Welcome to another edition of Saint Mort’s Nostalgia Nightmare. This week I’ll be reviewing Phantom of the Opera from 1989 now available on Blu-Ray from my friends at Scream Factory. Much like last week, I’d never seen this film prior to this viewing but I sure as hell remembered it’s box-cover. Let’s see how it is.
I’ve always had a weird obsession with Phantom of the Opera. I blame it on Gremlins 2: A New Batch, as well as an old book of classic horror movie moments that my grandfather had in his basement. I loved the look of Lon Chaney’s original make-up and would frequently imagine the iconic music and the moment when the mask is lifted off revealing his true face.
That being said, it’s rare that I find a version of Phantom that I genuinely love. I like the classic Lon Chaney film and I can appreciate the musical, but I definitely don’t love it. For some reason nothing has reached that unattainable excitement for the original film (that I didn’t even see until after college). I do however love gory 80s/90s horror movies, so I went into 1989’s Phantom of the Opera with high hopes.
I can recall the box cover from my younger days of wandering video stores, but for one reason or another I never rented it (I’m willing to assume it’s because I still hadn’t seen the original). I can’t say that this movie’s transfer has never looked better (since I have no previous viewing experience) but what I can say is that this doesn’t look like a movie that’s 25 years old. The transfer gives it the picture quality of a movie released in the last 2-3 years.
That being said, I walked away from this movie not knowing how to feel about it. Robert England puts in a great performance and while I’m not a fan of the Phantom’s make-up Kevin Yagher’s other effects are pretty impressive. There are definitely things here, however, that don’t work for me.
I started off kind of confused; the movie does a sudden flip from modern day to the victorian era that occurs so suddenly that if you sneeze or blink you’ll miss it. The movie is slowly paced but when it gets good it’s “severed head in a soup pot” good.
There’s a lot to like hidden within the movie but the actual journey to those moments can be tedious and boring at times. The movie also ends in an awkward abruptness, it’s obvious that they were setting up a sequel (which despite my lukewarm opinion of this movie I would have loved to have seen) that never came to fruition due to its poor box office performance.
However, since this is a Scream Factory release it doesn’t matter the quality of the film because the Behind the Mask Retrospective making of documentary on the DVD is packed with interesting stories about the history of the Phantom. If you’re a fan of this adaptation you’d be doing yourself a disservice not picking up this up for that making of and commentary track alone.
If you haven’t seen this adaptation but you’re a fan of 80’s gore and/or the Phantom of the Opera story than this might be worth checking out, but I think you’re actually better off checking out Phantom of the Paradise (also from Scream Factory). In fact, the screenplay writer even mentions watching Phantom of the Paradise for inspiration while writing. Both have extremely similar plot-lines (both being inspired by both Phantom of the Opera AND the story of Faust) but Phantom of the Paradise has the tongue-in-cheek fun (and memorable musical numbers) that this adaptation is lacking.
Saint Mort is the host of The Saint Mort Show and Reddit Horror Club podcasts. He also posts reviews in his Every Damn DVD blog every single week. He’s also the Phantom of his Apartment and attacks anyone who speaks ill of his DVD collection. If you’re generous enough give him some more DVDs to defend from his Amazon Wishlist.