Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Claire Dunne One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

AaronCapenBanner Vincent Price returns as Dr. Anton Phibes, who is awakened from his three-year slumber by a carefully planned alignment of the stars that brings him back to life, only to be angered that his house was demolished, and the sacred scrolls of life he needs to resurrect his dead wife were stolen. With his assistant Vulnavia, Phibes tracks the thieves to Egypt, where he exacts a terrible revenge against them before retrieving the scrolls, though his arch rival(played by Robert Quarry) does battle with him for their possession.More-of-the-same sequel is made in the same grisly and violent spirit of the first, which sometimes is most uncomfortable viewing. Phibes is a true "antihero" if there ever was one, though if you liked the first, you'll no doubt like this as well.

blackmamba99971 What can I say?, Vincent Price as the abominable Doctor Phibes really packs a punch. Since the first instalment called The Abominable Doctor Phibes a cult following has been reaching new heights. Basically, a story of a man who was once a brilliant Doctor himself, had his wife under go a surgical procedure for some small problem. Instead, she died on the operating table six minutes into the surgery which caused the Doctor to exact revenge on all parties involved with the operation. Except one thing, by happenstance, he was disfigured by an unknown accident which gave his appearance an ugly result which causes him to use makeup to give himself a new face. And a talent for which he uses a speaker through his neck. Besides this new appendage, an assistant named Vulnavia who is his silent partner, helps him on each excursion for his revenge. Where she comes from, nobody knows. Now with a new journey, he goes to Egypt to find the famed and legendary river of life where the pharaoh's of the past used after death to give immortal life. In the middle is a man named Viderbeck, an archaeological scientist who is also seeking the river is now in the way of Phibes and his goal. But what others do not know, is that Viderbeck uses an elixir to give him life for his continued search. Running low, he and his team mates desperately try to find the chamber, except each team mate dies most brutally with Phibe's brand of justice. With Scotland yard back on the scene, Phibe's begins to mount the pressure by kidnapping Viderbeck's would be fiancé only to coax Viderbeck to give Phibe's a key which opens the gates to the river. This film is an ultimate classic. Of music, chaos, murder in the most heinous ways and a beautiful story of true companionship for Phibe's and his wife Victoria. Whether the legends are true or not, this film gives the audience a glimpse of magic in the forms of faith. For Phibes, it was true love all the way. To go beyond the reaches of morality to save his beloved wife is the calling of one's self worth. Excellent movie for all Vincent Price fans.

manchester_england2004 THE ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES was for me at least a horror classic that ranks amongst the best the British film industry has produced in this genre.In contrast, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN is a disappointing sequel that lacks the creativity, intelligence and wit that made the first movie a success.I have read the comments page carefully. Some of those who disliked the movie make it out to be a terrible sequel. Two even consider it to be one of the worst movies ever made. I think to even use words like "terrible", "awful" or "dreadful" would be too strong to describe it. However, a good argument can be put forward to demonstrate how disappointing this sequel is for those who have seen the first movie.The plot will seem a little bizarre for those who have seen the first movie but can be recited without revealing spoilers. Dr. Phibes revives himself from his state of "suspended animation" and voyages to Egypt in search of a gateway to eternal life.Following a few flashbacks from events in the first movie, this sequel sets off with almost complete disregard to its parent!A new protagonist is introduced - Darius Biederbeck. He is a wealthy man with the same goal as Dr. Phibes. Early in the movie, it is revealed he has taken from Dr. Phibes a papyrus showing the whereabouts of the gateway to eternal life.Vincent Price has a great time playing Dr. Phibes, although the touching moments where he would reminisce over his deceased wife have been massively reduced. These moments were so important in the first movie because they enabled the audience to connect with him and sympathise (to an extent anyway) with his motivations.The killing scenes this time are not nearly as creative as those in the first and there seems to be no obvious planning behind them. In contrast, it was revealed in the first movie that Dr. Phibes spent years planning his revenge on the doctors who performed an unsuccessful surgical operation on his wife and whom he blames for her death. The results clearly demonstrated a carefully planned revenge.Robert Quarry had a wonderful role in his later collaboration with Vincent Price - MADHOUSE. He played a smooth but slimy character who was very interesting to watch. In DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN, his Biederbeck character is incredibly bland and dull to watch. He did not make anywhere near as good a protagonist as Joseph Cotten did in the first movie.Dr. Phibes's assistant, Vulnavia, returns. But she is played by a different, albeit very attractive, actress. However, her performance doesn't come close to that of Virginia North in the first movie, who made excellent use of facial expressions to convey the character's thoughts and emotions.Fiona Lewis looks very glamorous in this movie, wearing very expensive looking dresses and sporting a lovely hairstyle. Unfortunately her character is given nothing to do and is merely used as a prop for the ending chapter.Peter Jeffrey and John Cater reprise their roles from the previous movie as the two police investigators trying to hunt down Dr. Phibes. Unfortunately, the comical scenes involving them that seemed so natural in the first movie, seem very forced in this one.Building on the point raised in the previous paragraph, the level of humour in this movie is too high and too obvious. In fact, most of the humour is so obvious that it comes off as ridiculous and cheap rather than witty.Dr. Phibes's victims are nowhere near as interesting as characters as those in the first movie.Gerald Sim, who delivered such a wonderful performance as Professor Robertson in DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE, is given a very uninteresting character to play in DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN. I won't give away spoilers but I will say that the death of his character is easily the lamest in the whole movie and one of the lamest I've ever seen in any movie.But the movie's biggest failure is the waste of first-rate talent in the form of Peter Cushing and Terry-Thomas.Terry-Thomas, who was in the first movie, plays a very different character here. He receives around three minutes of screen time in a scene that is meant to be funny but simply wasn't.Peter Cushing fares even worse as the Captain of a ship on route to Egypt. He receives around two minutes screen time. It seems rather obvious to me that Peter Cushing should have been playing the Biederbeck role in this movie. After all, he was offered the protagonist role in the first movie, which he turned down. His presence here was clearly just a gimmick by the producers to help promote the movie.Beryl Reid also appears in this movie. Whilst she has a little more screen time than Peter Cushing and Terry-Thomas, I thought her scene was one of the most boring in the entire movie.As pointed out by another person on this page, the production seems rushed as though the movie was put out quickly to ride on the back of the first movie's success.After drawing attention to the negative aspects of the movie, I turn to the few good points.Hugh Griffith has a somewhat amusing role as an alcoholic associate of Biederbeck on board the ship bound for Egypt.The movie also retains much of the style and class as the first, ensuring it does not come off as cheap or sleazy in any way.Overall, DR. PHIBES RISES AGAIN is a sub-par sequel that will disappoint most fans of the first movie. This advice comes from someone who actually saw this sequel before its parent and still found it disappointing in its own right! It comes as no surprise that plans for a third movie were shelved.

TheFinalAlias Even though it has some outstanding sequences, great music, great production values, one of Vinnie's greatest performances and one of the most memorably creepy endings in the genre's long history I have to tell the truth: I never cared much for the original Dr. Phibes movie. I don't hate it, but I just didn't find it to have the qualities it is most often praised for, and those I did find certainly were not as effective as they could have been.That said, I was expecting the often lambasted and so-called 'inferior' sequel to be a waste of time. I was dead wrong!I will concede that this film is technically inferior as a film to the original, and the script is so full of holes it is ridiculous, it also features a crass waste of actor Peter Cushing that is simply unforgivable, several 'guest stars' appeared in the previous film and several elements that kept the original film glued together are missing. But that doesn't matter, because the film is FUN FUN FUN!("Theatre of Blood" is still better, though.)All of the elements of humor and horror that the original is often praised for are actually more prominent, and much better handled in this film. Several scenes are truly frightening, and the comedy bits are hilarious without becoming just silly.The story is quite simple; Phibes is restored to life because of movement of the planets, which replaces the embalming fluid he replaced his blood with at the end of the previous film, and(now much more talkative; spouting dialog worthy of Dr. Doom through his phonograph)he summons Vulnavia again(confirming that she was a supernatural figure) and is about to take off on a quest to the river of life, only to discover his former lair ravaged by the greedy, corrupt businessman and archaeologist Darius Biederbeck(Robert Quarry)and his map stolen. Phibes doesn't need the map, and Biederbeck; who is also seeking the river, has no knowledge of his existence; but that's okay, it gives the No-good-nick Doctor a chance to pass the time doing what he does best.....in Egypt no less!! Although hardly 3-dimensional fleshed out characters, all of Biederbeck's allies are given flaws and personalities so that we either like or dislike them and thus get to either fear for them, or laugh to death at their murders. The Egyptian-themed murders range from truly unpleasant(a man gets pecked to death by vultures, another has his flesh sandblasted off)to laugh-out-loud funny(Big Milton Reid; the evil Mulatto from 'Captain Clegg' and a henchman from the James Bond movies ends up 'phoning it in' quite literally after battling robotic cobras, and a horny guy seduced by Vulnavia gets....well, you'll see...) even the lamest of them puts the ones in the original to shame(Never mind that Phibes couldn't possibly have planned or had the materials necessary to carry out a single one of them....).The film is no masterpiece, but it's very entertaining, and the film has a feel reminiscent of both the Indiana Jones movies and the Adam West 'Batman' show if 'Batman' had actually been funny. It features all the qualities the original is praised for a 1000x better; plus, it features the ear-splitting spectacle of Vincent Price 'singing' "Somewhere over the Rainbow" in a grating mechanical voice!!!!!!! How can you hate a movie with THAT in it??? Pull out the weed and enjoy.~