Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge

 Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge

Release Date - 1989

Country of Origin - America

Directed by Richard Friedman

Starring - Derek Rydall, Kari Whitman, Rob Estes, Jonathan Goldsmith, and Morgan Fairchild

The 1980s was a crazy time. I’d be willing to bet anybody who lived in the decade or anybody now who looks back and discovers the decade will tell you so. From fashion, to music, to toys and to movies. Basically the 80s was a decade truly worthy of being called bat shit crazy. Film especially got weirder in what effects they would pull off and just in story in general. While every genre seemed to have it’s merry band of crazy films, the horror genre was arguably where the most insanity lied. And boy oh boy is our movie today a testament of that.

Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge is a slasher film from 1989 and is directed by Richard Friedman. The film is an attempt to modernize the classic horror story of the Phantom of the Opera, a story about a deformed genius who lives beneath the Paris opera house and obsesses over a singer. Assumedly the film was trying to leech of Andrew Llyod Webber’s hit musical based upon the story and hope that fans of that would see the film just to see the opera ghost in a mall. This isn’t all that strange since Webber’s musical brought a lot of attention back to the classic story which at that point was completely obscure and unknown. The success of the musical showed that Phantom still had a life and Hollywood took notice and started to make Phantom movies again. Eric isn’t even the first POTO slasher adaption, as in the same year came the Robert Englund version of Phantom which is an extremely gory adaption of the tale. This also isn’t the first modern Phantom adaption as before this were two others; 1977’s Phantom of the Paradise and 1988’s Phantom of the Ritz. So this film didn’t really do anything that wasn’t already done before (in fact the Robert Englund version came out a month before this one). However it is one of the more obscure titles within the slasher genre, it arguably only being known to either hardcore Phantom of the Opera fans or hardcore fans of the slasher genre.

Funny enough the film holds a funny story about me. When I was but a wee lad first getting into Phantom of the Opera I found a book at the library that listed a lot of horror movies, specifically monster movies. The book would be the first time I would ever hear of Phantom of the Mall, and hilariously I thought it was a sequel at first. I mean think about it, if you knew nothing about the movie and saw the name wouldn’t you think it was a sequel too? Well I was wrong as years later I learned that there is only one Phantom of the Mall movie (the title itself is a big problem, but we’ll get to that later). Silly Poe.

But enough share time, you all want me to get onto the movie don’t you? Yeah, I know you do. What does Poe a gigantic phan have to say about this version of POTO? How insane can a movie based on opera but now based on a mall be? Well the doors are unlocked and the gates have been lifted, let’s take a look at this little sucker. There’s a lot of insanity to cover so it’s best we get started.

The film starts rather abruptly with our phantom creeping around the ventilation ducts before breaking his way into a sports store. He wanders about the store and picks up a few things such as a mannequin’s head (a head which he later breaks and uses the broken off part for his mask), a letterman jacket, a hat, and a crossbow with some arrows. His little shopping spree is halted though when a security guard comes in. It doesn’t take him long to notice our phantom and confronts him, only to get stabbed and thus killed in the process. As the mysterious phantom leaves the store our credits sequence start, which are nothing more then the credits in blue letter against a black background with some flames. Can’t you just feel the excitement?

After the credits finish the movie kicks into the story as we saw a mall opening, the ceremony being hosted by Posner, the mall’s owner (played by Jonathan Goldsmith) and the town’s mayor (played by Morgan Fairchild). As the ceremony carries on we meet our main character Melody (played by Kari Whitman) who has just gotten hired to work at the mall’s bar. As she goes out to listen to Posner’s speech she’s joined by her friend Susie (played by Kimber Sissons) and is checked out by a photographer named Peter (played by Rob Estes). Once the speech is done the mall is officially open for business and Melody and Susie go to where their friend Buzz (played by Paulie Shore) is working and get some frozen yogurt. Susie however finds an ear in her cup which Buzz proceeds to eat, okay then. The mayor and Peter soon show up and Peter takes a picture of the three ladies and we also soon meet Posner’s prick of a son Justin (played by Tom Fridley).

But as the customers shop around, the Phantom is on the prowl and quickly dispatches two people. First a maintenance man he found in the ventilation ducts whose face he slams into one of the fans. The second is a security guard who was using the security monitors to watch women undress in a store and is yelled at by his partner (played by Ken Foree). This poor perverted bastard dies in a pretty fun way; the Phantom impales him with a fork lift and slams him up against an electrical box which not only electrifies him, but makes his eyes pop out of their sockets. As the killing goes on Peter attempts to talk with Melody, he recognizing her from taking her picture a year ago when her boyfriend Eric’s house was burnt down. Melody doesn’t really like the subject and they quickly drop it once she gets to her locker. However Melody gets a surprise as she finds orchids inside the locker, presumably left there by our air duct crawling friend (though how he knew what locker was her’s and how he got in it is never explained). Melody is taken aback by this because Eric always gave her orchids when he was alive and so she kinda freaks out. Posner also gets a surprise though as Eric drops the security guard’s body into Posner’s office, a note on it that reads “An eye for an eye” shakes up Posner who calls somebody saying that he needs his services again. What’s shocking though is that Posner doesn’t really react all that much to having a dead body dropped onto his desk. You’d expect him to freak the fuck out but all does is just stand there going “Well, damn, a dead body.” It’s really weird that it doesn’t affect him all that much, but then again death doesn’t seem to affect anybody in this movie.

Later that night as Melody and Susie leave Melody finds a dress in her car, a dress that she wanted to buy but couldn’t afford. When she goes to drive off Melody finds that her car won’t startup and won’t event with multiple tries and bouncing in the seat (yeah I don’t get it either). Upon leaving the car to fix the problem she’s assaulted by a man dressed in all black and a black mask. Lucky for her though the Phantom was in the parking lot and he drives off the assaulter by shooting him in the arm with the crossbow, he then leaving before Melody can spot him. The mayor drives by and after Melody tells her what happened, drivers her home.

That night Melody dreams about a night she spent with Eric. The dream acts as our mandatory sex scene for the movie and ends when Melody wakes up as the dream turns to her seeing Eric burning alive. Sometime later (yeah the film never explains how long it’s been since opening day) the mall is fully running, however Ken Foree has noticed that a crossbow, some exercise equipment, arrows, some TVs, VCRs, and cameras have gone missing and brings it up to Posner who just shakes it off. Obviously the phantom took them and we see them in use in the next scene, a scene which starts with the phantom practicing his kung fu (insert Steve Austin “What”). We then see him using his stolen TV and VCRs to watch a tape he made that’s filled with footage of Melody, footage he shot himself (which begs the question, how did Melody or anybody else not notice a guy dressed up like a jock and wearing a mask shooting her/a girl?) while listening to the love theme of the movie (Heart of Darkness by Stan Bush).

Meanwhile Buzz drags Peter into the security office and shows him that the mall has put subliminal messaging under the music to help increase sales. Peter brushes this off knowing that it isn’t that big of a story. However he notices a man on the monitor that looks like the description Melody gave him of the man who burnt down Eric’s house. He finds the man (who is a security officer) in a music store and sneaks a photo of him. The guard catches this though and angered by being photographed chases Peter all around the mall, he at one point climbing on top of an elevator to try and stop Peter when he comes out (because that’s easier then you know, just using the stairs). Peter gets away though and the security guard gives up chasing him for the time being. Susie also meets up with Buzz and gets another frozen yogurt, she finding the security guard’s eyeball in it which Buzz thankfully doesn’t eat it.

Back in phantom world though, our friend has figured out who attacked Melody; a pianist who plays music in a cafeteria area. When the pianist goes to use the bathroom, the phantom (and I’m dead serious here) puts a king cobra into the pipes. The snake magically comes out of the exact toilet the pianist is sitting on and bites his dick off, poisoning him and thus killing him. I seriously have to ask this, how in the hell did he get a king cobra, and how did he know what toilet it would come out of? What happened if it came out of somebody’s sink at home? Did he order the thing out of a catalogue or something? Because I’m pretty sure king cobras aren’t in California unless they’re in a zoo. Later that night Justin is murdered as well, this time by a lasso which our phantom then stuffs into an escalator, it pulling Justin up until it breaks his neck. I gotta give it to the movie; this is one of the few if not the only Phantom film which actually shows the phantom using a Punjab lasso to kill somebody. It’s a very nice touch.

A night or however long has passed later (seriously time is never explained all that well in the film) Melody and Peter talk in Peter’s car about what happened that fateful night. Melody explains that she and Eric were fooling around when they suddenly smelt something. When Eric opened his door to investigate he found the house on fire, it slowly spreading into his room. Melody escaped out of a window but Eric didn’t, he apparently being trapped under a dresser (which is a crock of shit since the dresser doesn’t even hit him meaning Eric could have easily gotten out). Melody hit the ground and that’s when she saw the man who started the fire. Peter has put all of Melody’s information together and figures out all of this nonsense. Eric’s house was needed to help build the mall, but his parents didn’t want to sell it. So the arsonist burnt it down so that the land would be available, killing Eric and his parents, Posner hiring the guy to do so and has now covered everything up. However Melody is starting to doubt that Eric is dead due to finding the orchids in her locker, dress in her car, and earlier finding their song in a jukebox.

Our arsonist then pops up and forces the two out of the car and confirms that he was the man responsible for burning down Eric’s house. Before he can harm our heroes however Peter blinds him with a flash from his camera. The two escape in Peter’s car but the arsonist is right behind them, resulting in a car chase that goes all throughout the mall’s parking complex (and results in some people getting run over). The car chase ends when the phantom distracts the arsonist who then crashes his car, this letting Melody and Peter get away. Wanting to find out once and for all if Eric is dead the two go to the cemetery and dig up his grave, because it’s totally cool for our two main heroes to go exhume somebody’s grave. When they open the coffin they discover that Eric isn’t in there and figure out what the audience has known since the beginning of the film; Eric is the one behind all of the killings and leaving Melody the gifts. So Eric did somehow escape the fire. Well if it was easy for him to do that why the hell didn’t he just go out the window with Melody? Oh yeah, we needed a disfigured psychopath…moving on.

The film’s conclusion begins on the night of the mall’s July fourth opening celebration, even though they technically could have had this on the day the mall opened. While working at the bar Melody notices the arsonist and calls Peter for help, revealing that the assailant’s name is Christopher (though it’s never explained how exactly she or even Peter found out his name). Christopher intercepts her though and after Melody fights back fairly well, subdues her and takes her to a maintenance room with a box crusher, he planning on using it to kill Melody. However Eric appears and after a pretty nice kung fu fight is able to decapitate Christopher with the box crusher (thanks movie for not showing us the thing actually going into his neck).

Eric takes Melody down to his lair beneath the mall and the two talk for a bit, they happy to be together again and that Eric is indeed alive. Eric tells Melody that she’ll be with him forever now, something which Melody doesn’t really like. She explains that while she’s happy that he’s alive, she simply doesn’t love Eric anymore, she now apparently loving Peter (I’ll get to this in a bit). Pissed right the hell off Eric sets up a bomb that will blow the whole mall up and that will probably kill them, making them be together even in death.

Peter takes to the air ducts to try and find Melody, Eric eventually able to send him down into the sewer/underground path where he stores the corpses of his victims. He works his way through the tunnels and eventually comes face to face with the snake. Peter backtracks a bit and magically finds Eric’s lair, the two beginning to fight. Peter eventually gets the upper hand and the two leave, warning Buzz and Susie of the bomb. When the two warn the mayor of the bomb she pulls a gun on the two and takes them to Posner’s office. Once there she reveals she was in on the plan as well and participated because the mall would make a lot of profits and give her some extra money. Melody warns her of the bomb again but the mayor doesn’t believe her, she finding it absurd that a bomb would be under the place. Eric then bursts in and tosses the mayor out of the office window, she landing onto a pointed ice sculpture Mortal Kombat style.

Taking advantage of the crowd’s shock at what just happened and Eric being caught up in the moment Melody escapes through the window, she climbing out onto some of the scaffolding. Eric follows after her as the mallgoers watch on. I will say that this chase scene is pretty nice and it is suspenseful watching our lead try to not fall to her death. While this is going on Buzz and Susie break into the security office and uses the intercom system to warn the people about the bomb, the people fleeing promptly. Melody ends up slipping and nearly falls, she grabbing onto a banner to keep her up. Peter is able to save her from her height. As Posner walks about the store Eric notices him and in Tarzan style, uses the banner to fly down to Posner and dropkicks him through the window of the sports store, the two now inside. Posner begs for forgiveness and offers Eric money to make it all stop. Eric is having none of it though and uses a flamethrower (what type of sporting goods store is this?) and sets Posner ablaze. However things get out of hand and Posner ends up backing into some propane tanks, causing an explosion and setting the store and Eric on fire. Not sure of what to do in a panic Eric leaps over the guard rail, plummeting down to the floor below.

There’s no time to mourn Eric’s dive of panic though as the bomb is about to go off. Buzz and Susie show up on a motorcycle they got inside of the mall (one of those display things you always see, you know like when you see a car) and Melody and Peter join them, riding out of the mall right as the place goes BOOM! Hours later (hey look time is explained) Peter and Melody kiss in front of a fire engine, Melody saying Eric got what he wanted. Peter responds by saying he did better because he got Melody and the two kiss again. We get a final look of the wreckage inside the mall and focus on Eric’s burnt corpse. The shot stays on this for a minute and when nothing happens we cut to the final credits.

If you couldn’t tell by the summary of the movie, Phantom of the Mall is one crazy film. It’s filled with a lot of insanity, it mostly due to how nutty the plot is. And when I say nutty I mean cuckoo for Coca Puffs. Phantom of the Mall is one of those films you won’t soon forget. Not because it’s so good, but because it’s chocked with so much wackiness that your brain will hold the images of what you saw for a long time after the credits end.

As I said the insanity mostly comes from the plot and its insanity while fun is beyond baffling when you take a look at it. On the surface the plot isn’t all that complicated and is quite simple; Eric is screwed over and wants revenge. Simple stuff. However filling this revenge tale with corporate espionage is just maddening. Now I’m not against Posner pulling some dirty shit to get what he wants, if he didn’t we wouldn’t have a plot. But the fact that it’s being handled like it’s some gigantic secret cover-up really kind of bogs down things. This is something you’d expect in an action film, not a slasher flick. There’s also the implications of it being used for profit gains and even some political pull, once again plot points that make no sense in a silly little horror film.

Along with that the main plot of revenge and mystery we have a love story, and it’s rushed. Melody and Peter’s relationship is never really developed all that well. We know that Peter finds her interesting and Melody at one point says he’s cute. But outside of that there’s never anything that hints that they’d want to pursue a romantic relationship. Melody does have a dream at one point where Eric turns into Peter, but it’s only for a second before Peter turns back into Eric (who then turns into Christopher). But by the end of the film Melody proudly proclaims she loves Peter and they become an instant couple even though the relationship we’ve been seeing is that of a regular old friendship. When did Melody come to love Peter? We never see them growing more romantic with each other so it makes this development sudden and without explaining why it’s come about, just leaves it coming off as rushed and confusing.

The movie as a whole has a problem explaining stuff period. If Eric was apparently trapped beneath the dresser (even though we see it miss his body), how did he escape and not die? Why did Eric not go to a hospital and get treated for his wounds? Why did the mayor believe helping cover up arson would help her political career? And then of course there is the question of how Eric got a cobra. Then there’s also all the confusing and weird bits such as the mall stocking a flamethrower (what is this Dawn of the Dead?), and the fact that the air ducts are big enough for Peter to fully stand up in them. I know it’s a set and that a mall’s ventilation system may be bigger than normal, but this is a little too big. Also it’s pretty lucky for Eric that these air ducts just happen to lead right on down to his little cave. To be fair though I like the idea of a killer crawling around in air ducts to get around and thus trap his victims. It’s a cool idea, just done oddly.

As far as the characters go they’re pretty standard slasher fare. Everybody easily fits into the classic stereotypes. They’re played well, but it’s just your standard stuff. None of them really develop all that well outside of maybe Melody who has to come to terms with Eric’s death/not death and learn to be more open. But outside of her nobody develops all that well or at all.

The cinematography is pretty good and at times it helps the film be quite suspenseful. Helping this is the film’s soundtrack, a rocky synthesizer deal which fits the time period and setting of the film. The end credits song is a rockabilly affair and while I don’t really like that type of music, the song is actually kinda catchy. The standout song though is Stan Bush’s and by god I wish there was a full version of it (all you can find online is a minute long version). It’s a shame since it’s so good. While the sets are fairly ludicrous they are done very well. I really love Eric’s lair and it’s genuinely creepy. The mall is nice looking as well and seems to be pretty big. Once again though, why does a sports store in a mall have flamethrowers?

The main problem of the movie though is pacing. So many parts of the movie come off as abrupt and rushed. From the suddenness of the film’s opening, to the rushed and undeveloped relationship between Peter and Melody, the sudden knowledge of Christopher’s name and even the kills seem rushed. We get three murders before we even hit the 30 minute mark which just seems too many too soon. The film also suffers from some continuity errors. A main one being that in one scene Peter shows up dressed in casual clothes but a few minutes later in a continuation of the scene we see him dressed in his usual attire. It makes not a lick of sense why he’d change his clothes just to continue a conversation. Also good job movie in spoiling your mystery because of the title.

So at the end of the day is Phantom of the Mall a good film? Well as an adaption of the original source material, hell no. But that shouldn’t really surprise anybody. If you watch this expecting to see something similar to the classic novel and movies you will be let down and probably not like the flick. But taking away any link to Phantom of the Opera is the movie good? Well it can be fairly suspenseful at times, the characters while underdeveloped are pretty nice and likeable outside of Justin, it has Ken Foree (that is a pro in any movie), and while you don’t see a whole lot of gore the kills are inventive and fun. I especially love the death my impaled onto an electrical box. The film’s soundtrack is great (I’m a sucker for 80s music), it has good cinematography, and it’s all around a fun little film. On the negative side of things though we have a story which is insanely bat shit crazy, has pacing issues, development issues, and some continuity errors, all things that do bring the movie down. However outside of the pacing and development issues the other cons actually kind of make the movie more fun since it adds to the insanity. It’s a film that you watch and weeks later are talking about because of the crazy shit you saw. I wouldn’t say it’s so bad it’s funny/good; it’s more like it’s so crazy that it’s entertaining.

Perhaps the best way to describe the movie is that it’s a popcorn film, and I think that’s a rather apt description. So to finish everything up, Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge while flawed is an immensely fun flick. If you’re a fan of slashers, watch it. If you’re a POTO fanatic give it a watch so you can add another adaption to your belt. It may be a flawed film, but it’s so insane that it does save it from being completely and utterly bad.

C -