliant machines...It's like Indiana Jones meets Clockwork Orange meets Rocky Horror Picture Show meets Se7en. Superb although I doubt 4th graders have the attention spans we did as kids--IOW don't expect the fast paced action-horror-thriller of today. The final song choice, if I remember correctly (haven't seen for 8 years (in college by then, not 4th grade :) was absolutely great and perfect and a real surprise.

[–] luke_bannon 20 years ago

I agree that this is a brilliant film, while I also enjoy abominadble, this is my favourite of the two, mainly as I saw it first. I didn't expect somewhere over the rainbow to feature, and it really made me happy.

ThE MaStER wOuLd NoT ApPrOvE- Torgo

[–] 20 years ago

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[–] avalco 20 years ago

I feel the same way horror movies of today have lost all charm. I think what really made these movies sucessful was their low budget camp value examples being Dr Phibes, F13 1-8, nightmare on elm street. The directors back then seemed like they had pride in their work such as Wes Craven and Steve Miner also Rob Hedden. I love the old horror films because time can only age them well.

[–] Kammurabi 12 years ago

I feel this is a really good off beat horror flick and light comedy. I hear many tags of black comedy for this film but I don't agree. This has lots of actual gags. Not much ponderous subtlety. It drags a bit toward the end but I give it a 7.

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[–] ElectricWarlock 10 years ago

It's an okay movie, but I prefer the first one a lot more.

[–] 10 years ago

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[–] Henry_Kane 9 years ago

Not nearly as good as the first.

~Hillary 2016~

[–] [deleted] 10 months ago

It's decent.

Fun kills and some amusing moments but to be honest neither Phibes movie blows me away. I guess I'm not entirely on board with the tone.

I enjoyed Theatre of Blood (1973) over both.