Il fantasma dell'opera

In New York, the Julliard student Christine Day (Jill Schoelen) meets her friend Meg (Molly Shannon) in the library where she works and she shows a piece of music from the unknown author Erik Destler that she has found on the shelf. Christine decides to use the music in her audition on the next day for a part in a Faust version in the New York Opera.

During the audition, there is an accident on the stage and Christine faints. She relives her past life in the Nineteenth Century in London, when she is an aspirant opera singer and becomes the protégée of The Phantom (Robert Englund) of the London Opera House. The Phantom is the unknown composer Erik Destler that makes a pact with the devil in order to the world would love his music. In return, the devil destroys his face and tells that he would never be loved by anyone and would be disfigured forever. After a tragic ending, Christine awakes in the present days and has a great surprise when she is introduced to the producer of the opera.

"The Phantom of the Opera" (1989) is a gore and bleak version of the classic novel of Gaston Leroux. The make-up of the Phantom is impressive and gruesome. Jill Schoelen moves her lips perfectly and gives the sensation that she is really singing opera. The screenplay is original, with Christine Day living her two lives in two different centuries with the Phantom obsessed by her. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Fantasma da Ópera" ("The Phantom of the Opera")