Please don't spend money on this.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Blistering performances.

This was a good sequel to a great movie. It maintains the same tone as the first one, along with many of the same cast and crew. There's even a small cameo by Peter Cushing. It's pretty much a re-tread of the first movie, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This one is best enjoyed as a double feature with the first.

Dr. Phibes is back after 3 years of being in a state of suspended animation. He awakens from his 3 year slumber to find his home has been wrecked and the papyrus that contained the information he needed to bring his dead wife back to life has been stolen. Needless to say, Dr. Phibes is out for revenge once again. Those that have ruined his chances to resurrect his wife will be destroyed in a cleaver way that only Dr. Phibes can dream up.Good follow-up flick. Almost as good as the first film. Like the first film, the sets and costuming are elaborate, the deaths are bizarre, the humor is quirky and Vincent Price is great.Worth watching... it's best if you watch the first film The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) then watch "Rises Again" but it's not necessary.8/10

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.

Years after going into hibernation, Dr. Phibes comes back to life and so has his fashionable female assistant Vulnavia (too bad she has only one other acting credit, "The Great Muppet Caper"). How Vulnavia survived the acid attack from the first film, I have no idea. Anyway, together they travel to Egypt to find the river of life that flows once every 2000 years in order to resurrect Phibes' wife Victoria. Biederbeck, running out of water from the last two thousand years, is racing to get there first. Who will win? Depending on how you look at this, the movie is either awesome or campy or both. I think both. Vincent Price (Dr. Phibes) never fails as a mad scientist and Phibes is a good character to demonstrate this. The supporting cast is also well-picked (with even a cameo from Peter Cushing). And the deaths are particularly cruel -- scorpions, snakes and one of the most painful ways to die you have seen (which involves crushing but you will have to check it out for yourself). Price, good deaths and a smoking hot woman. What more do you want? Well, there's the camp aspect. So many questions are raised here, besides how Vulnavia survived and where she was hiding. How does Phibes survive undetected if his house is torn down? How does he build so many elaborate traps in Egypt? How does he hide the bodies so quickly? And then there's the Clockwork Wizards (his robot friends who play instruments with him as he plays his organ). They are great (and call to mind Argento's "Deep Red") but it seems unlikely they would be able to be transported with such ease. Oh, and if Phibes needs his special tool to speak, why does he ever disconnect it? It is not like it gets in the way or something, except maybe while sleeping.You like Vincent Price. You like 1970s horror films from American International Pictures. You will like this film. Some say it's not as solid as the first, other say it's on par. I would suggest seeing the first one first (that makes sense) but there's no reason to avoid this film. It deserved more sequels, but this was not to be.