Horror Watch: The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)

Watched:  10/18/2026

Format:  State Theater/ Panic at the Paramount

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Robert Fuest

A couple of weeks ago, pal-CB asked if I wanted to go see The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) at Panic at the Paramount, a now-annual film series hosted between the Paramount Theatre (currently closed for remodeling) and its sister theater/ nextdoor facility, The State Theater.  

Really, it should just be a rule that when someone asks you if you want to see Dr. Phibes, you say "yes".  

A very odd comedy-horror, there are movies with similar plots, including Price's own Theatre of Blood, but nothing else feels like or even looks like The Abominable Dr. Phibes.  It's set in 1920's London with a mix of chic art deco architecture and old-school Victorian homes and offices.  Phibes himself dwells in the coolest villain layer I can think of - complete with his own Rock-a-Fire Explosion mechanical band.

A doctor is killed when a mysterious pair release giant vampire bats into his bedchambers at night.  While checking out the scene, our Inspector Trout (Peter Jeffrey) is told that a different doctor was killed by bees two days prior.  Soon, another doctor turns up dead, killed in bizarre circumstances, and now we have a pattern.  

You see, several years ago Swiss musical maestro, organist and theologian, Dr. Anton Phibes (Vincent Price) heard his wife was dying in London, and while he raced to meet her, he accidentally drove off a cliff and burned to death (he did not die).  Despite the efforts of the surgery team at a hospital, his wife (League-fave Caroline Munro in an uncredited appearance) died on the table.

Phibes survived and did what we do - he blamed the doctors, calling them murderers.  

And now he's killing each of them using a method calling back to the plagues set upon Egypt in the Old Testament.  And he's a weird guy, no lie.  Beyond the murdering.  Style for days, but maybe too focused on work.

I noticed the comedy a *lot more* this time, partially because I was seated next to CB who is pretty quick to have a bit of a laugh or guffaw.  There's some very good bits, like no one pronouncing anyone's name correctly and no one remembering what fish the lead detective is named for.  The unicorn head, though, got the biggest laugh from me.  That's just phenomenal comedic timing.

Anyway, I am not objective about Vincent Price or his work.  He's just the best, in my book.

This may be a perennial horror movie more than a Halloween scare, but I think you'll dig it.