Phantom of the Paradise

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Dominic, Steve, A.J.

This one has cult written all over it. Brian De Palma's gothic rock horror extravaganza, beats out the Rocky Horror film by a year although it's nowhere near as popular or well know. It's basically a rock Phantom of the opera with a dash of the ol' Faust and maybe Dorian Grey in there too.

I had only seen this once before and it was just as eclectic, strange and wonderful this time. Brian De Palma has some of his usual long takes and some split screen usage, and the production design of "The Paradise" is pretty cool, the Phantom costume, especially the head piece is nice and freaky as well as being very theatrical, like most everything else in the film.

Apparently Jessica Harper was cast in Suspiria based on this film, they are similar kinds of characters I guess but that was the film I mainly new her from so it was nice to see her up there singing and dancing around. I'm not really much of a fan of the kind of music in the film, it's a little folksy for my taste but the voice distortion on the Phantom after his disfigurement is awesome. It sounds a lot like the Darleks from Dr. Who. which means instantly terrifying to me.

This is a film that just kind of happens in front of you and you either go with it or you don't. I like it for the most part. Especially Gerrit Graham as Beef.