The Abominable Dr. Phibes

The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) is a horror film starring Vincent Price. It was followed by a sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972)

Plot

Anton Phibes, famous organist and a doctor of Music and Theology, thought to have been killed in a car crash, was in fact only horribly disfigured. Phibes is convinced that his lovely wife, Victoria, who died during a surgical operation, was a victim of incapable doctors. Several years after the operation, Phibes begins to put his vendetta into effect, killing the doctors that operated on his wife. Inspector Trout from Scotland Yard suspects Phibes, but it's difficult to prove when he's believed dead, not helped by the incompetence of the force. Trout eventually discovers that Phibes has been taking his inspiration from the Bible, specifically the (the ten plagues of Egypt, which is part of the psychic force that drives him). Helped by his mute assistant Vulnavia (pronounced Vul-naf-e-a) Phibes kills, one by one more brutally each time, seven doctors and the head nurse. Phibes reserves the more heinous punishment for the head of the team of doctors, a Dr. Vesalius. He kidnaps the doctor's son and places him on a table on which a container full of acid is waiting to disfigure the boy's face. A small key implanted near the boy's heart will free him. Versalius will need all his skill to operate and free his son. As Vesalius arrives, he learns he has only six minutes to operate on his son and to save him from the acid. The operation succeeds and the acid instead disfigures the assistant. Convinced he has completed his vendetta, Phibes lies beside the embalmed corpse of the his wife and, as his blood drains out, with the police and Inspector Trout closing in, the chamber under his house in Muldean Square sinks into darkness. As the stone sarcophagus sinks, an eerie tune plays....

Related Topics:
Organist - Disfigured - Surgical - Operation - Doctor - Vendetta - The Bible - The ten plagues of Egypt - Embalmed - Corpse - Blood - Sarcophagus - Eerie tune

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Current Tagline: Revenge Is The Best Medicine.

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Original Tagline: (In a wonderfully awful pun on the tagline for the movie Love Story) Love Means Never Having to Say You're Ugly.

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