When it comes to the stars of horror cinema, which names pop into your mind? Do you see Bela Lugosi, Dracula cape and all? Boris Karloff with his chilling yet soothing voice? Maybe even Kane Hodder ramming a machete through some drunken teenager? For our favorite face of horror, we look to the masterfully macabre works of Vincent Price.
When it comes to classic creeps, Price’s work is beyond bountiful. From his roles in Corman’s Poe Pictures to his impressive vocal performances, he always balances out the decadent and the deadly. To pay tribute to this giant of the genre, we’ve selected 10 of his creepiest roles that never fail to give us the shivers.
Professor Ratigan (The Great Mouse Detective)
It’s Ratigan, yes Ratigan, the world’s greatest criminal mind that takes our first slot on the list. It might be a Disney role, but Professor Ratigan definitely has the mark of Vincent Price in his delivery and presentation. Like Price, Ratigan can be charming and sophisticated, but underneath the silk suits, there’s a sadistic monster waiting to pounce.
Price absolutely loses himself in this role, he’s delightfully evil one minute, then absolutely terrifying the next. His smiling and sinister demeanor definitely has a place in our hearts. For Disney villain standards, Price definitely sets the bar for the perfectly balanced bad guy.
Fredrick Loren (House on Haunted Hill)
House on Haunted Hill is perhaps one of the actor’s most memorable films and his performance as the eccentric millionaire, Fredrick Loren, is well-worth the acclaim. Part cheesy horror flick and part gripping murder-mystery, House on Haunted Hill shows Price’s range for charmingly quirky to masterfully manipulative.
Without going into spoilers, Fredrick Loren isn’t the true villain of the story, but he definitely does some dirty deeds to accomplish his end game. In a plot that involves skeletons, ghosts, and vats of acid, Fredrick might just get away with a little more than murder.
Geoffrey Radcliffe/The Invisible Man (The Invisible Man Returns)
Though Claude Raines’s portrayal of the Invisible Man was one of the crowning achievements for the Universal Monsters series, it’s the sequel that not only helped Vincent Price establish himself in the horror genre, but gave him a claim to a role of a classic monster.
In this film, the Invisible Man is an innocent man wrongfully convicted of murder who becomes invisible after taking a scientist’s formula and must use this new ability to find the true killer. But by and by, the serum begins to drive him mad with power. If there’s anyone who knows how to go mad just right, it’s Vincent Price.
Henry Ravenswood/The Phantom (Disney’s Phantom Manor)
We’re kind of cheating by putting a theme park ride on this list, but it wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t for one of the final performances from the legendary actor. As the titular phantom in Disneyland Paris’s Phantom Manor, Price plays a vengeful spirit wreaking havoc on Thunder Mesa.
How many Disney rides actually open with someone committing murder? That’s how intense this Phantom gets, but he wouldn’t be nearly as eerie without Price’s fiendish cackle and line delivery. Essentially filling the shoes of the Ghost Host, the Phantom is our guide at first, but later reveals himself to be the biggest threat in the house. Talk about a twisted role.
Narrator (Michael Jackson’s Thriller)
Michael Jackson might have performed this Halloween hit but aside from his army of the dancing dead, it’s Vincent Price’s haunting narration and diabolical laughter that seals the deal. When darkness falls across the land and the midnight hour is close at hand, you can count on a terrifying, though brief, performance from the master of horror.
If his chilling delivery of the “Thriller Rap” wasn’t enough to give you the shivers and shakes, his monstrous cameo as one of Jackson’s zombie entourage will. Often imitated but never duplicated, no one can possibly match Price’s creep-factor here. After all, no mere mortal can resist the evil of the Thriller.
Narrator/Himself (An Evening With Edgar Allan Poe)
There are few people on the planet who can deliver Poe’s words and writings with such professional horror as Vincent Price. In this 52-minute special, Price performs a selection of the author’s most chilling tales including The Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Pit and the Pendulum.
Hearing Price not only narrate these classic tales of terror but perform them as if he were on the set of one of his horror flicks or even on stage at some Broadway theatre. It’s an incredible performance perfect for your next Halloween night.
Professor Henry Jarrod (House of Wax)
Before the remake made it your stereotypical teen slasher flick, House of Wax was a chilling and kitschy horror flick that gave Price one of his most memorable roles and supposedly even inspired a young Tim Burton to pursue a career in film. Though it might come off as Cheesy with its early 3-D movie effects, the plot is certainly the stuff of nightmares.
Price plays a disfigured sculptor who uses the bodies of his victims to create new, more life-like statues for his Museum. The story takes a little inspiration from Phantom of the Opera, but it’s Price’s charismatic performance that makes the movie.
Doctor Phibes (The Abominable Dr. Phibes)
If it’s one thing Price knew how to do, it was play a villain. Few of Price’s villainous roles get more intense and more sadistic than the abominable Doctor Phibes. Musician, theologian, doctor, madman, and murderer, the man has many titles in this British cult horror flick.
As the deformed Dr. Phibes, Price wreaks revenge on the nine doctors who could not save his beloved wife after a horrible car accident. Using traps that would make Jigsaw jealous, Dr. Phibes wreaks his vengeance in Price’s trademark eccentric fashion. Who said we had to root for the hero?
Edward Lionheart (Theatre of Blood)
Theatre of Blood is definitely one of the most over-the-top films in Price’s career, but his performance is so infectious we can’t leave it off our list. Price portrays a humiliated Shakespearean actor who wreaks his vengeance on his critics by killing them off in the style of Shakespeare characters. Subtlety is not the order of the day, but this film is fiendishly fun.
The horror is about as gruesome and garish as you can get and at times it’s darkly comedic, a perfect representation of Price’s talent. Part slasher movie, part Shakespearean performance, and all Price, Theatre of Blood is definitely one of his most underrated performances.
Prince Prospero (Masque of the Red Death)
Quite possibly the most terrifying film in Price’s repertoire has to be Roger Corman’s adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque of the Red Death. For a film made in 1964, this chilling tale has some pretty gruesome gore effects, occult symbolism, and quite a high body count.
Price Portrays Prince Prospero, a sadistic Satanist monarch who calls forth all his wealthy friends to his secluded castle to wait out a horrifying blood plague. Scenes of torture, occult rituals, and graphic depictions of death ensue before the bloody masquerade ball. If you don’t think old movies can be scary, give this gorefest a watch.
