Pacto en la sombra

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+

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.

Though I suppose it would be well possible to make a better movie about a shopping mall version of the Phantom of the opera, to the best of my knowledge no one ever has. Unless you count "Gremlins 2: The New Batch", on account of the fact that it featured a Phantom themed Gremlin. I don't count this though, so let's move on. Not only is "P.O.M" (as I shall now call it) the best movie ever to place the Phantom in a mall, but it is also the greatest (IE: only tolerable) Polly Shore movie ever made. This movie being made in 1988 before Polly Shore was famous enough to be allowed to act like Polly Shore in a film. Another nice touch is the fact that the front doors of the Mall are labelled "Mall Entrance." Really I though they were the entrance to something other than the building they're attached to like the magical world Narnia or something. Anyway the real draw of this film is it awesome musical theme. It's reminiscent of a better day when almost all movies had a rock'n song about their plot at the end, under Hollywood's "well it worked for Ghostbusters" policy. The song boldly dares to use such controversial terms as "Boobs" and "Retard". Point being if your not doing something productive to uplift the human spirt (which if you're reading my review on "The Phantom of the Mall" you and I both know you aren't) rent and watch this hidden jewel of cinema and make Mr. Polly "The Free World's Punching Bag" Shore a couple pennies richer. Go ahead, I dare ya!

OK, first of all this is pure unadulterated 80's cheese. The shoulder pads are massive, the hair is massiver ( is that a word? ) and the fashions are gross. The plot is ludicrous, Eric's house was burnt down and they built a mall in it's place. So like some homeless ghoul with a vocoder ( you'll know what I mean when you hear his voice ) he haunts the mall. The movie has some great kills a car chase and explosions. There's a bad guy that looks like George Michael from the Faith video. Morgan Fairchild is in it how 80's is that. A few highlights are Eric takes one guy out with a series of roundhouse kicks and he lasso's a guy. The girl in peril has so many dream sequences she may be narcoleptic, each one is accompanied buy the same power ballad. Unfortunately Pauly Shore is in this movie, but he isn't doing that annoying voice that he started doing later in his career. Joy of joys, after the thrilling climax there is a song on the credit sequence about the film. Great fun. I loved it.

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!