Phantom Nightmare - Phantom des Todes

The sound quality and picture quality were a little ugly but this could have been down to a bad quality transfer. The effects and design were ample for the purpose. Nothing special though. I liked the attempt at a modern take of a classic story. Shame that it is really tacky and unimaginative! Still tacky cheesy fun is contained within which is something. It was enjoyable seeing Pauly Shore looking fresh-faced and young but he hadn't fully become the weasel yet. Apart from one cool moment and some fun stunts it is average tacky cheese from the eighties. This deserves a remake, it could have been better!

This movie was not made for 80s audiences but for future audiences to relive the vibes of the 80s. As a 1980s hyperreal fetish object it is superb. It's why a lot of b-movies from the time have become treasured, but even among a lot of them, the DTVs, the slashers, the Empire films, this is a step up. You start with that Gothic will work no matter what. Every time it cuts from mall settings to the phantom, you are getting cinema. Crawling through air ducts, piecing things through security cameras, these are all details in Gothic noir. Even better that Pauly Shore is there. In recreating a 1980s fetish object directors would certainly put him in their movie, not to say anything of his artistic significance, it is just like palm trees in California.

The camera cannot be cheated. It is a strange facet of cinema that you can go to the ends of the earth, to strain on screen, but then just, mall, gothic, Pauly Shore, the film exists in the simplest way, and works nicely. If I am underselling it to say lower your standards, it is more to have no standards at all and look at it more like an audio-visual National Geographic exhibit of the "mall". I read both essays in the package of the Arrow Video set, and both are focused more on the death of the mall, rather than the film itself, and this concept of the mall, yes it is extremely nostalgic and packed with emotion for an audience. I take more for why this works, the Phantom of the Opera, the Gothic shorthand. Of course it will end with gore, people on fire, the entire mall exploding in glorious fashion. But with the death of the mall, it takes on a double meaning. Gothic always knew the pain the suburbanite, of the 80s/90s kids, our nostalgia, loss and sorrow in great economic change. Gothic knew. This is just one of the films that made a very intellectual association in combining these subject, as we age to become haunted Gothic figures ourselves.

Gaston Leroux's classic tale is updated to the late '80s, with a mall replacing the opera house as home to its disfigured titular character. Hideously disfigured and presumed dead after unscrupulous developers torch his home to make way for a modern shopping complex, Eric now lurks in the tunnels and vents of the mall, planning to wreak revenge on those responsible while also keeping a watchful eye on his girlfriend Melody (Kari Whitman).

With a smattering of gore (extra points for the eye-popping scene), some gratuitous nudity (a pervy security guard spies on girls in the changing rooms and Melody gets topless for a flashback sex scene), and an early, not-too-irritating role for Pauly Shore, this is a dumb but fun version of the oft-told tale. Phantom Eric does some martial arts moves against the mall's security guards, there's death by escalator, hydraulic door, and air vent fan, and we get a whole load of impressive stunts, including a guy being flipped through the air by a car, a high dive (onto a spike), and a full body burn.

6/10. It's no '80s horror classic, but it's entertaining enough for the duration.

One of the cornerstones of low-budget cinema is taking a well-known, classic storyline and making a complete bastardization out of it. Phantom of the Mall is no exception to this rule. The screenwriter takes the enduring Phantom of the Opera storyline and moves it into a late '80s shopping mall. However, the "Phantom's" goal now is simply to get revenge upon those responsible for disfiguring his face and murdering his family. The special effects do provide a good chuckle, especially when body parts begin appearing in dishes from the yogurt stand. Pauly Shore has a small role which does not allow him to be as fully obnoxious as one would expect, mostly due to the fact that his fifteen minutes of MTV fame had not yet arrived. If you're looking for a few good laughs at the expense of the actors and special effects crew, check this flick out. Otherwise, keep on looking for something else.

A new mall is opening in the San Fernando Valley, but it has dubious beginnings, which might explain the mysterious psycho lurking its nether regions (Derek Rydall). Morgan Fairchild plays the mayor while Jonathan Goldsmith is on hand as the greedy mall owner; Pauly Shore appears as an employee and Rob Estes a reporter.

"Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge" (1989) takes the milieu of "Chopping Mall" (1986) and inserts the Phantom of the Opera story with bits of De Palma's "Phantom of the Paradise" (1974). It's comic booky 80's horror with almost a (cheesy) superhero approach, although things turn insane in the last act.

Kari Whitman is a highlight on the feminine front as protagonist Melody while Kimber Sissons is on hand as statuesque Suzie. Of course, Morgan is her usual striking self.

The film runs 1 hour, 31 minutes, and was shot at Promenade Mall in Woodland Hills (also used in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High") and Sherman Oaks Galleria with studio stuff done in Valencia, all in the Los Angeles area.

GRADE: B-/C+