The Abominable Dr. Phibes is one of the best Vincent Price movies, if not the best. It is a totally fantastic, wildly entertaining movie that I’ve written about before and could write about even more. It has to be seen to be believed. Topping a movie like The Abominable Dr. Phibes is pretty much impossible, but the sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, comes very close.
If you haven’t seen the first film, not to worry, as the sequel opens with a narration and recap. Dr. Phibes (Price) was an Egyptologist who was horribly disfigured in a car accident and presumed dead. He actually survived but wears an incredibly realistic mask of his former face and can speak only through a special device connecting his neck to a speaker. Due to medical neglect his beloved wife, Victoria, died, but Phibes has her preserved in a suspended state. The Abominable Dr. Phibes had Phibes taking elaborate revenge on the team of doctors who failed to save his wife. Dr. Phibes Rises Again has him seeking the hidden River of Life in Egypt that will revive his wife and give them both eternal life.
Dr. Phibes’s rival in the search for the River of Life is an archeologist named Darrus Biederbeck (Robert Quarry) who steals an ancient papyrus scroll from Phibes. So, Dr. Phibes unleashes his elaborate wrath on Beiderback and everyone standing in his own path to the River of Life. Biederbeck is arrogant and suspicious, and while he eventually earns some sympathy he never quite comes off as a hero or protagonist. Phibes, of course, is a murderous mastermind whose preferred execution method is elaborate and ridiculous devices, but in this film he comes across as more of an anti-hero; in the first film he was a charismatic and sympathetic villain. The closing credits group Phibes and Biederbeck together under the heading “protagonists” but Phibes is the character you are rooting for, or at least find more entertaining.
Many of the distinct stylistic elements that made the original film so memorable are also in the sequel. The elaborate art-deco design of Phibes’s lair is replicated in his Egyptian lair. His band of automaton musicians, The Clockwork Wizards, are now The Alexandria Quartet. Phibes’s beautiful but silent assistant, Vulnavia (this time played by Valli Kemp), is once again ready to help. And of course, Phibes still kills with ridiculous methods. One of the simpler kills involves distracting a man with a mechanical snake while a real snake attacks. Other deaths include but are not limited to: a raptor pecking someone's face to death and Phibes and Vulnavia faking a sandstorm to cover up the sounds of a man being crushed in a box. Robert Fuest returns as director for the sequel and once again his background in production design provides an exquisite, fun, and distinctive look.
Dr. Phibes was one of Vincent Price’s favorite roles and it is easy to understand why. Phibes is technically a villain but is sympathetic; he is vengeful but not hateful. He is devoted to Victoria and thanks to Price’s performance, Phibes’s love comes across as genuine and true instead of obsessive. Phibes is also a silent character, sort of. Since he must be connected to a machine to speak, his lips do not move while he talks, meaning that Price acts along to a recording of his voice. If acting is reacting, then Price gets to do both with the same character in the same scene in the same performance. The phonograph crackle of the speaking machine adds a nice eerie layer to the dialogue and monologues delivered wonderfully by Price. Dr Phibes is indeed one of Price’s best performances.
The Phibes movies are not scary but they are excellent horror entertainment. They are campy, pseudo-slasher movies. If you ever wondered what the SAW movies would be like if all of the gruesome gore and cynical dread was replaced with fun, you should watch The Abominable Dr. Phibes and/or Dr. Phibes Rises Again. Like the original, the Dr. Phibes Rises Again revels in the ridiculous, the baroque, the weird. In one scene, Phibes puts someone in a catch-22 torture device. In another Vulnavia is wearing a sousaphone for no reason. The first time I saw The Abominable Dr. Phibes was on Halloween night in 2015. I watched Dr. Phibes Rises Again on also on Halloween night. Watching either film is a perfect way to celebrate the Halloween season.
For a long time both movies were very hard to find but thankfully they were recently released as a double feature Blu-ray. Both films will air on TCM as part of a late night Vincent Price marathon beginning on Tuesday, October 24th at 11PM CT with The Abominable Dr. Phibes followed by Dr. Phibes Rises Again at 12:45AM CT Thursday, October 25th. Dr. Phibes Rises Again is also currently streaming on Tubi and Freevee.
It took me a long time to get around to Velvet Buzzsaw, released on Netflix and lost amongst the regular deluge of “content” to the service in addition to all the titles already in “My List,” but it is an entertaining horror film well worth watching. Set in the high art world of Los Angeles, Velvet Buzzsaw is Nightcrawler writer-director Dan Gilroy’s foray into horror. While he does not try to reinvent the genre, this is not a formulaic genre exercise either. Gilroy clearly understands what makes an effective and lively horror movie.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a highly influential art critic named Morf Vandewalt, whose thick framed glasses, Caesar haircut, exaggerated facial expressions, and obviously affected speech will clue you in to the broad tone of the movie within the first three minutes. To invoke an art metaphor, Velvet Buzzsaw does not use the light, meticulously planned, almost imperceptible points of Georges Seurat (A Sunday on La Grande Jatte), but the thick and clearly visible brush strokes of Vincent van Gogh. This is not an “elevated” horror film but instead plays like it is an exquisite, high end feature length episode of Tales From the Crypt; a high compliment from this critic.
Josephina (Zawe Ashton), an employee at a posh art gallery, discovers that her neighbor has committed suicide and left behind a note to dispose of his prolific body of unseen artwork and paintings. Encouraged by her boss, Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), Josephina says she found the paintings in a dumpster without a note. This allows Rhodora’s gallery to claim ownership of all the macabre, mesmeric work by the late artist Deese. In exchange for a review and profile, Morf takes some of Deese’s paintings, sure to become very valuable very soon. His research uncovers not only Deese’s suicide note and final request, but the dark and violent past of the mysterious artist who mixed his own blood into the paint. It is somewhere around here that you, unlike the characters, realize that the art is cursed and all those who profit from it will receive their comeuppance.
Like a Tales From the Crypt episode, this is basically a morality play—bad people do bad things and reap their sour rewards—used to deliver shocks, thrills, sex, and violence. Nearly every character is unlikable to some degree–except for the sweet and out of her depth Coco (Natalia Dyer), who floats from one unfortunate employer to the next, and John Malkovich as a now sober but washed up artist. Yet, all of the characters are drawn with such broad strokes that they are understandable, to some degree, and entertaining.
The killer artwork provides for some very memorable and visually interesting “kill scenes.” Cinematographer Robert Elswit ensures that every scene, even the non-supernatural ones, look impeccable and eye-catching. The scenes of the artwork coming to life and moving and bleeding are creepy and scary and exciting too. Every moment of Velvet Buzzsaw is stylish, which is only appropriate for a movie set in the high art world.
The screenplay has fun with and lampoons every art type: critics, gallery owners, rising artists, washed up artists, art bloggers/influencers. I suppose the weakness of the movie is that at times it thinks it is delivering biting satire but actually offers no real insight or critique of characters more concerned with profit and status than art or merit. The exaggerated characters and art allow for amusing moments without fully turning the movie into a comedy. A scene where a dead body is mistaken as part of an exhibit is one of the darker moments of humor. Another scene of a gallery owner first mistaking a reproductions factory and then bags of trash for a new work by the Malkovich character is another obvious but still no less amusing moment.
Velvet Buzzsaw is broad but not over the top. Gyllenhaal’s performance is best described in the same way. As the movie goes on it builds a sense of impending dread around the characters but not for the viewer. No new ground is broken thematically but that hardly prevents this film from being an entertaining horror movie. The best thing about Velvet Buzzsaw is that it is not afraid to have fun; it does not think being scary and being entertaining are mutually exclusive.
The “creepy kid” or “killer kid” movie is an entire subgenre of horror with entries like Village of the Damned, The Innocents, Bloody Birthday, The Good Son, and Orphan to name a few. The Bad Seed (1956) has a firm place as a classic, if not the classic, creepy kid/killer kid movie. Based on a novel by William March and its stage adaptation, the killer kid here is 8-year-old Rhoda who is outwardly sweet, privately snobby, and also quite evil and murderous. Though The Bad Seed is not at all violent, it feels delightfully subversive and transgressive, like a movie that got away with something, especially for being made during the 1950’s.
The trouble begins when Rhoda loses a class award to another student. Then on a field trip that boy drowns in a lake after hitting his head. The medal goes missing but later Rhoda’s mother, Christine (Nancy Kelly), finds it hidden in Rhoda’s room and begins to suspect that her daughter caused the boy’s death. She also starts to wonder if Rhoda may be responsible for the death of their last landlady, a nice old lady who promised to leave Rhoda an heirloom when she died…and then suddenly died. Christine is also dealing with the knowledge that she was adopted and her biological mother was a notorious serial killer. There are some debates about nature vs nurture, likely one of the first times the topic was addressed in a major film.
Young Patty McCormack does an excellent job playing Rhoda. She seems completely capable of causing the deaths that happen off screen, which are plausible as accidents or murders–they are not grand or elaborate “kills.” She is also convincing as a little kid. Rhoda is smart and clever, but is not an evil genius. When the creepy groundskeeper, Leroy (Henry Jones), who sees right through her façade, taunts her about having evidence against her, she believes him the way a child believes an adult, even one they don’t like. This exchange makes Leroy Rhoda’s next target
You might hear that The Bad Seed is a campy movie, and after seeing it you might even agree, but this does not diminish the dark, disturbing nature of the movie. Many of the performances seem just a bit over the top, but a better description is that they are heightened stage performances that were not turned down for the movie version. This makes sense since most of the cast from the stage production reprise their roles for the movie. They are still great performances, however, and it is no surprise that Nancy Kelly received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and Patty McCormack received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Eileen Heckart, who plays the mother of the dead boy, really makes the most of only two scenes and also received a Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
The real camp value in The Bad Seed comes from how totally oblivious the adults, except for Leroy, are to Rhoda’s malevolent side. When Nancy asks Rhoda about the death of their previous landlady the entire scenario is so obviously murder that Rhoda’s continued good girl act becomes humorous. I think director Mervyn LeRoy knew what he was doing in allowing these exaggerated, or camp, moments into the movie. The stylized performances and dark humor take the edge off an otherwise disturbing premise.
Of course the novel and play end differently than the movie, which had to tack on a new ending to satisfy the requirements of the puritanical Production Code office. This is the most outlandish and campy scene of all, yet even this scene is so over the top that it feels subversive too. It is as though the filmmakers decided that if they had to add an ending where Rhoda gets her comeuppance, they would tack on the most ridiculous “moral” ending imaginable. Also, a Warner Bros. executive insisted on including a “cast curtain call,” not common in this era when movies had no closing credits, with the cast happy and smiling, including Patty McCormick and Nancy Kelly, just so audiences could rest easy with the extra assurance that they had not been watching a documentary. Though it may not be exactly scary, The Bad Seed is a dark and creepy and entertaining film.
Though it stars Americans Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis, Roadgames is an Australian film and a unique one to say the least. This is not strictly a horror movie though there are some slasher elements. Probably the best way to describe Roadgames is as Rear Window as a road trip through the Australian outback. Even though it is only rated PG, what Roadgames lacks in violence, it makes up for in interesting characters, top notch suspense, and an over the top climax.
Stacy Keach stars as Quid, a truck driver hauling frozen pork through the deserts of Western Australia. He spends most of his time having surprisingly interesting one sided conversations with his pet dingo, the famously silent wild dog of Australia. After hearing radio reports of a killer preying on female hitchhikers he begins to suspect that a man in a van traveling on the same road as him is the killer. At one point he sees the man stopped by side of the road about to bury a cooler. The man sees Quid and flees. Both Quid and the killer are males traveling alone and picking up hitchhikers. This will cause a lot of trouble for Quid.
The first hitchhiker Quid picks up is Frita (Marion Edward), a housewife deserted on the side of the road by her husband. They both like to talk so they get on each other’s nerves and Quid’s talk of serial killers puts her on edge. The second hitchhiker he picks up is Pamela (Curtis), though he calls her “Hitch” for hitchhiker. They actually get along and speculate on the serial killer together. In an incredibly suspenseful scene worthy of comparison to Hitchcock's best work, she investigates the mysterious van at a rest stop while Keach thinks he is about to confront the killer. The danger for each is palpable. Director Richard Franklin no doubt drew on Hitchcock for many scenes in Roadgames; it's also worth nothing that Franklin would go on to direct the surprisingly smart and thrilling Psycho II.
Stacey Keach typically plays the heavy or lovable tough guys so it is great to see him play an unlikely hero. He excels at the solo scenes and monologues and holds our sympathy and attention all through the story. Probably the most enjoyable parts of the movie are Keach talking to the dingo, philosophizing or coming up with a profile of the killer. Of course there are the scenes of him sounding like a madman as he tries to explain about the killer, but he is hardly a stock character and this is hardly a by the numbers movie. Jamie Lee Curtis, no doubt cast to cash in on her fame as the reigning scream queen of the era, has a much more interesting role than in some of the other horror movies that gave her that title. As Pamela/Hitch she is a rebellious but mature young person, the runaway daughter of an American diplomat. When she ventures into the possible killer’s van, it fits with her character instead of coming across as a dumb decision by a horror movie character.
There are long stretches of Roadgames that really feel like just a road trip movie with Quid and his dingo and maybe a hitchhiker passing time as they drive to their destination. These stretches are plenty entertaining and they are where the movie’s odd sense of humor comes through. The climax is ridiculous and over the top as Quid barrels through a town in his truck and a mob gathers but it still fits thanks to the movie's offbeat sensibility. It is as though the movie has been low key for so long that it can’t stand it anymore. So if you find those road scenes dull, just know that the ending makes up for it. Roadgames works best as a horror/thriller but it is memorable because of its non-horror elements. The lack of violence makes this a great movie to watch with anyone squeamish or horror hesitant, but the great scenes of mystery and suspense, entertaining characters, and oddball humor make it a great movie for anyone to watch.
Roadgames is currently streaming on Tubi, Peacock, PlutoTV, Shout-TV, Freevee, and The Roku Channel.
This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, for the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some horror movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.
White Zombie has the distinction of being the first Hollywood zombie movie. However, the zombies depicted are not undead flesh eaters, which would not come into existence as we know them until George Romero's landmark film Night of the Living Dead in 1968. These are the original Haitian zombies, which are people who have been drugged, buried, dug up, and hypnotized into mindlessly serving the will of a master. In this movie the zombie master is Bela Lugosi as Murder Legendre. Yes, his character name is actually “Murder.” White Zombie usually gets overlooked as a classic horror movie because it is surprisingly not a Universal horror movie but an independent production. So it doesn't get included with the likes of Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), and The Mummy (1932). Nevertheless, this is an eerie, early horror movie worthy of classic status. It has managed to have a lasting influence, inspiring the name of Rob Zombie’s band and being included in later movies like The Hand That Rocks the Cradle and Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween (2007).
Of course, the approach to the racial and historical background of Haitian zombies is dated and at times condescending. Dr. Bruner refers to Haiti as a place “full of nonsense and superstition…sometimes I don’t know what to think.” However, it is not entirely ignored either. A black carriage driver (Clarence Muse, in an uncredited performance) is the first to recognize the zombies and drives Neil and Madeline to safety. He provides the movie's first description of zombies: “Corpses taken from their graves, who are made to work at the sugar mill fields at night.” Turning Madeline into the titular white zombie to be a beautiful, silent, mindless bride is a deviation of the usual purpose of creating a zombie. The fear of zombies and of becoming a zombie is rooted in slavery and the fear that even after death a slave would still not be free and still be forced to serve a master. Legendre proudly shows off his zombie slaves, each was a rival or someone who wronged him. Now, they are under his hypnotic spell and do his bidding. “They are not worried about long hours,” Legendre says and offers to provide Beaumont with zombie workers. “You could make good use of men like mine on your plantation?” The fate of the native zombies is of no concern to the main characters.
Like many early sound era horror films, White Zombie is heavy on atmosphere. The most memorable and chilling image has to be Lugosi’s sinister, hypnotic eyes superimposed over shots of Madeline, looming over his unsuspecting victim. The island setting and references to Voodoo serve the same purpose as castles and legends in the Universal monster movies, building an eerie atmosphere and making it clear that the main characters are in an unfamiliar land. Lugosi is excellent as the zombie master. After the success of Dracula, Universal offered him the role of the creature in Frankenstein but he turned it down because the character just grunted and never spoke. This is typically viewed as a miscalculation on Lugosi’s part and, allegedly, he took the role in White Zombie to not miss out on another success. However, Lugosi likely made the right choice. His talent for delivering dialogue in a way that is both alluring and menacing is his forte and it is what makes Dracula and White Zombie so creepy and so memorable.
White Zombie is in the public domain so you can easily find it on nearly any streaming service. It is available in both colorized and original black and white versions, but the black and white version streaming on Tubi and Amazon Prime Video has the best picture quality. It will also air on TCM on Monday, October 30th at 9AM CT in quality black and white.
In honor of the new Barbie movie directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie as the iconic blonde doll, I’ve gathered a list of some classic films featuring strong women who embody the spirit of Barbie. And since you can’t invoke Barbie without acknowledging her relationship to fashion, the costumes are, of course, impeccable across the board.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
Barbie the movie takes clear inspiration from the Technicolor musicals of classic Hollywood like this highly entertaining comedy starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell as showgirls on a transatlantic cruise. Some gentlemen may prefer blondes, but what men want hardly matters in this movie. Monroe’s Lorelei wants to marry a millionaire, while Russell’s Dorothy is just looking to have some fun and keep her friend out of trouble. Rarely do we get to enjoy two women on screen being incredibly funny while also looking so drop-dead glamorous. While this film predates the debut of the Barbie doll in 1959, the fashion silhouettes are very similar to the early Barbies, and the iconic pink dress worn by Monroe while performing “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” looks like something straight out of Barbie’s dream closet.
Funny Face (1957)
When a fashion photographer (Fred Astaire) and a magazine editor (Kay Thompson) set out to find models “who think as well as they look,” they stumble upon a bookshop beatnik (Audrey Hepburn) with the makings of a cover girl. Barbie, the doll with beauty and brains, is a fashion icon on par with Hepburn herself. And this is a film in love with fashion, showcasing a couture collection by Hepburn’s favorite designer Hubert de Givenchy. The opening number “Think Pink!” - performed like a boss by Thompson, it must be said - could be the Barbie-core anthem, calling for everyone to bury the beige and color their world pink.
The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967)
The Barbie filmmakers listed among their influences Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, a beautiful film with saturated colors, dreamy cinematography, and a very sad story of lost love. Made three years after Umbrellas, Demy’s light and airy musical about two sisters (Catherine Deneuve and Francoise Dorleac) looking for romance and a little excitement, feels much more in line with the upbeat energy of Barbie the doll. The color palette, all soft pastels and bright whites, makes the whole city look like ice cream. There’s even a Gentlemen Prefer Blondes homage when the sisters take the stage at a traveling carnival in red-sequined dresses.
Troop Beverly Hills (1989)
Right from the beginning, as colorful animated opening credits play out over The Beach Boys singing about being “larger than life,” this film embodies the Barbie ethos. Our heroine, Phyllis Nefler (Shelley Long) lives in a California dream house with a wardrobe that would be the envy of any 80s Barbie. While many people write off Phyllis as a shallow flake, after taking on the duties of Wilderness Girl troop leader she proves herself to be resourceful, kind, creative, and a valuable role model for her adolescent troop members. Anyone who rocks a jaunty cap adorned with 4-foot long pheasant feathers is not afraid to take up space – Barbie would be proud!
Clueless (1995)
In this mid-90s, SoCal adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, protagonist Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone in a miracle of a performance) is a teen Barbie come to life. She knows how to have fun, whether she’s partying or just vegging out, and understands the importance of a capable-looking outfit properly-deployed. Cher and Barbie would totally be friends because they both know what it’s like to have people be jealous of them. But Cher also proves to be empathetic, loyal, and a formidable captain of the Pismo Beach disaster relief effort.
Legally Blonde (2001)
Reese’s Witherspoon is perfection as “law student Barbie” Elle Woods, who goes from California sorority girl to unlikely star of Harvard Law. She’s following her ex-boyfriend Warner Huntington III, a legacy admission who thinks Elle is too extra for the Ivy League. But she soon proves that if you’ve judged a tighty-whitey contest for Lambda Kappa Pi, you can handle anything. Elle knows her worth, fights for justice, lifts others up, and keeps her dignity, even while wearing a pink bunny costume. And, like Barbie, Elle understands the power of pink, her signature color (whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed). To paraphrase the Barbie movie poster, Elle Woods is everything and he’s just…Warner.
