A different Version
A lot people bad mouth this film. Its definately a different version of the phantom than people are use to, but it isn't that bad. The gore is typical 80s horror film style and not nearly as gruesome as in recent films.
Robert Englund does an excellent job as Erik Drestler AKA The Phantom. This is by far the best performance and he does a great work at capturing a man with a duel personality. He loves music and he loves Christine, in that order. It is very dark and close in tone with the book.
They do have the masquerade scene and the cemetary scene from the novel, but no chandelier crashing. The sets are lovely and the music haunting. Next to Robert Englund the best thing about the film is Mischa Seagle's score. Also a very young Molly Shannon from Saturday Night Live can be seen as present day Meg.
The film takes place in 1800s london and 1980s New York which works well for the ending. A sequel was planned, but never done.
There is both a wide screen and full screen version on opposite sides of the disc. Too bad there weren't much extras. The only one being the the film's trailer. Overall this is a great film as long as one remembers that the point of the film was to bring out the darker tone of the novel rather than the romantic side. This is a great adaptation that adds inventive twists on the novel. Check it out.
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