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Title: Dario Argento's Phantom of the Opera (1999) |
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Review of Dario Argento's Phantom of the Opera
- Mysteriously, a series of terrifying accidents and brutal murders leaves a bloody body trail in the subterranean caverns of an opera house basement. Born into the murky sewer waters below the theater stalks a man/monster raised by creatures of the underworld. This Phantom's dark and grotesque life is shattered when he becomes obsessed with a beautiful young singer, seducing her with his chilling but exotic presence. The blood-curdling terror and disturbing eroticism of this classic story make this horror film one that will haunt your dreams forever.
Description
- 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? Screenwriting 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. --Jim Gay
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Comments for Dario Argento's Phantom of the Opera
- Posted on 2008-02-11
Lord of the rats
Once upon a time, a baby boy was washed into the Parisian sewers, where he was raised by telepathic rats to become the Phantom of the Opera, a serial killer, rapist and rat fetishist.
Yeah, it sounds ridiculous. It IS ridiculous. And Dario Argento is clearly not even trying to make this gory, schizophrenic "The Phantom of the Opera" work. Instead, he apparently is determined to eradicate any traces of Gaston Leroux's original novel, and load the remaining shreds down with lots of gore, poor scripting, and a romantic lead that really should be eaten alive by rats.
The baby who would later become the Phantom of the Opera was abandoned by his parents, and raised by a bunch of telepathic rats (I wish I were making this up). This doesn't explain how he learned to walk, talk, dress, wear a ghastly wig, play the organ, write music, and decorate his underground lair -- or why the rats would even do this. But it becomes pretty clear early on that Argento just isn't bothering with logic here.
In due time, the Phantom (Julian Sands) hears the songs of the young diva Christine (Asia Argento), he contacts her and they immediately fall into a passionate love/hate affair. No reason, they just do. And the Phantom's passionate, psychotic attachment to Christine leads to more disgusting deaths, as he tries to make the budding diva into a megastar of the opera -- but his increasing murders lead to possible destruction for both ill-inducing lovers...
My mother likes to tell the story of some people she knew in college -- apparently they had some sort of rat fetish, and would have sex while making rat squeaky noises. As far as I know, they never went to the level of rat masturbation/orgy (as the Phantom does at one point) but it did creep out their roommates.
That story was all I could think about while watching this florid, hysterical, illogical mess, which only has a few scattered names and ideas from Leroux's novel. The script is simply a disaster -- a muddled mass of bizarre unanswered questions (Telepathic rats? Flaming traps in the sky?) and glaringly predictable "twists" -- will the pedophile be horribly killed by the Phantom? Do you need to ask?
Even worse: the dialogue. Argento must have been asleep when he wrote this grotesquerie ("Your sweet female smell flows though my veins like the rolling ocean..."). That goopy adolescent stuff is basically when the Phantom says all the time, when he's not calling people fat cows. And Christine basically just yells all the time that she hates/loves/is going to have sex with him. Just make up your mind already.
It must be admitted that Argento has some magnificently opulent sets, and the whole ratcatcher in his rat-killing go-cart is unintentionally hilarious. But the rest of the time, we're treated to very explicit gore for its own sake -- impalements on a chandelier, tongue ripping, etc. And the whole rat thing is presumably meant to make us squirm, but it just made me wonder if Argento has some sort of furry fetish.
The final indignity to this disaster is the casting. It's weird enough to have a maskless, unscarred Phantom, but Sands is stuck with the role of a crazy, bloodthirsty rapist and murderer, who evokes zero pathos. And Asia Argento (yet again) plays a lusty sexpot who obviously can't sing, and spends most of the movie getting hysterical. The rats give good performances, though.
Dario Argento was obviously not even trying to make a good movie in "Phantom of the Opera," and instead piled on everything that could make it fail. Well, it worked -- it's a florid, hysterical, ghastly mess that lacks anything worthwhile.
Score: 1
- Posted on 2008-01-29
Tragically Beautiful
Now I might not be the typical Phantom phanatic, but I thought this was the second best Phantom of the Opera movie I've ever seen (the first is the version with Robert Englund). Yes, better than the 2004 musical, I never really liked that version. I know the Phantom in this movie does not wear a mask, he does not have a facial deformity, but he is the Phantom all the same.
This movie is graphic in its violence and...other things, but being a horror movie fan I found that the bloody murders were not overdone and were, in fact, very interesting. The entire plot of the movie was interesting, really. The beginning reminded me of Batman Returns. But hey, if a baby can be dumped in the sewer and raised by penguins, why can't he be dumped in a sewer and raised by rats?
The whole movie brought conflicting emotions, but I always felt so sorry for the poor Phantom. When Christine betrays him for Raoul in this movie it's so heart-breaking, and by the movie's end I was crying. Even if you don't like the rest of the movie so much, watch it for the ending! It was so tragically beautiful. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone that can appreciate a tragic (horror-flavored) romance.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2007-06-19
These people are nuts.
If you need all kinds of money thrown at a movie to make it good than your just shallow and boaring. This is an excelent work of cinematic art directed by one of the most talented cult film directors in the world. Dario Argento is the italian legend of horror...so if your just out of the loop than don't bother rating a perfectly great gothic masterpeice. Julian Sands is wonderful...the film is cool...get some class!
Score: 5 - Posted on 2007-05-29
Wow.
I am a Phantom fanatic so I was very interested to see what Dario's interpretation of it was. I have watched it a few times now and I still am not quite sure what to say about it.
First off, this movie is very, very ... very violent! This one was right up there with "The Hills Have Eyes" in my opinion. I couldn't believe the amount of gore to it. However, that was an interesting aspect of the story and something only Dario could bring out.
Secondly, there was a lot of nudity and some very sexual scenes. There were some parts that I have seen in porn videos so if you do watch this movie, be aware that sex is a very prevelant theme.
This movie is probably not something for Lloyd Webber fans. I went into watching this movie saying, "I will love anything Phantom related." Wrong! This version is very much based on the monsterous phantom. He is very into rats and violence and not so much the music. He is, however, ruggedly handsome with no mask at all. He is quite normal looking. Christine actually has a very small role in this movie and is portrayed like more of a porn star than a young, rising opera star.
The movie is just okay but be prepared for sex and gore beyond your imagination.
Score: 2
- Posted on 2007-04-20
Guilty Pleasure
It is not the best movie ever made but it is watchable, mainly due to Morricone's Music and the opera selections. Asia Argento plays the main heroine, young talented opera singer Christine. I don't think she was bad and her face is unbelievably beautiful - she reminds Olivia Hussey of "Romeo and Juliet" (1968) and Uma Thurman if Uma ever decides to dye her hair dark. Production values, costumes, special effects, decorations, and the singing voices are very good. I noticed that I laughed a lot during the film - perhaps Argento made a dark comedy of the familiar story?
I did not like Julien Sands as a non-masked Phantom. He looks a lot like the creatures that raised him.
The film has an orgy scene that is so funny it could've came directly from "Caligula"
Overall - I had a lot of fun, and and can call it one of my guilty pleasures.
2.5/5
Score: 2