Vincent Price is a name that has echoed through horror film history since his first role in the genre, The Tower of London (1939). Audiences were enchanted by his look, charisma, and alluring voice, along with his ability to come off as both disarming and menacing at the same time. Price went on to dominate the next three decades in horror classics, such as Green Hell (1940), Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (voice of Invisible Man) (1948), House Of Wax (1953), The Fly (1958), House on Haunted Hill (1959), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), Theatre of Blood (1973), and you get the idea.
His characters weren't your conventional villains. Instead, they carried with them an air of class, sophistication, regality, and a shade of melancholy over their "cursed" status. Every horror fan worth their salt knows his name, and it only takes seeing his performance in any of the aforementioned movies. Despite being in his grave for almost 32 years (death by lung cancer at age 82), his spirit continues to reach fans of all ages.
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The Vincent Price Legacy is an upcoming documentary about the legendary actor that not only covers his 57-year film career, but the other side of him as well. One that collected art, obsessed over cooking, and fought against racial discrimination at a time when nobody wanted to risk their careers over such a stand. The 136-minute documentary was directed by German filmmaker Laurent Ohmansiek (Planet of the Tapes), and produced by Vincent's daughter, Victoria Price. It features interviews by fans/filmmakers Rob Zombie (The Devil's Rejects), Mick Garris (The Stand), Caroline Munro (The Abominable Dr. Phibes), rock legend Alice Cooper, Joe Dante (Gremlins), David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil), John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), and many more.
Horror films have produced an endless amount of nightmares, monsters, phobias, lifelong complexes, and unforgettable villains since the first horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, hit theaters 105 years ago, but the genre has also generated its fair share of heroes as well. They're charged with defeating the evil, saving the damsel in distress (if applicable), and doing so while firing out as many "groovy" catch phrases as possible, but one also can't forget the "final girls" who focus more on destroying the monster, and less on how cool they look while doing so.
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Then there's other side of blade with the fans that cheer for the villain as they murder their way to the end credits. They're the ones applauding while Freddy Krueger drags Tina's blood drenched body across her mom's bedroom ceiling, or when Jason Voorhees buries the business end of his machete between the eyes of some busty babe who picked the wrong forest to knock boots with her hornball boyfriend. This celebration of death and carnage would be a little more worrisome if the victims were a little less stupid, and/or obnoxious.
These are the two ends of the spectrum. One side roots for the hero, while the other side cheers on the villain, but then you have the ones in the middle. These entities walk in both light, and shadow. They will charm you with their words, melt you with their smile, and then chill your blood with the long, pointy teeth behind it. These are the best characters in horror, but the most rare as well. Not many actors can pull off seductively sinister, and expect to be taken seriously. Even for those who can, they will forever be comparing themselves to the great actor who did it first, and did it the best: Vincent Price.
The film is scheduled to be released in the fall. Until then, here's that infernal trailer: