The countdown to the 31st continues!  Or would it be a count up?  Whichever (you all know we’re not professionals here), it is the third day of October and I’m here to drop my day’s recommendation on you.  If you don’t know what I’m doing, where ya been?  Read this to catch up.  (And come on, it’s day three and you’re still not wise to the October Countdown 2009?).

And for October 3rd, might I suggest…The Phantom of the Opera.

Phantom_of_the_opera_posterNo, this is not the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, or the classic Lon Chaney silent film.  This Phantom is from 1989 and stars one Robert Englund.  Yes, it stars Freddy Krueger.  It’s a loose adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s book, as a lot of them are, but it does keep some of the elements of the source material.  Like the Phantom’s darker tendencies toward violence.


This movie has been labeled a “slasher film” for years, and it could be called that, it’s got some slashing.  Some blood letting.  And in this version of the story, the Phantom’s face is disfigured due to a deal with the Devil; Old Scratch touched his hand to the Phantom’s face, burning it.  The Phantom, therefore, stitches together a mask of human skin from victims to cover his burns.  That’s different from other versions of the book.

But the rest is familiar enough, and this is quite the entertaining piece.  The music, the sets, and the costumes are wonderful.  The kills aren’t that imaginative, and it does have all those “slasher” stereotypes going for it.  But it has Robert Englund, and Robert Englund is one of the best actors to ever grace the screen, no matter the genre.  Everyone else in this thing may be creaking along and struggling, but Englund gives a wonderful performance as the Phantom.  And his performance alone makes it worth viewing.

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