The Phantom of the Opera

Dwight Little’s The Phantom of the Opera is an updated take on the Gaston Leroux novel, albeit with more gore. In this version, modern New York singer Christine Day is getting ready to audition for a show. Her friend Meg (Molly Shannon making her big-screen debut) discovers the remnants of an unfinished song by composer Erik Destler and shows them to Christine. She eventually takes the music and seems to wow them at the audition when she is suddenly struck by a rogue sandbag and knocked unconscious. When she awakens, the setting has changed to London in the late 1800s. That’s right, we have traveled back in time. From there, the audience gets to experience a more traditional tale of The Phantom of the Opera with added bloody kills, a heavily made-up Robert Englund, and a twist ending that everyone can see coming.

Let’s jump right in and talk about one of the main elements of The Phantom of the Opera story, the music. While this is not a musical, the film has a great soundtrack written by Misha Segal (The Last Dragon, The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking). The standout in my and many viewers’ opinion is the song Don Juan Triumphant written as an aria for Christine to sing. But, the entire score is great to listen to and elevates many scenes in the film. The soundtrack is out of print on physical media, but you can grab a copy of it digitally from Amazon and I would recommend it for any fans of orchestral music.

Moving past the praising of the soundtrack, Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Mangler)  gives a solid performance as Erik Destler/The Phantom. His movements through the film almost seem like gliding and almost always have the flourish of an actor on a stage. His interactions with the other characters give the appearance of overplaying, but in actuality, the Phantom’s entire life is the opera and from his point of view, his entire life is one giant performance. It works well within the context of the film and Englund is masterful with his delivery.

Robert Englund’s leading lady is Jill Schoelen (Popcorn, The Stepfather) playing Christine Day. Her performance is uneven, but not horrible. There are moments where she seems to be playing different characters. I don’t mean present-day versus past nor is this the result of the film’s story. It is subtle things like the way she speaks or moves that make it feel like she is switching characteristics between scenes. Unfortunately, when you add this to the lack of chemistry between Englund and Schoelen, the core of the film begins to fall apart. This film also has Bill Nighy (Love Actually, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest) in one of his early roles. While it is a small part, you can see his great talent.

Outside of the film,  I feel that the marketing for the movie may have helped in its failure when released. It relies heavily on Englund’s popularity from the Nightmare on Elm Street series. The text on the film’s poster (and my subsequent blu-ray cover) says, “Robert Englund was Freddy… Now he is the Phantom of The Opera… An all-new nightmare!” and features Englunds scarred face peeking out from behind a skull mask. Everything about this screams “Freddy Krueger is in this!” I think this puts the audience in the wrong mindset to watch this movie. You won’t see the same kind of witty slasher killer you would in the Nightmare films.

Speaking of Englund’s scarred and grotesque face, the makeup effects in Phantom are phenomenal. What a great way to modernize the story and ‘80s up the film. Instead of being born disfigured or having acid thrown on his face, the Phantom instead makes a deal with the devil for his music to be loved forever, but it costs him his face. Now he walks around with a face that appears to be a constant open wound. And, while he does wear a masquerade mask at one part in the film, this Phantom uses a combination of fresh skin (that he takes from his victims) and theatrical makeup to try and cover the wounds and move about in the world (with varying success). His daily “mask” is just an attempt at a normal face and, yes, it does get torn off at one point in the film. 

There are quite a few kills in the movie, and some of them are quite creative in their placement and style of filming. A particular scene depicts a beheading that has a jarring cutaway (sure, I meant that pun). I discovered later that additional scenes were filmed during this and had to be removed to lower the MPAA rating from X to R. I wish they were put back in for the home video release. 

The plot of The Phantom of the Opera is a mixed bag. It has a lot of classic moments from the book, but is mixed in with interpretations from the writer, director, and possibly Englund himself who says in an interview that they not only incorporated elements of Faust, but also of Jack the Ripper. The producers planned to have a sequel that takes place in modern Manhattan, so the film has the aforementioned modern-day opening and closing. Well, the ending of the movie just falls flat. Especially if you didn’t know there was supposed to be a sequel. It leaves you asking “What the hell was that little bit at the end supposed to mean?” The plot also progresses very quickly at times and it feels like everything happens in about 3 days. 

The Phantom of the Opera has become a cult film since its release and I can see why. It has all the entertainment of a popcorn slasher of the ‘80s while trying to tell a touching story about love, passion, obsession, and loneliness. However, I don’t think it did any of it well enough to make it a franchise film (hence the canceled sequel) or a stand out horror film. Especially when you consider all the competition it had at the time. You still had the Friday the 13th series, Halloween and of course, the Nightmare series all going strong and even more single horror films being released every month.

The romance angle was also not developed strongly enough to sway this movie into that realm. I could care less about Christine and her relationship with Richard or see any connection between the Phantom and Christine beyond their mutual love of music. So unlike, say, Andrew Llyod Webber’s Musical The Phantom of the Opera, this movie can’t even be considered a romance instead of a horror. It tried to walk the line between the two genres and ended up being mediocre with both. That being said, I still enjoy the movie for a casual watch. So I would say you could turn down the operatic music, pop the movie into your player, relax on the couch, and save me some popcorn!

Rating:

Jack Savage:

The Phantom of the Opera. A slasher killer? A romantic character? A tragic being? If you watch this you won’t care, but you may get squeamish as you watch him stitch his face back together!

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