Shocktober 2025 - The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971)

“A brass unicorn has been catapulted across a London street and impaled an eminent surgeon. Words fail me, gentlemen.” – Waverley

Here’s the legendary Vincent Price in one of his most iconic roles. In the early seventies, Price starred in three movies which had a broadly similar theme of a wronged man, assumed dead, carrying out a series of grisly murders to avenge the injustices he felt he had suffered at their hands. Two of them are Dr Phibes films, the other is Theatre of Blood which I’ve already covered this year. They’re all horror comedies, they hold nothing back and all are showcases for Price’s horror movie star persona, with a large helping of camp humour added to the chaos his characters cause while he malevolently chews the scenery. Though, I have to admit there’s a slight restraint shown here, possibly due to the restrictions of the make-up and the trauma the Dr Phibes character has endured. His dialogue though…wow.

Dr Anton Phibes (Vincent Price) is a brilliant concert organist, with degrees in both music and theology. He is believed to have been killed four years prior to the events of this film, so 1921, in Switzerland. Unknown to the authorities, he survived, but his wife to whom Phibes was, and still is, devoted died on the surgeon’s table.

Phibes is a twisted genius and rebuilt his horribly scarred face with prosthetics, and used his mastery of sound to create a means where he could speak electronically. The make-up Price wears in the film actually makes his real face look he’s wearing a series of prosthetic appliances, and his electronic voice was dubbed in post-production – Phibes can’t move his lips (he doesn’t have any – his actual face is a living skull). His wife Victoria Regina Phibes is perfectly preserved, though understandably dead and was played by Caroline Munro in an uncredited role. “Played” may be a stretch here, because she’s only seen (dead) in the film’s final scene, though Phibes does often pine over her photograph.

I had the opportunity to interview Caroline Munro for Gorezone Magazine about 18 years ago and I asked her about her work on this movie. This is what she said; “I think I had actually signed with Hammer Films at that time, but this wasn't a Hammer production. Vincent Price was wonderful. I wish I'd had some dialogue with him, but as I was playing his dead wife, all I got to do was lie in a coffin with him. But I learnt a lot from standing behind the camera and watching him.”

“The look of the film was very stylised and the art direction by Bernard Reeves was amazing. It was brilliant to work on. But as my character was dead, you know it's hard to be told you can't move in a film. It makes you want to move even more! Vincent Price was of course also a brilliant chef and he'd bring all sorts of food in for us every morning. He'd make all these fantastic concoctions in the evenings.”

The other woman in Phibes’ life is his assistant, the enigmatic and silent Vulnavia (Virginia North) never far away, never saying anything. He lives in the London suburbs, spending time playing an art deco organ, while clad in white robes in a parody of the Phantom of the Opera when he’s not planning his elaborate murder spree.

That’s enough background, let’s get on with the film. Nine surgeons tried to save Victoria and failed. Now, those nine surgeons must die, and Phibes draws upon his theological expertise to devise a theme for their executions. He chooses the ten plagues of Egypt from the Old Testament, though with a modern twist. The plague of blood sees one of the surgeons, played by Terry-Thomas bled dry, the plague of frogs sees a surgeon at a masked ball have his head crushed by a rigged mechanical Frog mask, the attending nurse at the failed surgery has her face eaten by locusts, another has a plague of rats unleashed in his biplane shortly after take-off, yet another is literally frozen to death in his car by an ice-making machine of Phibes’ invention while as mentioned in the opening quote, an ornate unicorn bust is catapulted into the chest of another. You get the picture.

The clue that tips the inept detectives investigating the case as to what’s happening is that Phibes, accidentally leaves a Hebrew amulet at the scene of one of the murders. So, piecing together the likely culprit and his next target, the police guard Dr Vesalius closely as he’s the only one left. They overlook the curse of the death of the first born – Phibes kidnaps Vesalius’ son and places him on a table underneath a time delayed mechanism which will pour a corrosive acid on the boy’s face, unless Vesalius can extract a key to release his son. The key has been surgically placed near the boy’s heart, and Vesalius has six minutes to remove it and release him. (Virginia Phibes lasted only six minutes on the operating table.)

Releasing the boy with mere seconds to spare, they chase Phibes to the catacombs under his mansion – but they’re too late. Phibes has saved the tenth and final curse for himself – the curse of darkness. He seals himself in a stone sarcophagus, next to his beloved wife (Caroline Munro’s only appearance in the film) embalms himself and the film closes to an organ recital of “Somewhere over the Rainbow”.

The world would hear from Phibes again.