Hooptober XII | 22/31 | Based on Novels 3/4
Pray for them who giveth their immortal soul unto Satan… For each is damned to relive that wretched life… through all times.
— St. Jean Vitius of Rouen,
written the day of his execution, March 7, 1544
Christine Day, an opera singer in modern-day Manhattan, heads to the Bennett Music Library, where she meets with her manager, Meg. Meg hands Christine Don Juan Triumphant, written by Erik Destler, as an option for her upcoming rehearsal. In Meg’s research, she learned that Destler was a serial killer and was responsible for the disappearance of a woman with whom he was obsessed. As Christine tries out the melody, the individual notes on the sheet music emit blood, staining the page and covering her hands. Then, all returns to how it was.
Christine performs the piece for her audition. Suddenly, a sandbag drops from the rafters. It swings into Christine, sending her plummeting back into a mirror. She falls unconscious, and a man’s voice calls for her. When Christine comes to, she’s in the London Opera House in 1885. The woman holding her as she awakens is Meg, but not the Meg she knows from Manhattan. Christine seems already familiar with her surroundings, as though she has always been here. She knows that she is the understudy to La Carlotta, who is losing her voice.
Beneath the opera house, under the prison, is a lair filled with burning candles and an organ. Erik Destler sits in front of a mirror, his face covered in burns, using a thread and needle to apply false skin and makeup to hide the seams. Beside that is a photo of Christine. Joseph, the man who accidentally dropped a sandbag on Christine, gets an earful from his colleagues. Then, when alone, he hears a voice calling his name. Destler emerges, and through some complex rope and pulley nonsense, guts Joseph.
Destler visits Christine, who has been her teacher, encouraging her to sing Carlotta’s part in Faust. He assures Christine that she will sing the part. And, when Carlotta discovers Joseph’s skinned body, still barely alive, her scream is the final nail that causes her to lose her voice.
The film has a proper budget, so it’s easy to fall into the 1880s world aesthetically. The costumes and setting do wonders. And by only focusing a bit on the world outside the opera house, they don’t have to stretch themselves too thin with the worldbuilding.
The tone has some Hammer vibes, which makes for a stuffy affair, but one that suits me fine. The film chooses to portray The Phantom as having received his facial scars by making a deal with the devil so that his music would live forever — they perform Faust, in case the comparison isn’t obvious.
The action set pieces are, frankly, awful. It’s clear no one could or wanted to do choreography, so people flip and dangle in cutaway shots while The Phantom grimaces and poses. Had they done more here, this movie would have done so much better. The gore itself is gross when it comes, but none of the kills have much creative juice.
Perhaps the most interesting choice is to bookend the movie in the modern day. I wish the movie had stayed there, summoning The Phantom to the present instead of pulling Christine into the past. The plan was to make a sequel like that, with the Phantom living in the Manhattan sewers, but it was a box-office and critical failure, so no one asked for it.
For those like me who find this era of filmmaking inherently cozy, it’s hard to hate this movie outright. But I found it difficult to care about what was happening on screen.
Actor Talk
- Happy to keep running into Jill Shoelen in movies. She’s a solid scream queen!
- This was Molly Shannon’s first movie role! She plays Meg!
- This is the earliest role I’ve seen Bill Nighy in. He’s barely recognizable!
- Robert Englund is doing his best to fill the role of The Phantom, but he doesn’t have the chops to sell the more emotional moments.