THE DANMAN CAN

Robert Fuest 's The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971) is a frighteningly fun and campy horror comedy, filled with deliciously dark humor, strikingly bold Art Deco design, creative costumes, and exquisitely elaborate murder set pieces (which telegraph the Saw films). Vincent Price , as the titular organ-grinding abomination, wreaks wonderful Old Testament-inspired vengeance on the medical team he believes took his beloved wife Victoria from him. Phibes is aided by his beautiful, silent, and, most importantly, "fashionable," violin-touting partner in crime, Vulnavia ( Virginia North ). The tone and humor remind me of another (admittedly less grisly but still pretty dark) cult classic 1971 movie, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory , with which this picture shares an actor ( Aubrey Woods ). Podcast where I discuss this film here . Recommended for fans of  The Phantom Of The Opera  (1925) ( review ), The Masque Of The Red Death (1964), and  Tales From The Crypt   (1972...

What an eclectic and cool little Horror anthology film.

House Of Wax (1953) is slightly cheesy (mostly because of the contrived 3-D effects - this was the first 3-D feature from a major American studio and also the first 3-D film with stereophonic sound ), but fun. Not terribly different than the original film (minus the reporter angle), but you can't top  Vincent Price (great makeup!), and this one's even got Charlie Bronson (credited as Charles Buchinski, his birth name). Of note: why does an 88-minute film require an Intermission...?