☆ ☆
The
Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) – R. Fuest
Is this the film wherein Vincent Price
crosses the line from horror to camp? At first, proceedings are rather dull,
with a series of creative murders taking place in a low budget bare bones
looking 1920’s Britain. Scotland Yard
are called in and muddle through until rubber-masked Vincent Price drops them a
clue. He’s using the Biblical plagues of
Egypt as a theme to kill the surgical team involved in the death of his wife,
although everyone believes he died in an automobile accident years
earlier. At a certain point, the movie
starts to smirk and perhaps wants us to laugh at Price/Phibes’ diabolical
schemes. But the murders are more gross
than interesting and our brief glimpse at Price’s real visage isn’t enough to
evoke either horror or amusement.
Somehow this spawned a sequel. I
haven’t seen it in a while but I suspect Theatre of Blood, wherein Price
silences his critics with theatrical murders might be more gruesomely funny.
No comments:
Post a Comment