Rent The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

Wonderful macabre fun - The Abominable Dr. Phibes review by CP Customer

Vincent Price was always one with a tendency to ham things up a bit too much so his best work is always the more tongue in cheek horror rather than the po-faced stuff. Here he gets to play a sly, deranged genius bumping people off in various gruesome ways. An all star supporting cast including Terry Thomas. This DVD version is really nicely remastered too, with upscaling, it looks like a blu-ray

Not quite a perfect marriage of camp and horror ... - The Abominable Dr. Phibes review by NP

I was put in mind when watching this, of a perverse cross between the ‘Saw’ films and particularly camp episodes of 60’s TV Series ‘The Avengers’ or even ‘Batman.’ It’s a mix that only works due to the acting, particularly Peter Jeffrey, Virginia North and Vincent Price, who manage to balance their performances between theatrical horror and knowing humour.

Phibes is an exceptional creation, but I’m not sure he’s given entirely free reign here. In many ways, this foreshadows Price’s character in the exemplary ‘Theatre of Blood’. Similarities abound – a wronged lunatic who manages to hoodwink the law, abetted by a fearsomely loyal younger relative. Whereas ‘Blood’ is a glorious, sprawling mix of continual gruesome death and gallows humour, the ‘Phibes’ story doesn’t quite command the same mood. My score is 6 out of 10.

The novelty wears off quickly - The Abominable Dr. Phibes review by RJ

I quite enjoyed the first 25-30 minutes of this low budget comedy horror, but thereafter it became rather repetitious and my interest waned pretty quickly (shortly after Terry-Thomas' fun cameo appearance). It's a cheaply made film mostly lacking in creativity and imagination in which the actors give weary, can't-really-be-bothered performances. It lurches between comedy and horror; although the 'comedy' largely amounts to the unfortunate Inspector Trout constantly being erroneously referred to as Bream/Perch/[insert name of another kind of fish here] etc. It's a shame, because the central plot of Dr Phibes wreaking a biblically-inspired revenge on the doctors he holds responsible for his wife's death is actually quite compelling. If this had been made as a straight horror film with less of the daft, knockabout humour it could have been genuinely creepy. As it is, the whole thing just has a disposable, throwaway feel to it, despite Vincent Price bringing a bit of gravitas and pathos to it. Passable entertainment for a dreary Wednesday night in October and I admit that I did add the sequel to my rental list afterwards - albeit at the bottom, and it's a long list......