Phantom of the Paradise - 1974

I've always wondered what other movies could be said in the same breath as Rocky Horror. Rocky Horror, dear readers, is not a film I liked very much. If anyone can get my style as of yet, it's that I am hit or miss on that subtle difficult tool known as intention, and to me Rocky Horror was always too self aware, too much in the vein of "trying too hard". And that leads us right into Phantom of the Paradise, a Brian de Palma film strikingly similar to Rocky Horror.

Faust. Phantom of the Opera. Music. Comedy. Weirdness. These are the plot synosis words to describe Paradise. Paradise is a extremely self aware, extremely "going for it" horror musical comedy with a clash of plots somewhere between Phantom of the Opera and a revenge flick. It has a dweeb music writer get his rock opera stolen by big record executives, given to another band, and then the dweeb gets crushed by a vinyl press (?!) and come after them for revenge, now donning a Phantom of the Opera mask.

This movie plays like a veritable "How to" make a cult movie. The gawky comedy of the main character in clash with his super cool and over the top alter ego later on, the songs that are all Faust themed and not too long to wear out their welcome, the nudity, the extremity, the offbeat other injections along the way are the exact same devices used in Rocky Horror. In fact, I first took this for a Rocky Horror ripoff, not realizing Horror came out the year after this.

I don't know if I can completely explain my negative reaction to this film. Intention and the trying-too-hard weared thin, I am not a musicals guy at all is coupled with that, as well as the story seemed unnecessarily long and overdone. It has the elements and if someone loved Rocky Horror I would not hesitate to recommend them to this movie. Another instance of, well, maybe it just isn't for me. It's for other, cooler dudes. I give it 2.