Phantom of the opera.
One of the strangest takes on the phantom story, aside perhaps from the Argento Julian sands rats down pants version. Phantom starts off in modern day New York where a young singer attempts to sing music by the phantom. She is inexplicably transported back to the 1800's to the London opera house (not Paris for some reason) where the Phantom is going all stalk and slash on anyone who stands in the way of the young singer in the lead role!
Produced by the legendary Harry Allan towers, Phantom is a much gorier and stranger film than any of its predecessors. It does however, look fantastic for it's budget and there are plenty of meaty kills. Robert Englund is pretty good as the phantom and we even get a young looking Bill Nighy in a major role.
Phantom was a solid straight to video slasher that's worth checking out. It often goes for the lowest common denominator but that's ok by me.
Shock Corridor.
A journalist fakes being mental to get into an Asylum in order to solve a murder and win a Pulitzer. Once inside his mind begins to slip and as he gets ever closer to the truth the more he loses himself. Much to the horror of his wife.
A million miles more classy than Phantom. Shock Corridor was a somewhat controversial film on release. Partly to do with its unflinching portrayals of madness and sexuality. It also took a swipe at (at the time) modern America. There are three inmates who might have witnessed the killing. One inmate is an African American man who was attending one of the first integrated schools. His mind has broken and now he believes he is one of the bigots who persecuted him. Another adopts an overtly American persona and turns out to have been captured and brain washed by communists. The Third potential witness was a high ranking physicist who worked on the nuclear bomb, now he has reverted to an innocent child like persona.
Shock corridor is one of my favorite Sam Fuller films. Intelligent and humane, it still holds up today. The Criterion disc is great and includes the Channel four documentary on Fuller.
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