SPOILERS! You've been warned.
Rated PG
Last seen: March 2005
The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Vincent Price, Joseph Cotten, Virginia North
Directed by: Robert Fuest
CAMPY HORROR LIST
CHARACTERS
Dr. Phibes - Presumed dead. No more face. Killing doctors who are responsible for his wife's death.
Victoria Phibes - Dr. Phibes' dead wife.
Vulnavia - Dr. Phibes assisstant. She wears some funky clothes.
Inspector Trout & Sgt. Schenley - Investigated the cases of all the dead doctors.
Dr. Versalius - He doesn't die!
All the other doctors and one unfortunate nurse - Dead. Cool and imaginative deaths.
PLOT
The movie begins with Dr. Phibes playing the organ. In the background, providing a whole ochestra of music are the clockwork musicians. Man, are those things ever cool. In sweeps Vulnavia and they begin ballroom dancing. Never was a horror killer as classy as this.
The first death is one of the doctors, peacefully sleeping in his room. Vulnavia opens his window and release a stream of what appears to be fruit bats. The fruit bats then procced to kill this doctor. Ok...learned something new: Fruit bats = deadly. Inspector Trout and Sgt. Schenley realize that something afoul is afoot since a similar strange death occured to another doctor not long ago. The doctor died by getting stung to death. They decide to dig into the case a little further.
Meanwhile, we are formely introduced to Dr. Phibes. His wife is dead. Doctors accidentaly killed her during a surgery. When Dr. Phibes rushed to see her, he accidentaly drove off a cliff, leaving everybody to believe he was dead. Little do the know, he's still alive! And he's wreaking revenge on all those doctors. He can't speak anymore, but has trained his vocal chords to move and sound comes out of a phonograph. He also eats through the back of his throat.
The next doctor dies by getting his skull crashed in a frog mask at a masquerade party. He unknowingly asks Dr. Phibes for help putting it on. It has a tightner on it. At first the doctor only thinks the mask is a little tight, but soon, he's stumbling down the stairs in agony. Finally, his skull is crushed. The next death is a doctor in his car. Vulnavia is stranded on the side of the road. The good doctor offers his chauffer to help. His chauffer gets out, only to be killed by Dr. Phibes. Vulnavia then places a freezing machine into the doctor's car and turns it on full blast. The end result is that the doctor is frozen solid.
There is one more death before Inspector Trout becomes extremely suspicious. Another doctor, innocently watching pornography (what a process back in the 1920's!) when Vulnavia enters his room. She ties him down to a chair as Dr. Phibes injects him. He slowly drains out the guys blood, bit by bit. The last death sparks the interest of Inspector Trout. He learns of the unfortunate history of Dr. Phibes and goes to visit a Rabbi. He finds that the killings all have something to do with the plagues of Eygpt. Talk about originality. Have you ever seen anyone so devoted and meticulous about murdering?
The police people decide to take another doctor into protective custody. While they are doing so, a unicorn head comes flying through the door and impales the doctor. Strange. Later on, the nurse is sleeping, when Dr. Phibes pours vegetable oil all over her from a hole in her ceiling. He then releases locusts to feed on her. Gruesome.
The last doctor left to be killed is Dr. Versalius. His son is kidnapped by Dr. Phibes. When Dr. Versalius arrives at Dr. Phibes' mansion, he is met with shock. Dr. Phibes has implanted a key right next to Dr. Versalius' sons heart. His son is trapped in the bed. The key that's in the son open the trap. If he doesn't get the key out in 6 minutes, acid will pour all over his son's face. Dr. Versalius works dillegently as Inspector Trout and company finally catch up to Dr. Phibes and arrive at his mansion. Dr. Phibes order Vulnavia to destroy everything. Dr. Versalius manages to get the key out of his son just in time. We see what Dr. Phibes really looks like. Apparently, the Vincent Price face was only a mask...Vulnavia ends up getting killed by the acid. What happens to Dr. Phibes??!
FAVORITE SCENE
Unicorn through a doctor.
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