I don’t believe nostalgia makes a movie better but there are rare cases in which a movie was released at the wrong time or with bad marketing it deserves some reassessment over time.
When The Phantom of the Opera was released in 1989, it had the trifecta of misfortune of being released as horror movies were at one of their low spots in public and critical opinion. At the same time Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical based on the novel of the same name by Gaston Leroux had been a huge hit. Thus, it was overshadowed.
Also the movie almost beat the musical to be released. Originally set to be made and released by The Canon Group, it went in development hell as the independent studio faced financial issues. Israeli cousins Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan, who founded Canon, parted ways as the studio went bankrupt in the late 1980s. So Golan took the idea of turning Phantom into a slasher-style flick to 21st Century Film Corporation, another independent movie studio that didn’t have a good history of movies.
Filmed in Hungary in the winter/spring months of 1989, it boasted Robert Englund as Erik Drestler, the titular character. The plot shifted from Paris to Victorian Era England as an homage to the older Hammer Films productions. Dwight H. Little, who just had a success with Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, was directing. And Jill Schoelen was playing Christine Day.
It’s not a bad movie. But Englund was known for playing Freddy Krueger and here he’s just another disfigured killer, this time lurking in the shadows of an opera house. Erik actually uses real skin to sew on to his face which is freaky to watch. Englund also handles an English accent so well, you’d think he was born and raised in the U.K.
The movie begins with Christine in modern day New York who attends a Broadway audition only to get knocked unconscious by a sandbag and sent back to 1885. The reasoning behind this was the movie was intended as a two-parter but poor reviews and a meager $4 million box office canceled all plans for a sequel set all in the Big Apple.
While it does follow similar slasher tropes, Erik sees himself more or less as Christine’s protector. He kills a stagehands who injures her and brutally murders a critic who gives her a negative review. I don’t think audiences really wanted to see a horror movie that leaned into classic music and period pieces. You have to remember these movies were being made for teenagers mostly. And even by 1989, people were growing tired of Freddy dropping one-liners like a sadistic Henny Youngman.
Erik is a different character. He’s a music composer who was a little arrogant that he sold his soul to the Devil who made him disfigured. He sees Christine as both his protégé and also his love interest. Ergo, he’s jealous of her fiancé, Richard Dutton (Alex Hyde-White). Mixing Faust and violence/gore in a low-budget adaptation went over people’s heads.
It’s not a perfect movie but it’s a very ambitious and innovative adaptation. There’s also early roles by Bill Nighy and Molly Shannon. As Halloween is a few weeks away, it’s a nice movie to watch for a movie night if you can find it.
What do you think? Please comment.
