Directed by Robert Fuest, this B horror movie was released in 1971 and tells the story of a doctor, scientist, organist and biblical scholar, Dr. Anton Phibes, who seeks revenge on the nine doctors he holds responsible for his wife's death.
It stars Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes, Joseph Cotten as Dr. Vasalius, the chief doctor; and Peter Jeffrey as Inspector Trout.
This is a pretty interesting movie. The plot isn't very original, but the way it's been developed makes it funny to watch and interesting. It reminds heavily to the Saw movies, and could have been an inspiration to that saga.
Vincent Price is superb, and really creepy at parts. He has to relay heavily on the script and corporal movements to interpret Dr. Phibes as he hasn't facial expresion due to the fact that his face is actually a mask.
Phibes lair is some high tech two leveled place, that imitates a restaurant in which he and his pretty asistant - where she comes from no one really knows - dance a little bit.
The beauty of this movie doesn't really realy on the coerence of the script, which has some mayor holes in it, but in the precision of every shot, the colors and the inventiveness whith which Phibes kills the nine doctors.
The comic relieve comes with the police, who manages to always arrive a tad too late. Their comments and playfull banter is actually funny.
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| ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES TRAILER |
All in all the movie isn't as bad as it could have been for a B movie. The acting is good, the scenography beautiful and the script funny. Yet, don't try to make much sense of it. You won't be able to.
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