This modern re-telling of the classic tale ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ was
released the same year as the Robert Englund version, yet went a very
different route.
Young lovers Eric and Melody are tragically separated when greedy
developers hire an arsonist to burn Eric’s house down to allow them to
build a new mall. Melody escapes but Eric is badly burned and presumed
dead.
A year later the Midwood Mall is gearing up for it’s official opening.
Melody and her friends Suzie and Buzz, along with most of the townspeople
have recently begun working there and everything seems to be going well
for the town.
However Eric didn’t die in the fire and he’s back living in the deserted
corridors and ventilation chambers of the mall, waiting for the right time
to get his revenge in very bloody ways and win back the love of his
beloved Melody.
This movie was enjoyable enough. I liked the clever little references to
the origional story, such as Eric’s lover being called Melody rather than
being a singer, and the idea that he made his mask from a shop mannequin,
as it’s nice to see that the crew behind this had actually thought about
the original.
Surprisingly, this film has a very well known cast including Pauly Shore,
Morgan Fairchild, Tom Fridley (who played Cort in ‘Friday the th Part
‘) and ‘Scream ‘ star Kelly Rutherford, and even has an appearance from
horror veteran Ken Foree as head of security (obviously he took the job to
get over his problems in the last mall he went to in ‘Dawn of the Dead’).
OVERALL SUMMARY
Unmistakeably a product of the late ‘s the film is an enjoyable romp,
but is not really as memorable or passionate as previous versions of the
story. Then again it is only an ‘s slasher film.
