PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Rupert Julian’s The Phantom of the Opera is turning 100 years old. The film is an iconic masterpiece, forever in the top ranks of the horror genre. As much as I love the horror genre, silent horror gives me the creeps, and that’s not a bad thing. Nothing compares to the terror I felt when the phantom revealed his face. I jumped about 10 feet in the air because he was so animated and a perfect specimen to take horror to the top. Even if you hate horror movies, you know the names of those black and white ghouls occupying our minds.
Synopsis
At the Opera of Paris, a mysterious phantom threatens a famous lyric singer, Carlotta, and forces her to give up her role (Marguerite in Faust) for unknown Christine Daae. Christine meets this phantom (a masked man) in the catacombs, where he lives. What’s his goal? What’s his secret?
Rupert Julian directed the film, which stars Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin.
An Icon
The Phantom of the Opera has become so memorable because of the time it arrived on screens. Before the big Universal Horror boom, they were still getting their feet wet, and cast all of those horror icons to be a part of something big. Lon Chaney is one of those iconic actors. He was called “The man of 1000 faces,” and there is a tremendous legacy to the family name. What made The Phantom Of The Opera so terrifying was the way that old, grainy film was shot, and women in dark lipstick would glide across the screen like ghosts. There was an eerie feeling that followed me every time I watched this movie. I want to make it clear, I still run up the stairs after turning off the lights in the basement.
The impact of the phantom on me eventually worked; I grew to love the movie and didn’t have to close my eyes after the face reveal. The Phantom Of The Opera pulled no punches. From incredible ballroom scenes, and even the catacombs where the phantom had to hide, unless he was portraying a terrifying villain called “The Masque of the Red Death”. The character was played perfectly, and the entrance was hypnotizing. The eerie black and white skeleton was so beautifully created, making the character show their enthusiasm. What gets me the most is that this is a silent film, rather than the later remakes, which could bore you completely. In my personal opinion, we could have done without any of them.
In The End
The Phantom of the Opera isn’t just a play, as it was in later years; it’s an experience. The passion felt in the original film made me a fan. Without Lon Chaney, the story is pretty basic, but add in a monster and you have yourself an iconic film. Rupert Julian had his ducks in a row, making an incredible movie with breathtaking scenery in all the right spots. We will never see another Phantom with as much passion. It is a movie that should have never been colorized, such as with movies like Night of the Living Dead or Carnival of Souls. It kills the magic and the hard work of film creation.
Is it neat to see? Sure, was it necessary? That’s debatable to me. I’ll stick with the one that helped start it all.
