The 7 Best And 7 Worst Vincent Price Movies Ranked

There are few names as widely known or respected in the field of horror as Vincent Price. A prolific actor if ever there was one, Price accumulated more than 200 screen credits in his lifetime, from his early career in the late 1930s to his final years working in the '90s. During that time, Price starred in some of the most prominent and popular horror movies of his day, including his career-defining work in "House of Wax" and his later roles in revenge films like "Theater of Blood."

With his reedy voice, towering build, and eccentric mannerisms, Price specialized in playing villains throughout his cinematic career. As noteworthy as his contributions to the horror genre are, though, Price performed in a variety of projects, acting in Westerns, noirs, and animated children's films as well. With such a full career, it's certainly understandable that some of his movies would be better than others. But even when the project itself was underwhelming, he always gave it his all, meaning there are some pretty terrible movies that are still worth checking out for a delightful Price performance. Here are some of the best movies Vincent Price appeared in, as well as some of the worst.

One of the most influential movies Price ever appeared in, 1961's "The Pit and the Pendulum" is director Roger Corman at his finest. Loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story, adapted by the talented horror novelist Richard Matheson, and starring one of the most recognizable names in horror at the time, it's one of the best '60s horror films there is.

Set in 16th century Spain, Price plays a wealthy landowner and widower who begins to believe that his deceased wife is now haunting his seaside castle for revenge. A financial and critical success for Corman, "The Pit and the Pendulum" continues to be one of the most defining films in both Corman and Price's career, setting the bar for practically every Corman film that followed (although few films rivaled the success of this movie). It's a wonderfully paced, atmospheric film with a taut, suspenseful narrative.

"The last portion of the film builds with genuine excitement to a reverse twist ending that might well have pleased Poe himself," said Variety's 1961 review. In his nonfiction book "Danse Macabre," legendary horror author Stephen King wrote, "Following the Hammer films, ['The Pit and the Pendulum'] becomes, I think, the most important moment in the post-1960 horror film, signaling a return to an all-out effort to terrify the audience ... and a willingness to use any means at hand to do it."

It's films like "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" that helped keep Price's career alive and relevant throughout the 1970s and '80s, after the actor's "golden period" starring in dozens of B-horror films in the 1950s and '60s. In this stylish dark comedy from 1971, a badly injured concert organist with an avid interest in theology (Price) seeks revenge against the nine doctors who failed to save his wife after a horrific car accident. Using the Ten Plagues of Egypt as an inspiration, the organist unleashes an unusual brand of vengeance on the doctors, picking them off one by one. 

A blend of horror and comedy with elements of Price's earlier "House of Wax" and his later "Theater of Blood," "The Abominable Dr. Phibes" was a critical success for Price and his director, Robert Fuest. The unique visuals, clever design, and Price's performance earned the film positive reviews, prompting a sequel, "Dr. Phibes Rises Again," a year later, and also guaranteeing the film a firm place as cult classic today. As Variety's review said, "Anachronistic period horror musical camp fantasy is a fair description, loaded with comedic gore of the type that packs theatres and drives child psychologists up the walls." 

The rare family film on Price's resume, "The Great Mouse Detective" kicked off the Disney Renaissance, helping the studio turn itself around after a period of poorly-received films. Based on the "Basil of Baker Street" series of children's books, "The Great Mouse Detective" follows a Sherlock Holmes-esque mouse detective (Barrie Ingham) investigating a missing toymaker in Victorian England. As the detective unravels the case, he eventually uncovers a massive conspiracy orchestrated by his archenemy, the odious Professor Ratigan (Price).

Released at a crucial point in Disney's history, "The Great Mouse Detective" did exceptionally well at the box office, earning just under $40 million on a budget of $14 million (via Box Office Mojo). The film also garnered largely positive reviews, with The Chicago Tribune's famed critic Gene Siskel writing, "The Disney organization hasn't created a truly memorable animated feature in 25 years. But this delightful mouse version of a Sherlock Holmes mystery just might become a classic for many generations of parents and children."

As the film's dastardly villain, Price perfectly portrays the charismatic, theatrical Ratigan, doing a fantastic job balancing the character's inferiority complex regarding his rodent status (he's prone to homicidal outbursts should you call him a rat, not a mouse). It's an underrated performance in a criminally under appreciated Disney film, containing one of the best performances from the final years of Price's career.

Released alongside a string of other critically and commercially successful horror movies, it's films like "House on Haunted Hill" that established Price as one of the premiere stars in horror from the 1950s onwards. Price stars as a mysterious millionaire who throws a party for his fourth wife (Carol Ohmart) in an a supposedly haunted house isolated in the countryside. Inviting five people to attend the party, the millionaire promises an exuberant reward for anyone who stays the entire night in the mansion, each of them sharing a number of strange and disturbing encounters with possibly supernatural entities.

Alongside other '50s classics like "House of Wax," "House on Haunted Hill" is the kind of movie that was responsible for making Price a household name in horror. It possesses a wonderfully atmospheric eerie tone, containing a number of unexpected twists and surprises that keep viewers engaged throughout.

The popularity of the film at the time has led to it achieving cult status among horror fans today. Feel free to ignore the unsuccessful remake, 1999's "House on Haunted Hill," and its equally poor sequel, 2007's "Return to House on Haunted Hill."

One of Price's earliest career-defining films, 1953's "House of Wax" is a period horror film set in the gaslit streets of New York City in the early 1900s. In it, a talented but insane sculptor (Price) begins preying on random people who bare likenesses to historical figures, using their bodies as the basis for wax figurines in his local museum.

It's an eerie concept made all the better by Price's performance — a man with a clear love for his waxwork sculptures, driven to the brink of madness by a fire deliberately set by his business partner that destroys his museum and leaves him with severe burns. It's one of the films that propelled Price to his status as a leading man in Hollywood, as well as directly leading to him becoming synonymous with horror throughout the next few decades.

"House of Wax" was a massive financial success, and as the years have passed, the film has only continued to gain a firm place as one of the best horror movies of all time. "A film in which just about every technical and dramatic gambit has been judged to near perfection," wrote Empire's David Parkinson in a retrospective review. It would gross over $23 million at the box office against a budget of a mere $1 million (via Box Office Mojo).

A revenge film with shades of "The Abominable Dr. Phibes," 1973's "Theater of Blood" follows a veteran Shakespearean actor (Price) who fakes his death after receiving negative reviews from a band of snobbish theater critics. Reemerging two years later, the actor begins targeting the critics, killing them off one by one in ways that resemble certain characters' deaths in Shakespeare plays.

Age did little to slow Price down as the actor continued to star in horror-centric films throughout the 1970s. If anything, Price only became a finer actor over time, embracing the theatricality of his onscreen, typically villainous characters, handing in an enjoyably campy performance as the over-the-top antagonistic main character.

Hinging more heavily on dark comedy than strictly horror, "Theater of Blood" was very positively received by critics, and continues to appreciate in value to this day. "Comedy horror that really does give Vincent Price a chance to do his stuff, with deliciously absurd results," said Time Out's David Pirie. It may be a tad on the gory side for some, but most of the violence is deliberately over-the-top and stylized, typically played more for laughs than it is aiming to genuinely disturb viewers.

Perhaps the darkest, most brutal horror movie Price was ever featured in, 1968's "Witchfinder General" offers a frightening look at a grim period in England's history. Set in the mid 1600s, Price stars as the real-world Matthew Hopkins, a sadistic conman who used the chaos of the English Civil War to his advantage, traveling through the country while leading local communities in prosecuting women he believes guilty of witchcraft.

Unsurprisingly, such a terrifying time period makes a fitting backdrop for a horror movie, albeit one that heavily dramatizes the life and career of history's most notorious witch hunters. Regardless of how little the film resembles history, "Witchfinder General" remains a crowning achievement in Price's career, containing little humor and instead focusing solely on horror and suspense, with Price handing in one of the most sinister characters of his career.

As chronicled by Frame Rated, "Witchfinder General" courted plenty of controversy with its prevalent violence and overall dark tone. In later years, however, the film would go on to achieve cult status with contemporary audiences. In 2000, The Guardian's Derek Malcolm included it on his list of the century's most "artistically or culturally important" movies, calling it "one of the most compulsively watchable ever made in Britain."

"'Witchfinder General' bears the mark of its period — there's an overabundance of zooms and an easy reliance on the brutality of brightly hued gore — but it remains contemporary, and even frightening, in its evocation of cynical Puritanism and mass deception," said The Village Voice's J. Hoberman.