Theatre of Blood (1973)
Directed by Douglas Hickox

Film Review

Dr Phibes rises yet again - well almost - in this stylish near-remake of the vindictive fiend's first gory outing in The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971).  This time, the homicidal maniac is a vindictive actor out to settle a few scores with the critics who blighted his career, but the plot is pretty well the same: a series of themed murders enacted with dazzling panache and a surfeit of Grand Guignol theatricality by a raving madman played to perfection by one of horror's great icons, Vincent Price.  The blood-soaked plays of William Shakespeare provide the inspiration for each of the macabre killings, the Bard's methods of dispatch given a twisted reinterpretation for darkly comedic effect.  For, despite its grisly premise, Theatre of Blood is unmistakably a comedy, all the more so for those who are well-versed on Shakespeare.  You don't have to be familiar with the cartload of carnage that the Bard happily serves up in Richard III, Henry VI and Titus Andronicus to enjoy this film but fore-knowledge of these plays does add a certain piquancy.

At a time when horror was beginning to go out of fashion, companies like Hammer and American International Pictures having pretty well mined the genre to death, Theatre of Blood brought a fresh stimulus to the twitching corpse of British film horror but it still feels like a valedictory piece.  It's a lavish production with a stunning cast, but you can sense it marks the end of an era.  Good-natured, stylised, tongue-in-cheek horror films of this ilk would soon become a thing of the past, swept away by a new wave of horror that offered far more realistic and visually explicit thrills set in the real world.

It is not hard to see why Theatre of Blood was one of Vincent Price's personal favourites.  Not only does it allow him to do what he does best, let rip as a deliciously evil villain, it also allows him to indulge his lifelong passion for Shakespeare.  If Price hadn't been such a success in the movies he could conceivably have made a name for himself as a stage actor, something that is readily apparent from his exquisite rendering of the Bard's text in this film.  Even though Price does (by virtue of the character he is playing) tend to ham things up in a few scenes, his interpretations of the famous soliloquies are charged with genuine human feeling, his rendition of Hamlet's 'To be or not to be' speech being particularly poignant. 

Even with a cast that includes some of Britain's finest actors (including two ex-Avengers, Diana Rigg and Ian Hendry), Vincent Price dominates the proceedings from start to finish, stealing every scene as he works his way through a bewildering array of guises.  With a witty and ingenious script to support him, and a director (Douglas Hickox) able to make the most of his talents, Price turns in one of the best horror performances of his career (just a notch below his greatest performance in Witchfinder General).  As a hideously twisted Shylock, Price makes Laurence Olivier look like an effete amateur. Why the RSC didn't drag him into their hallowed ranks after this tour de force is a total mystery.  If only the critics had been a little kinder to him...

Film Synopsis

Edward Lionheart is convinced he was the greatest Shakespearean actor of his day but instead of glory his final season of performances ended in humiliation when a group of critics bestowed on a newcomer an award which was his by right.  The same critics had previously ridiculed Lionheart in their scathing reviews of his work, but this final insult was too much.  Driven to suicide, the actor survives and embarks on a gruesome plan of revenge.  Lionheart has made up his mind to kill each of the critics, taking his inspiration from the Bard himself.  The first victim is cut to ribbons by a mob of squatters on the Ides of March, à la Julius Ceasar.  The second is lured to Lionheart's theatre to be murdered by the actor's accomplices, a gang of meths-drinking vagrants, his carcass carried away by a horse, replicating the fate of Hector in Troilus and Cressida.  Cymbeline provides a macabre touch to Lionheart's next killing, a stylishly executed decapitation.  By now, the surviving members of the group of critics realise that their lives are in danger and begin to wonder if Lionheart is still alive.  Suspicion falls on the actor's daughter Edwina, but she insists that neither she nor her father has anything to do with the murders.  As the police continue their investigation more horrific deaths follow in quick succession.  Lionheart has no qualms over altering Shakespeare's text to serve his purpose, as one critic discovers when he is tempted into playing Antonio in an X-rated rewrite of The Merchant of Venice...