Vincent Price Is the Weirdest Serial Killer Ever in this '70s Cult Classic
The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a campy horror movie about an organist who murders surgeons
In the 1971 cult classic The Abominable Dr. Phibes, the eerie and bizarre Vincent Price emerges from a cavernous art deco space, dramatically playing an organ mounted on a hydraulic platform, accompanied by a sinister clockwork jazz band. The hooded figure sets the band in motion and a beautiful young woman in a white gown appears, with whom he performs courtly dances, only to murder a man by lowering a cage of ravenous bats through a skylight.
Price, playing Dr. Anton Phibes, is a concert musician and theologian who sought to avenge his wife's death by murdering members of the medical team involved in her botched surgery. Disfigured in a car accident, Phibes wears a prosthetic head and uses an organ and gramophone contraption to communicate. The film, directed by Robert Fuest, is a surreal and kitschy murder-museum, filled with elaborate traps and bizarre rituals that blend elements of horror and black comedy.
The Abominable Dr. Phibes is a deeply strange and haunting character study, with Price's mournful solemnity and haunting voice creating an unforgettable and unforgettable character.
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