DIABOLICALLY GOOD: Charles Rammelkamp enjoys Drew Pisarra’s imaginative exploration of the movie career and afterlife of horror icon Vincent Price
Diabolically Good
Drew Pisarra
Anxiety Press, 2026
$17.00 145 pages
ISBN: 979-8195156985
Drew Pisarra never fails to astound. Whether it’s surrealistic short fiction (You’re Pretty Gay) or his ingenious sonnet collection based on the Periodic Table (Periodic Boyfriends) or his poetic treatment of the life and work of the postwar German film director Ranier Fassbinder (Fassbinder), each new project feels unique and brilliant. Only his snarky humor remains constant throughout, his voice sardonic and comical. Pisarra’s also consistently interested in theatrical, cinematic, and gay themes. He once toured a ventriloquist act called Singularly Grotesque commissioned by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.
So while it’s not a huge surprise that in his newest work he’s turned his attention to the campy B-Movie icon Vincent Price, Diabolically Good (subtitled The Movie Career and Afterlife of Horror Icon Vincent Price) is nevertheless an astounding compilation of a stage play and filmography analysis, and thus, another unique addition to the author’s oeuvre.
The book opens with Pisarra’s farce, Price in Purgatory, a sort of schizophrenic journey in which the spirit of Vincent Price and a Dante-esque “spirit guide”, identified as V2, (but who actually appears to be a younger version of Price) are engaged in a dialogue whose ultimate goal is to get Price into heaven. He’s dwelt in hell for a while now but thanks to the intercession of the spirit of the Mormon Church founder, Joseph Smith, whom Price played in the movie Brigham Young, his case is being reconsidered by God.
Price in Purgatory was performed at 53 Above in New York City in November, 2023, as part of the Fresh Fruit Festival’s Radio Play Series. The play is composed of seven scenes, all announced by an unseen voiceover, all scenes titled by one of the seven deadly sins – PRIDE, ENVY, WRATH, SLOTH, GREED, GLUTTONY, LUST.
While V2 is ostensibly there to guide Price through a reflection of his life and soul, the two are contentious; they argue and even come to blows. In what may be the funniest line in Price in Purgatory, God, who shows up at the beginning of the play only to disappear in a rumble of thunder after a couple of pages, reappears just as the two are about to start fighting. Price has just speculated that they need a referee. Poof! The rumbling thunder comes again and here’s God: ‘I can do that. I love judging people.’ (‘About time you showed up,’ V2 mutters.)
Whether Vincent Price gets to go to heaven or not is up for debate, but at the end of the play, he, V2 and God are all tap dancing in sync together. What comes next is an encyclopedic analysis of Price’s entire film work, all in Pisarra’s acerbic, tongue-in-cheek style.
Born in Saint Louis in 1911, the six-foot-four inch Price appeared in over ninety films, plus ten made-for-television movies, beginning in 1938 with Service De luxe and going all the way to 1990’s Edward Scissorhands. Seven different decades! Drew Pisarra has something to say about all of them, and essays by Sean Redlitz and Maitland McDonagh add to the exposition. Most of the movies Vincent Price was in were B-movie horror and noir flicks (The Fly, Son of Sinbad, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, House on Haunted Hill and Return of the Fly, etc.), but he had a role in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 classic, The Ten Commandments, in which he played, in Pisarra’s description, a ‘lecherous, whip-wielding master-builder / master-butcher’ named Baka, who does not actually appear in either Exodus or Deuteronomy; Baka’s a wholly fictitious character.
And that movie, Brigham Young? Pisarra writes in his commentary that in high school, in an American History AP class he wrote a paper on the Mormon migration to Salt Lake City, but he doesn’t remember much about it. ‘Which is another way of saying that I couldn’t tell you what in Brigham Young is true, what is false, and what falls in between. What I can tell you is anyone aggravated by “Oh Susanna” is going to suffer since that tune reprises endlessly in this film.’ Pisarra’s witty commentary spices up all of his film analyses.
Of course, my all-time favorite Vincent Price movies were the series of films based on Edgar Allan Poe’s stories that he made in the early 1960s, about the time I was hitting puberty, and like many youngsters that age I had developed a real love of horror movies, in thrall to all the monsters and freaks. I would sit mesmerized on a Sunday afternoon in the Bohm Theater in Potawatomi Rapids, Michigan, popcorn, Good & Plenty licorice candies and Milk Duds in hand, staring up at the silver screen. House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, and all the others – how they scared the hell out of me, an impressionable schoolboy, hypnotized by Price’s cunning, devious voice, his macabre laughter, and how I thrilled to it!
Pisarra writes of these movies, ‘There’s a reason why the Roger Corman / Vincent Price / Edgar Allan Poe projects get so much attention. They’re testaments to crowd-pleasing filmmaking accomplished on a shoestring budget.’ Price’s voice also appears in the music video of Michael Jackson’s 1983 Thriller.
Drew Pisarra’s Diabolically Good lives up to its title.
Aug 12 2026
DIABOLICALLY GOOD
DIABOLICALLY GOOD: Charles Rammelkamp enjoys Drew Pisarra’s imaginative exploration of the movie career and afterlife of horror icon Vincent Price
Diabolically Good
Drew Pisarra
Anxiety Press, 2026
$17.00 145 pages
ISBN: 979-8195156985
Drew Pisarra never fails to astound. Whether it’s surrealistic short fiction (You’re Pretty Gay) or his ingenious sonnet collection based on the Periodic Table (Periodic Boyfriends) or his poetic treatment of the life and work of the postwar German film director Ranier Fassbinder (Fassbinder), each new project feels unique and brilliant. Only his snarky humor remains constant throughout, his voice sardonic and comical. Pisarra’s also consistently interested in theatrical, cinematic, and gay themes. He once toured a ventriloquist act called Singularly Grotesque commissioned by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art.
So while it’s not a huge surprise that in his newest work he’s turned his attention to the campy B-Movie icon Vincent Price, Diabolically Good (subtitled The Movie Career and Afterlife of Horror Icon Vincent Price) is nevertheless an astounding compilation of a stage play and filmography analysis, and thus, another unique addition to the author’s oeuvre.
The book opens with Pisarra’s farce, Price in Purgatory, a sort of schizophrenic journey in which the spirit of Vincent Price and a Dante-esque “spirit guide”, identified as V2, (but who actually appears to be a younger version of Price) are engaged in a dialogue whose ultimate goal is to get Price into heaven. He’s dwelt in hell for a while now but thanks to the intercession of the spirit of the Mormon Church founder, Joseph Smith, whom Price played in the movie Brigham Young, his case is being reconsidered by God.
Price in Purgatory was performed at 53 Above in New York City in November, 2023, as part of the Fresh Fruit Festival’s Radio Play Series. The play is composed of seven scenes, all announced by an unseen voiceover, all scenes titled by one of the seven deadly sins – PRIDE, ENVY, WRATH, SLOTH, GREED, GLUTTONY, LUST.
While V2 is ostensibly there to guide Price through a reflection of his life and soul, the two are contentious; they argue and even come to blows. In what may be the funniest line in Price in Purgatory, God, who shows up at the beginning of the play only to disappear in a rumble of thunder after a couple of pages, reappears just as the two are about to start fighting. Price has just speculated that they need a referee. Poof! The rumbling thunder comes again and here’s God: ‘I can do that. I love judging people.’ (‘About time you showed up,’ V2 mutters.)
Whether Vincent Price gets to go to heaven or not is up for debate, but at the end of the play, he, V2 and God are all tap dancing in sync together. What comes next is an encyclopedic analysis of Price’s entire film work, all in Pisarra’s acerbic, tongue-in-cheek style.
Born in Saint Louis in 1911, the six-foot-four inch Price appeared in over ninety films, plus ten made-for-television movies, beginning in 1938 with Service De luxe and going all the way to 1990’s Edward Scissorhands. Seven different decades! Drew Pisarra has something to say about all of them, and essays by Sean Redlitz and Maitland McDonagh add to the exposition. Most of the movies Vincent Price was in were B-movie horror and noir flicks (The Fly, Son of Sinbad, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, House on Haunted Hill and Return of the Fly, etc.), but he had a role in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 classic, The Ten Commandments, in which he played, in Pisarra’s description, a ‘lecherous, whip-wielding master-builder / master-butcher’ named Baka, who does not actually appear in either Exodus or Deuteronomy; Baka’s a wholly fictitious character.
And that movie, Brigham Young? Pisarra writes in his commentary that in high school, in an American History AP class he wrote a paper on the Mormon migration to Salt Lake City, but he doesn’t remember much about it. ‘Which is another way of saying that I couldn’t tell you what in Brigham Young is true, what is false, and what falls in between. What I can tell you is anyone aggravated by “Oh Susanna” is going to suffer since that tune reprises endlessly in this film.’ Pisarra’s witty commentary spices up all of his film analyses.
Of course, my all-time favorite Vincent Price movies were the series of films based on Edgar Allan Poe’s stories that he made in the early 1960s, about the time I was hitting puberty, and like many youngsters that age I had developed a real love of horror movies, in thrall to all the monsters and freaks. I would sit mesmerized on a Sunday afternoon in the Bohm Theater in Potawatomi Rapids, Michigan, popcorn, Good & Plenty licorice candies and Milk Duds in hand, staring up at the silver screen. House of Usher, Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, and all the others – how they scared the hell out of me, an impressionable schoolboy, hypnotized by Price’s cunning, devious voice, his macabre laughter, and how I thrilled to it!
Pisarra writes of these movies, ‘There’s a reason why the Roger Corman / Vincent Price / Edgar Allan Poe projects get so much attention. They’re testaments to crowd-pleasing filmmaking accomplished on a shoestring budget.’ Price’s voice also appears in the music video of Michael Jackson’s 1983 Thriller.
Drew Pisarra’s Diabolically Good lives up to its title.