The Phantom of the Opera (1998)
Last Watch Date - February 26, 2026
Total Times Watched - Too many
Comments
While the last time I saw this was well over 2 decades ago, I had memories of some of it and wanted to see if it was truly as odd as I remembered it. Yes. The answer is yes.
In terms of Phantom movies, this one takes some interesting liberties. For one, the Phantom isn't disfigured or ugly in any way, nor is he any sort of "monster" beyond living with rats. Oh yeah, he was raised by rats and has an odd relationship with them. He puts them in his pants for some reason? He's also super defensive of them if someone does anything to them. How did he learn to speak whilst being raised by rats? How did he get clothes? How did he build a full lair?! None of this makes sense.
The acting in this movie is hilariously awful. I guess it fits with most of the other Argento movies. Asia Argento is only an actor because of her dad. Speaking of, her dad directed her in multiple nude/sex scenes. Maybe I'm the weird one, but that seems a little bit inappropriate to me. Julian Sands is probably ok I guess? as a creepy Phantom. No one else is worth mentioning.
Outside of this wackiness, there are these little whimsical parts with some sort of rat catcher guy who gets beat up quite a bit and has a rat catching machine thing. The horror bits of this are quite funny and I don't know if it's intentional or not. Ear biting, face chewing, people getting ripped in half, etc.
I really don't know how to explain this movie. It's bizarre. It has weird sex scenes, a bath house scene that has some obese nude people, some terrible opera scenes...
Recommended?
No but kind of? It's an event to see once.
