Dario Argento's Phantom of the Opera

I have to admit I fell in love with this werid movie. I don't like gore but for some reason I found myself cracking up over some of the creepy scenes with him and the rats, his fantasies, etc. The brothel scene was ew, wtf. Theres alot that is quite beautiful and visually stunning through out this movie. Couldnt have picked more perfect actors for Raol and Christine, besides Julian Sands is so perfectly seductive creepy and intriqing. It isnt for everybody but for me it's worth it. It isnt as haunting as Robert Endlund's Phantom of the Opera, but still provides the thrills and chills.

This film-and the newer Dracula-remind me of the classic (and Hammer) horror films. The bad press they get is completely disproportionate to their charms. That being said, if you don't like those old (and fairly ridiculous) films, you certainly won't like this.

This a more sexual Phantom of the Opera then I have seen before. This is also more fun to watch then the other two revisions of the movie. I enjoyed all three but this one is the best.

I'm not a fan of Dario Argento but I watchd several movies and I almost liked all of them. What I always was a bit confused about was the bad acting n most of his movies. But for "Phantom of the Opera" it was surprisingly good ! The story of the movie is known for a long time and his way in making a movie out of it was very good. The camera work and the shocking effects are brilliant. The best scene is the hunting through the cellars when a couple tried to steal the Phantom's treasure. The dialogues this time are more worked out and not so simple and sometimes stupid than in Dario's old movies. I guess fans of Dario wouldn't like this one so much because it's too good if you like his former...ways of making horror movies. And for the rats in "Phantom of the Opera", they're good trained and almos real cute :-) The movie is full of suspense ... You will like the music score as well !!! One thing that bothered me was that the Phantom was not wearing a mask and his look was more like of a beggar.

I loved this version of the Phantom! He's more human in this version!

I love it

Good gawd almighty! That was my first reaction once I'd finished watching Italian horror maestro, Dario Argento's version of the oft-filmed "Phantom of the Opera". I think it's safe to say that there's never been another "Phantom" quite like it. It starts out as a sort of twisted variation on the Tarzan legend, with an abandoned baby in a foreign environment being rescued and raised by the resident wildlife. As most people know, with Tarzan it was apes who did the child-rearing. But it may come as something of a surprise to learn that with the Opera Phantom, it's, er, um, rats doing the parenting. At least according to Argento. Which begs any number of questions, none the least of which are: how did the rats nourish and feed the baby, change his diapers, bathe him, teach him to speak English, and play the piano, for crying out loud? Of course, the rats are telepathic, as is the Phantom, so I guess that could explain it. However, that's only the beginning of a film that goes so far over-the-top that I suspect it's still in orbit.The gore and violence, a staple of most Argento films, are present, but not in the abundance that might be expected; there's a decapitation and a tongue being ripped out, in a grotesque parody of a French kiss, and a few more nasty deaths but, all things considered, it could have been worse. What's not a staple of Argento films is the graphic sex and nudity, (which I'm normally fine with) that includes a bordello scene in which the Phantom's nemesis, Raoul, lies on a chaise lounge, wrapped only in a towel, sucking on a hookah, while surrounded by a phalanx of nightmarish, Fellini-esque characters, all naked and looking like they stopped by the baths enroute to a "Night of the Living Dead" shoot. When a frisky prostitute takes a nose dive beneath Raoul's towel, he's not pleased--he's saving himself for heroine, Christine--and he shoves her away, with no little show of force. There are two vile, yet somehow Disneyesque ratcatchers, who tool around the sewers beneath the opera house in what looks like a modified dune buggy that snatches up rats and...oh, don't ask. At about the time that the Phantom unbuttoned his shirt and let some of the more amorous rats run across his chest and nipples, I started getting bug-eyed. When he got excited and began undoing his pants to allow them access to his manly business, my hair was standing on end. At that moment, I knew that this movie had gone so far over the mark that it wasn't ever coming back. And yet, I found myself hoping that these sex partner-rats weren't the Phantom's mum and dad, because that would be just...eeeeuuuuww[...] And then, of course, a little voice rose within me and said: they're rats, idiot!Aside from the rats, there are some pretty good performances, believe it or not. Julian Sands is appropriately weird as the murderous, yet romantic, Phantom of the Opera. I was disturbed that he didn't wear a mask (disfigured or not) but his long, stringy, greasy hair was fairly eerie in itself. As demonstrated in earlier efforts such as "Warlock", Sands is adept at playing haughty, mysterious creeps who are vaguely aristocratic and mostly evil. I think if he had portrayed Lestat in "Interview With the Vampire" (reportedly Anne Rice's original intention), it would have been an entirely different movie; there's a certain sexual ambiguity that Sands projects onscreen that would have been entirely suited to that character (and which Tom Cruise didn't have). Plus he looks good naked. He'd have made a perfect "Dorian Grey", as well. Argento's daughter, Asia, assays the role of Christine, the sopranic understudy who becomes the object of the titular character's affections. Asia Argento doesn't seem to be sleepwalking so much here as she has in other of her father's films. She's a lively and passionate heroine who is confused by the two men vying for her charms. That she beds down with the Phantom on more than one occasion, further muddles the poor girl. These scenes could have had a genuine erotic power (Argento looks good naked, too) and they are well filmed, but I just kept thinking of what the randy Phantom had been up to with the rats in his pants and...oh brother, I just hope he showered before joining Ms. Argento in bed. As rival, Raoul, Andrea di Stefano looks a little like Prince in "Purple Rain" (only with long, stringy hair--what is it with these guys?)--he's brave, but seemingly addled (perhaps by too much toking on the hookah); by the time, he attempts to save the day, he's moving at a snail's pace through the tunnels beneath the Paris Opera House, looking debauched and disheveled and almost as crazed as the Phantom.Basically a remake (or re-imagining) of Argento's much better "Opera", "Phantom" is a freaky, beautifully filmed head trip that, in spite of its many difficulties and ludicrous plot developments, has a certain queasy charm that will definitely not appeal to some. Dario Argento is an imaginative creative genius who seems incapable of being reigned in, but what would he be otherwise? I sort of like him like this.

an intense and sensual version of the classic Gothic horror story