The slasher trappings mostly make up the first half of the film, with some of the slayings being amusingly intricate in their staging.

He even has an elaborate lair.Įric’s Revenge barrels along with an easy pace, tossing all kinds of cornball fun at the audience. He slinks and sneaks about the mall through the ventilation, and uses the environment against his prey with ease. I knew I was in for a treat when we saw our Phantom ( Derek Rydell) make his iconic mask from the face of a store mannequin. The kick comes from how the film uses the mall gimmick to twist the story’s iconography. If you couldn’t tell by the title, it’s a horror riff on the classic Phantom of the Opera – this time, y’know, in a mall.Īll of the essential elements of the Phantom story are here, or at least made reference to. Shot in the famous Sherman Oaks Galleria (featured in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Commando, Chopping Mall, and many more films), Phantom of the Mall is a very fun, very odd duck of the 80s slashers cycle. That’s not to say there aren’t gems to be mined from the era, but the heyday had passed. Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge (1989)īy the late 80s, the slasher boom had all but dried up. “Mall Horror” is basically its own subgenre, and below are two under-discussed gems in the shopping mall arena that are well worth your time as you celebrate the 45th anniversary of the greatest “Mall Horror” movie ever made – and the one that started it all… But the two different versions of Dawn of the Dead are far from the only two horror movies set inside shopping malls. Romero’s elite classic Dawn of the Dead turns 45 years old this year, while Zack Snyder’s remake approaches its own 20th anniversary.

Dead space slasher