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Reviews

The Abominable Dr. Phibes /  USA / UK  /  1971

Despite all advice warning us against it, we often return to things we loved in our childhood, hoping perhaps to recapture some of that innocence, some of that security, some of that naiveté. I revisited a childhood favorite a few months ago—Edgar G. Ulmer’s The Black Cat—and found new reasons to love it as an adult. I then watched a double feature of The Abominable Dr. Phibes and its sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, for the first time in probably close to thirty years. I should not have done it.

When I was a kid, I used to watch the creature double feature hosted by Marty “Superhost” Sullivan every Saturday starting at noon on Cleveland’s WUAB-TV, channel 43 (the station that started out of a bowling alley in Parma). The first movie was always a classic Universal monster flick from the ‘30s or ‘40s or some other gothic treat from AIP or Hammer. The second feature (which always started at “tooth-hurty”) was usually more sci-fi in nature, if you can call every permutation of Godzilla movie sci-fi. I saw a lot of great movies at a very early age thanks to Superhost and could have seen many more had I not been born too late for Ghoulardi and had I not been too young to stay up for Hoolihan and Big Chuck. Two of the movies I saw back in those halcyon days were the Phibes films. These were two favorites of my single-digit years what with Phibes having to talk out of a tube in his neck and with all the bizarrely contrived murders with a tasteful minimum of gore. Back then, I didn’t care about or even know about such essentials as plot or narrative coherence—I was merely along for the gruesome ride.

I always looked back fondly on the Phibes pictures, and I bought them the day they came out on DVD. And then they sat on my shelves, unwatched, for four-and-a-half years. When it came time this year to select films to review for our annual October horror feature, I used it as an excuse to watch a few discs I had not got around to yet. I planned to write separate reviews for each of the Phibes films. If it is not painfully apparent by now, I don’t have much to say about the films themselves, hence the double review.

It’s not that these films are bad. They are competently made and star an actor who never gave anything than his best possible performance at any given time. They are inventive and original, and they have equal (albeit small) amounts of pitch-black humor and chilling twists. But for me they would have best been left on the shelf or as vague memories from a TV-addled childhood.

Matt Bailey | © 2005 notcoming.com

Comments / 3 total / Submit Comment

1. Andy Johansen / 19 April 2006 / 8:35 AM

   I think i must have seen The abominable dr Phibes at least 40 times in the period from i was 9 year old until present day. I am now 25 years old. The movie still fascinates me and i would not say the movie actually has a big problem with the narrative. I have seen a lot of parallels between this movie and David Fincher’s “Seven”. First of all, every detail has been planned by the protagonist and the murder plan is followed through to the end. The murderous protagonists never makes a serious mistake, they simply follow it from beginning to end. Another eyepopping specialty in Dr Phibes is that the whole movie has been designed according to “jugend”-style design, or Art Deco as it is also called. Not only the mansion of Dr Phibes, but the whole movie seems artistically designed with this time-encapsulating touch. A movie that deserves its place among other horror-classics.

2. John Gilroy / 17 April 2007 / 10:01 PM

   I think it’s easy to judge old movies by today’s standards. To be sure, Phibes would not hold the attention of a modern audience. But it surprises me how most reviewers overlook the truly original aspects of the first Phibes film. Phibes had a soundtrack consisting of classical music, popular music of the twenties and thirties, and original music composed by Basil Kirchin, while other horror movies of the day had the typical spooky orchestral soundtrack. The director used jump cuts and “jiggle cam” twenty five years before NYPD blue hit the TV screens. Substituting more modern surroundings for the eerie gothic backdrops found in most horror films made the grusome murders more shocking. And Phibes’ method of suicide was the probably most original ever put on screen.

3. John Langston / 11 March 2008 / 11:43 AM

   This film was recommended to be by a friend several years ago and I just got around to watching it. The one thing that stood out most of all is that it seems as if I had seen this movie before and after completing the film I was certain I had.

   The “SAW” series is a direct rip off of this classic. And given the success of the “SAW” series it is safe to say that modern movie goers were and are captivated by the the story line from the from maniacal revenge due to personal loss, to the clockwork contraptions used to teach lessons and give second chances.

   When the final doctor was presented with an x-ray showing where the key to unlock the gurney that would save his son from the acid it was like the first time I was watching Shawnee Smith in “SAW” staring at the x-ray of the key placed behind her boyfriend’s eye that would give her her second chance.

   As much as I love the saw movies credit must go to the writers of Phibes.