MOVIE REVIEW : Romance Is a Victim in New ‘Phantom’

Freddy Krueger as the Phantom of the Opera?

That’s pretty much the way it turns out in the latest film version of the durable Gaston Leroux tale when Robert Englund, who plays the hideous, terrifying madman in the “Nightmare on Elm Street” series, assumes the role of the phantom. But this new “Phantom of the Opera” (citywide)--which has no connection with either of the current stage versions--is a film at odds with itself.

Both director Dwight H. Little and Englund himself reveal strong romantic impulses in keeping with the timeless story of the disfigured, deranged composer who terrorizes the Paris Opera in order to promote the career of a young singer (played this time by pretty Jill Schoelen with appropriate sweetness and naivete) with whom he has fallen hopelessly in love.

However, because they are working within the exploitation genre, they are required to lay on the gore, with the result that horror effects overwhelm the tragic love story. The irony is that the great unmasking scene, still so potent in both the 1925 and 1943 film versions, has little impact because so much blood and guts has gone before it.

In essence, this “Phantom” is a queasy blend of Grand Guignol and Max Ophuls. Writer Duke Sandefur has come up with an effective modern framing story, set in New York, to provide an intriguing supernatural dimension to the Phantom. The bulk of the film is set in London (rather than Paris) a century ago, yet it was shot in Hungary amid many opulent period Mittel Europa locales. It would seem that the lush settings inspired Little and cameraman Peter Collister to go for baroque quite literally.

Little, who directed “Halloween 4,” displays plenty of panache only to confront us with a Phantom who, instead of wearing the usual mask, has created an overlay of human skin to cover his scar tissue, and then applied a layer of makeup to cover the sutures. In this guise Englund’s head looks like a piece of sculpture painted over in flesh tones, a suitably macabre effect. The trouble is that we’re asked to watch this Phantom putting on and taking off all this stuff several times, and that’s a total, fantasy-destroying turn-off which undercuts the considerable pathos Englund attempts to bring to this most tormented of men.

It’s too bad that Little and Englund didn’t--or weren’t permitted--to aim higher, because clearly both possess that talent to have done justice to “The Phantom of the Opera,” which has received an altogether appropriate R-rating.

‘PHANTOM OF THE OPERA’

A 21st Century Film Corp. release of a Menahem Golan production in association with Breton Film Productions. Producer Harry Alan Towers. Director Dwight H. Little. Screenplay Duke Sandefur; based on a screenplay by Gerry O’Hara. From the Gaston Leroux novel. Camera Peter Collister. Music Misha Segal. Makeup effects created by Kevin Yagher. Costumes John Bloomfield. Second unit camera Tibor Kloptler. With Robert Englund, Jill Schoelen, Alex-Hyde White, Bill Nighy, Terence Harvey, Stephanie Lawrence.

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

MPAA-rated: R (younger than 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian).