callanvass
Melody's (Kari Whitman) boyfriend Eric (Derek Rydall) has ostensibly passed away due to a tragic incident involving a crazed maniac who burns down Eric's house, since they want to build a mall over it. Melody doesn't realize that Eric is still very much alive, hiding underneath the mall, only badly burned, and killing anyone who gets in Melody's path. I liked this movie for what it was. It's an extremely bad movie, don't get me wrong, but it's just fun cheese. Let me get some reasons out of the way, as to why I enjoyed this. Eric is as strong as an ox, and he has martial art skills to boot. It also has hilariously cheap effects, and a corny score, whenever we are shown romantic, flashback scenes of Eric & Melody. It does get a little too neat for its own good in the second half, where they try to tie up all the loose ends, and I had trouble buying it. But with a movie that has a solid pace, a lot of cheesy fun, I couldn't help but have some fun with it, even though it really shouldn't be classified as a slasher. There are elements of a slasher, but it's more of a revenge type picture. Kari Whitman is probably the best of the lot. She does show flashes of decent acting. Rob Esters (Peter Baldwin) plays a hunky love interest. Males will groan at his wooden performance, whilst chicks will most likely dig him. Derek Rydall is laughably hammy as Eric. He talks in this raspy voice, and feels all vindicated, even after trying to kill innocent people. Ken Foree is sadly wasted with complete buffoonery in his role as a security guard. I did like seeing him, though. Morgan Fairchild is sexy and enticing to watch when she was on screen, but I was disappointed where her character headed in the second half. All in all, it's a fun, cheesy flick. If you don't take it seriously, and ignore all the flaws, you might have an OK time.4.5/10
Greenzombidog
OK, first of all this is pure unadulterated 80's cheese. The shoulder pads are massive, the hair is massiver ( is that a word? ) and the fashions are gross. The plot is ludicrous, Eric's house was burnt down and they built a mall in it's place. So like some homeless ghoul with a vocoder ( you'll know what I mean when you hear his voice ) he haunts the mall. The movie has some great kills a car chase and explosions. There's a bad guy that looks like George Michael from the Faith video. Morgan Fairchild is in it how 80's is that. A few highlights are Eric takes one guy out with a series of roundhouse kicks and he lasso's a guy. The girl in peril has so many dream sequences she may be narcoleptic, each one is accompanied buy the same power ballad. Unfortunately Pauly Shore is in this movie, but he isn't doing that annoying voice that he started doing later in his career. Joy of joys, after the thrilling climax there is a song on the credit sequence about the film. Great fun. I loved it.
HumanoidOfFlesh
Girls ex-boyfriend Eric wants his revenge after burned himself in the fire caused by mall developers.Now horribly disfigured he haunts in the mall where the gal works and kills people working there.Armed with conveniently located knives,crossbow,poisonous snakes and massive amounts of dynamite Eric unleashes an all out assault on the shopping mall.Pretty hilarious and annoying horror flick that features a kung fu fighting phantom.The killings are surprisingly creative including death by escalator,exhaust fan blade and incinerator door.The story is dumb,the suspense is completely absent and the acting is bad to the bone.If you have enough time to kill give it a look,but I wouldn't go too far to find it.5 out of 10.
Backlash007
~Spoiler~ Despite the title, this movie is not as funny as it should have been. I know what you're thinking: Phantom of the Mall has to be a horror/comedy, right? Wrong. There's nothing funny about this movie, not even an early appearance by the legendary Pauly Shore. I hope my sarcasm was received in that last sentence. Only two scenes actually made me laugh, unintentionally I'm sure. One is the sex scene. I've never seen such a blatant use of a body double in my life. Those breasts do not belong to that girl, end of discussion. The second scene is the Phantom's martial arts training. It's pretty ridiculous. The movie really tries to be the 80's answer to The Phantom of the Opera and it takes itself way too seriously. It all just ends up corny...real corny. Eric, the titular character, is badly burned in a fire set up by land developers in order to build a mall where his house once stood. A year later, the mall is constructed and Eric sets up camp there. It doesn't explain where he was that year while the mall was under construction and I don't really care. Throughout the duration of the film, Eric tries to win back his girlfriend and take revenge on the mall tycoons and Mayor Morgan Fairchild. After viewing it, I still can't believe it's a real movie or that Ken Foree agreed to have a part in it (albeit a small part). It's not quite the best movie he's ever made in a mall. The theme song sung by The Vandals is the best part of the movie.
AD
