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★ 5 / 10
Bizarre Version of a Classic
claudio_carvalho
In 1877, in Paris, rats save a baby from death and raise him in the underground of the Opera de Paris. This child becomes The Phantom of the Opera (Julian…
In 1877, in Paris, rats save a baby from death and raise him in the underground of the Opera de Paris. This child becomes The Phantom of the Opera (Julian Sands), a half-human half-animal breed, who falls in love with Christine Daaé (Asia Argento), an opera singer initiating her career. He disputes her love with the aristocratic Baron Raoul De Chagny (Andrea Di Stefano), sharing Christine that equally loves them both.This Dario Argento's bizarre version of Gaston Leroux's classic novel really does not work, and probably it is the worst movie of his filmography. I believe he tried to create a gore and Gothic atmosphere, but the screenplay is awful. The nasty origin of The Phantom is quite ridiculous, with the weird Julian Sands being created by rats, but playing organ very well and not wearing mask, as in the other versions. Asia Argento is simply horrible in her character of Christine, with a terrible dubbing of the operas. Her mouth is not synchronized with the voice of the singer, and she does not show any vibration of feelings in her role. Most of the lines in this story are very ridiculous, and the way Christine falls in love with The Phantom is amazingly pathetic and silly. The Phantom comes to her, introduces himself with an absurd sentence, and she immediately has a crush on him. The actor that performs the leading gentleman Raoul is not handsome, and really does not help our heroine to decide her sentimental fate. Last but not the least, how could a stupid man like Ignace, the rat-catcher, invent and build a sophisticated device like the one he uses to eliminate the rats in the underworld of the Opera? The cinematography is very beautiful and is the best this film can offer with the music score. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "Um Vulto na Escuridão" ("A Shadow in the Darkness")Note: On 23 January 2025, I saw this film again.
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★ 5 / 10
Great story, maybe not the best Argento's film but not bad!
Gunnar_Runar_Ingibjargarson
Leaden horror costumer that takes its tenuous starting point from the classic Gaston Leroux novel of the same name. The twist in this variation is that the…
Leaden horror costumer that takes its tenuous starting point from the classic Gaston Leroux novel of the same name. The twist in this variation is that the Phantom was raised by telepathic rats in the subterranean caverns beneath the opera house. Thus our feral Phantom (Julian "Ratboy" Sands) develops an obsessive love for up-and-coming diva Christine (Asia Argento), and sets about to seduce her to his dark, rodent existence. Although beautifully photographed, with lots of ornate period detail to catch the eye, this is largely a by-the-numbers supernatural horror story with scant gory set pieces as diversions. Fans of Dario Argento will yell "Rats!" and all else will merely shrug. And why are the rats telepathic, anyway? Screen writing credits go to Gerard Brach, best known for his many collaborations with Roman Polanski, most notably Repulsion. However, none of his absurd sense of humor comes through in this film, which really needs it. A shame all around. The DVD includes a short interview with the film's star, Julian Sands, as well as a photo gallery, some dispensable making-of clips, spliced together to appear as a featurette (mostly in untranslated Italian) and a very informative article from Fangoria Magazine.
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★ 5 / 10
Prepare Thyself for Camp
gwendolyn_of_slytherin
Dario Argento probably wasn't trying to make a funny movie about The Phantom of the Opera. Probably wasn't, but the point is, he did. While the gore in the…
Dario Argento probably wasn't trying to make a funny movie about The Phantom of the Opera. Probably wasn't, but the point is, he did. While the gore in the film is unnecessary, it is not as frequent as we may be led to believe. The film does start out fairly abruptly with a guy getting his upper half sawed off, and at this time you're wondering, "what the hell is wrong with this picture?" Other death scenes are fairly equally gruesome, but all are also expected, therefore lowering the "scary gore factor." Of course, then you see The Phantom. Now, of course, you're really confused by the blonde hair and lack of a mask. I wasn't complaining about his good looks, though. The acting on Julian Sands's part is sub-par but not horrible, while Asia Argento is somewhat better. The relationship between the two is not incredibly believable, a sort of instant-love instant-hate instant-sadness thing that just keeps the audience confused as to why Christine can't make up her damn mind. Andrea Di Stefano is likable as Raoul, but some of his scenes are just incongruous with his character.The sexuality of the film is incredibly overdone. Argento seems to need to expose women's breasts as many times as possible, including a very large and very unattractive La Carlotta. The opium den/whorehouse scene pretty much makes the movie (along with the couple of really gory parts) rated-R because we are definitely talking full frontal nudity, both sexes, and if you aren't expecting it you are pretty much blown away.However: despite its flaws in cinematography (annoying and constantly switching camera angles and a soap opera-like quality), below standard acting, strange and inconclusive love story, and numerous bits of unwarranted violence... there is something about this film that just makes me want to declare it a campy, a cult classic. It is absolutely hilarious to watch, though very disturbing at times. If you've got a twisted sense of humour and/or a love of the bizarre, then this version of PotO with a man sticking rats down his pants for pleasure is the kind of movie you will want to see! 5 stars out of 10 for just being fun, though about 3 stars out of 10 when watched "critically." But as I said above, "prepare thyself for camp" and you'll probably love it.
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4.3/10
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@ANTI_FA Sands was great in Warlock. I'll have to check this one out.