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(Vincent Price) The Strange Magic of Vincent Price's Voice

By. Pleatherface

A little late to the party, but our fearless leader reminded me that we were celebrating one of those enduring personalities that is closely tied to the genre in Vincent Price. I am of that age and relationship to horror that most of my exposure to the man was via his innumerable cameos that played off his spooky reputations and that unique voice of his; this means things like the Thriller video, Scooby-Doo reruns, and most importantly his appearance in the film Edward Scissorhands by Tim Burton.

Of course, Burton's short was far from the only place audiences encountered Vincent Price outside traditional horror films. Check out our look at the horror legend's strangest side hustles, from television appearances to one of the most iconic music videos ever made.

There are directors who have a unique style, a signature in their work, and then there are the Tim Burtons and Wes Andersons (to name just two) who have a visual language that is very difficult to imitate. Burton was a big part of my adolescence starting all the way back to Pee-wee’s Big Adventure through Beetlejuice, Batman and its first sequel, and loosing some steam after Big Fish (a film I will always love despite some flaws). While this is not meant to be a reflection on Burton, I was told by some in our talented team about Vincent, the director’s first short film. Seeing it out of order was a revelation, as so much of his signature style is present early on (and he would take many of his creations for the short and include them in his later works). But what tied it all up was Price. That narration, just as in his verses in Thriller, a unique mix that produces dread and chuckles alike came from his extensive theater experience and powerful voice. That power lay not in an innate strength, though it was there in a way, nor in a gravitas that a James Earl Jones would have in his own voice over work; it was a smooth, musical sound that both soothed and laid bare that which lurked beneath the veer of polite society. This is what made his so special and ideal for the adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s work. I have currently queued The Masque of the Red Death to enjoy a different take after enjoying Raul Garcia’s Extraordinary Tales a while back. As Eugene Archer wrote in his review of the film, Price played horror with a gusto that in the wrong hands might have ben vulgar, but in his talented hands enveloped the audience in a way that few might have been able to do.

 

Vincent is a beautifully simple piece of visual art, one where the imagery provides a lot of fodder for the viewer. Yet, it is that playful, dreadful narrator who neatly ties it all up in a way that is both scary and hilarious, terrifying and amusing. Cooky comes to mind. It is the story of a boy who idolizes Vincent Price the actor. It plays along that line of the way we are seen and what lies beneath. This tiptoeing is made possible by that playful narrator who makes this short’s world feel that much more real even if we are presented with a child who dreams of playing out Price’s roles and torturing those around him and himself. It never falls into the completely horrific, and it is all on the power provided by the narrator’s tone and pace.

Which is why in part it is sad that for some viewers, Price eventually became almost a parody of himself. Saturday Night Live’s Bill Hader played off this popular image in his sketches based around Vincent Price hosting holiday specials with oddball guest stars. There in lay the problematic nature of the way in which consumers have such immense definitional power over the artist’s work. The catch-22 then becomes consumers accuse artists of selling out, when the economic process in which they participate encourages the production of works that lean in hard into that “corner.” A few may say Vincent Price sold out, I would disagree. He was the very example of a working actor who used his skills to the best of his abilities and took projects he could deploy them. He never seemed not to enjoy the work, and that is a big part of what makes it that much more interesting. He was one of the few talents who could elevate something from trite to fresh, from boring to amusing, in the process usually aiding in making something odd amusing. 

Thank you for reading!

Whether lending his voice to Tim Burton's gothic imagination or stepping in front of the camera himself, Vincent Price always understood the power of performance. Continue Vincent Price Week with our look at MADHOUSE (1974), one of Price's strangest and most underrated late-career horror films.