Theater of Blood

An actor (Vincent Price) exacts revenge on his critics with murders inspired by the plays of William Shakespeare.

Theater of Blood improves upon the formula established by Vincent Price’s earlier The Abominable Dr. Phibes.

Once again we have Price as the calculating anti-hero, murdering his way through the film in a novel and themed manner, once again the police are befuddled and ineffective, but the big change is in the victims: instead of surgeons who may have been responsible for a death, they’re critics who certainly gave bad reviews. Further, these critics, with the exception of Ian Hendry’s Peregrine Devlin, are draw as such unlikable characters, that you can’t help but root for Price’s character as he dispatches them in colorful, and darkly hilarious, ways.

The copious amount of blood (over six gallons were used) may obscure the wonderfully literate script by Anthony Greville-Bell. In addition to references to both Shakespeare and the seven deadly sins, it also provides some really biting one-liners.

Unfortunately, this wonderfully over-the-top film makes two big mistakes. The first involves a mystery surrounding Diana Rigg’s character that’s really no mystery at all, while the second, and much more fatal, mistake involves the film’s length.

At 104 minutes, Theater of Blood is simply too long. While the script is very clever, the novelty wears off during the last quarter as the obvious pattern of setup and murder grows stale.

Still, this is a fun movie that gets better with every viewing, due in large part to Price’s genuine talent with Shakespeare, and the script’s delicious sense of humor.