The Abominable Dr Phibes - Lisa's Review

As I saw the title for this movie, is was another case of 'Le sigh'. I'm not a fan of older movies and especially don't tend to like older British movies.  Having watched the movie, do I feel any differently?   Hmmmm Overall no.   Let's see if I can explain why.

This movie is rated in a list of horrors.  How that happened is anyones guess.  Yes, the general plotline of the movie is rather horrific I suppose, but if you watch this expecting to see anything that could be classified as 'Horror' you're going to be mightily disappointed.

I'll start of with a very basic premise.  Dr Phibes has lost his wife to a fatal illness and blames the doctors who were involved in her care.  He fakes his own death by pretending to have died in a crash he was in rushing to his wifes hospital bed.  He plots to murder all the doctors involved inspired by darker parts of the bible.

Rather a lot is made of the fact that Vincent Price is in this movie, but we don't see an awful lot of him, even though he is cast in the title role of the movie.  He is supposed to be horribly disfigured by his car accident and is therefore wearing a mask.  He also cannot speak, eat or drink due to damage from the accident, so rather wierd solutions are encompassed in the movie.

Anyone who knows me at all will know I absolutely despise 'Carry On' movies with a passion.  I also missed the boat for loving Hammer Horrors.  To me, this movie felt like a conglomeration of the two.  Unfunny jokes, bumbling actors, obvious jokes, none of it made me laugh.  The set, scenes and general feel of the movie had a 'Hammer' feel to me.  It just doesn't float my boat.  I find it grossly overrated.

Something that could have been fantastic from reading the plotline, turned out to be something lukewarm with jokes that really weren't well placed and lacked the punch it clearly needed to make it something worth watching.

I won't give it a recommended for reasons I've already stated, but don't feel it was bad enough to warrant an avoid, as most of the negatives were probably down to personal choice.

May appeal to Vincent Price devotees or Hammer fans.  Not for me.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes - Will's Review

Given my penchant for classics, it's a marvel I haven't seen this until now, but I haven't, so I was really looking forward to it. 

In many ways, on paper, it should be exactly my thing; this is a Vincent Price movie with a capital VINCENT PRICE, the whole sequence where he comes up through the floor while playing a pipe organ could only work as a stylised 'oh my god that is so him!' moment with a known over the top personality (in the upcoming remake, this kind of thing will work simply because Burton is directing, replacing a personality lead with a personality director). 

The plot is solid but wacky too: Following the death of his wife on the operating table, Phibes has faked his own death (becoming horribly disfigured in the process) and is now attempting to kill the 9 people who assisted in her operation, in ways which recall the biblical plagues of Egypt. 

Sadly, the pacing is all off. Sadly, especially for a film where creative kills is the MO, the first half dozen or so deaths rattle by with no setup, and little in the way of payoff; one of them even happens before the movie starts and is simply briefly mentioned. We neither see enough, nor are given time to appreciate them. Even the movies last true victim, a Saw-like setup, in which a surgeon's son is chains to a bed bellow a slow-moving acid-dumping contraption, with the key to his chained embedded inside him,  is dealt with quickly and entirely off-screen. 

Phibes has a female assistant, who is literally never explained. She's central to the plot, many of the kills couldn't be executed without her, and she is the only lead the police have, but we never learn who she is, or why she is loyal to Phibes. 

Add to that the fact that Price really doesn't get all that much screen time, nor chance to flourish when he is on screen (his face is supposedly a mask, so be mostly has to hold it still) and the whole movie is just a catalogue of wasted opportunities. 

It's probably horror heresy to say this, but I'm tentatively of looking forward to Tim Burton's remake, a bit if modern pacing and appreciation for the inventive kills could sort this right out... Sadly I suspect it will be an all too-knowing, wacky,  Jonny Depp vehicle - no doubt with Burton's wife as Phibes' mystery assistant, and an intrusive Danny Elfman score.