Welcome back to another installment of my horror movie game of chance, Bloody Streaming Roulette. If you are a BSR virgin, let me tell you how the game is played. Pick whichever your favorite movie streaming service may be, i.e. Hulu, Netflix or Shudder. Then blindly pick a horror movie you may know nothing about and watch. It’s pretty simple. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. The idea behind this, spawned one night when I couldn’t fucking decide what to watch, I kept scrolling and scrolling through titles until I said fuck it. Last week’s BSR was a genre hybrid that many wouldn’t call a horror film. But it had all the elements though, copious amounts violence, blood and gore. Officer Downe (2016) was a winner in my book and can be found on Netflix.
Onto the next…. SPIN THAT SHIT!
Phantom of the Theatre (2016)
Phantom is set in China in the 1930’s, surrounding a supposedly haunted movie theatre that had a tragic fire killing 18 people. Fast forward 13 years, a young up and coming director wants to film his new horror movie in the now infamous theatre. Once he casts his beautiful young starlet, filming begins. Tragic “accidents” begin to happen all over set. The lead actor is set ablaze in flames that have no ignition source and killed. The film crew blame the ghosts of the theatre, many of them resign and flee the set. But with the core crew staying on board to finish the film, is there something more sinister going on?
Phantom of the Theatre sounds like Phantom of the Opera right? Well in some regards it is. But this is also a very interesting take on the age old story. Instead of an opera, we have a horror movie being made. There is a young lead starlet and a phantom with a strange connection, but that is mostly where the similarities end. Being a period piece, this film is amazingly shot. The sets are lush and full of color, more over the top then they may have really been in 1930’s China, but still mesmerizing. This film also felt like an homage to 1930’s Hollywood as well.
This film was dramatic, romantic and yet still horrific. There was an amazing love story that underlined the entire film and came to the forefront only in the third act. A pure love, but a love that can never be. An almost forbidden love, torn away by revenge and lust for stardom. As for the horror aspects, the death scenes were very well done, but were somewhat hindered by CGI.
Phantom was a real treat. It was suspenseful, thought-provoking and at times, downright scary. The tragic ending still lingers as I am typing right now. Phantom of the Theatre was just an all-around good film. If you like the style of Phantom of the Opera, you will dig this film. Don’t go into this expecting a gore fest. This is an homage back to a time when horror films actually had story and tension build-up.
What’s the verdict boils and ghouls?
Well I believe that’s three in a row! I’m on a fucking roll!
IMDb: 5.2/10
ZombiSurvivor: 7.2/10
Thanks for reading!
-ZS
