Review #1,029: 'Dr. Phibes Rises Again' (1972)

At the end of the first film, The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), the titular genius laid himself to rest in suspended animation after laying his vengeance upon the ones he blamed for the death of his wife, Victoria. Three years later, when the moon aligns itself with the planets in a way not seen for a thousand years, Phibes (Vincent Price) rises again, and this time he is in search of the elusive River of Life, which promises resurrection for Victoria and immortality for the two of them. Discovering that a sacred scroll containing the map to the River of Life has been stolen by the equally demented Darrus Biederbeck (Robert Quarry), Phibes, along with his beautiful assistant Vulnavia (Valli Kemp), heads to Egypt where the tomb is hidden, murdering anyone who dares stand in his way.

With director Robert Fuest returning for the sequel, there's a real sense of continuity to the film, especially when a few actors - their characters slain in the first - occasionally pop up as for cameos that play out like small comic vignettes. Yet while, plot-wise, the first film was a relatively straight-forward albeit utterly bonkers tale of revenge, Rises Again is almost like a heist film, as two rival men, both mad geniuses (with one clearly madder than the other), scrap it out to uncover the most rewarding of prizes. The change of approach is certainly commendable, but it also means there's less fun to be had. Watching Price gleefully butcher a group of hapless doctors in a variety of inventive and preposterous ways in the first instalment was an absolute delight, but Phibes's battle-of-wits with his nemesis here doesn't offer quite the same amount of opportunities for inventive set-pieces.

Anyone searching for a bit of tongue-in-cheek horror will certainly get a bit of relief though, as Biederback's team find themselves the poor saps to be routinely offed, this time inspired by Egyptian mythology such a scorpions and a hawk. Sadly, there just isn't quite enough of it. With the blood-letting turned down, Rises Again increases the insanity factors. Sets adorned with psychedelic decoration and Phibes's numerous outrageous costumes means the film is also beautiful to look at. Price looks he is genuinely having a ball and no matter how sadistic his character gets as he demolishes anyone who crosses his path, you'll be rooting for him all the way. At the end, it feels like the story of Dr. Phibes is not quite finished, with American International Pictures' planned sequel unfortunately never coming to fruition.


Directed by: Robert Fuest
Starring: Vincent Price, Robert Quarry, Beryl Reid, Valli Kemp, Peter Cushing
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #747: 'The Abominable Dr. Phibes' (1971)

Dr. Phibes (Vincent Price) is quite the talented man. Not only is he a doctor, he is also a successful concert organist and, by the looks of things, some sort of mechanical engineer. He was also married to the beautiful Caroline Munro (who goes uncredited) until Phibes suffered serious facial injuries in a car crash on his way to see his seriously ill wife, who ended up dying on the operating table. Believed dead but instead in hiding and seriously pissed, Phibes begins to hunt down and imaginatively murder the nine doctors he holds responsible for failing to save his wife, building up to Dr. Versalius (Joseph Cotten), in the style of the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament.

It would be easy and indeed lazy to label Dr. Phibes as camp. With it's wildly colourful sets and outlandish performances (Price is wonderfully over-the-top), this shares more with the kitschy futuristic feel of A Clockwork Orange, which came out the same year, than, say, the original Batman TV series. All realism is left firmly at the door, as we are introduced to Phibes, sat hunched and wildly bashing his organ (no euphemism intended), in the middle of what appears to be some kind of macabre ceremony. Left unable to speak following his accident, Phibes has also created a device which, when inserted into his neck, allows him to speak to his dead embalmed wife. It's deliciously free-spirited, never allowing something like logic to get in the way of fun, acid-trip horror.

It shares a lot in terms of narrative with the superior Theatre of Blood (1973) - which is often labelled Dr. Phibes 3 by it's fans - so the film is little more than murder after murder. But it's the inventiveness and the sheer audacity of the set-pieces that makes the movie so much fun. We have death by bats, a doctor who sits back and lets Phibes drain him entirely of his blood, skull-crushing-by-frog-mask, and a face eaten by locusts. There's something morbidly fascinating in watching the predictability of the events unfold, and the murder scenes provide buckets of black humour, in a tamer and more Carry On-style than Theatre. Price is unsurprisingly a joy to watch, while Cotten is surprisingly game. One of the wildest horror films ever made.


Directed by: Robert Fuest
Starring: Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Peter Jeffrey, Virginia North
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie