Flesh crawls! Blood curdles! Phibes lives!
Disc Reviewed: Dr Phibes Double Feature/Dr Phibes Rises Again (Kino Lorber blu ray)
Plot: Three years after condemning himself to the curse of darkness, Dr Anton Phibes somehow survived replacing his blood with embalming fluid. Assisted by the also-resurrected Vulnavia, Phibes goes on a jouney to Egypt to bring his deceased wife Victoria back to life. However, Darius Biederbeck, a man determined to find eternal youth, follows Phibes to Egypt to also find the River of Life...
Review: Released a year after the first movie, Dr Phibes Rises Again was intended by American International Pictures to be a quick cash-grab to bank on the success of its predecessor. Despite Robert Fuest returning as director and the art direction once again being fantastic, the movie is just unfortunately too bloated, even with the extensive cuts made by AIP to remove humor or other scenes they felt unnecessary.
While there are some neat deaths, the majority of the movie is meandering around Egypt (actually either Spain or a set in the UK). It's only a matter of waiting until someone new gets killed. The final confrontation between Phibes and Biederbeck doesn't have the tension that the final scenes in the first movie has and the total result is unfortunately disappointing.
Bonus Features: The highlights on this disc are the commentaries by Justin Humphries (who was also featured on the Abominable Dr Phibes disc) and Tim Lucas both of whom describe in detail the troubled production and editing of Rises. Humphries does a delightful impression of Vincent Price when quoting him.
The only other features are trailers, which don't add much.
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