Synopsis
An evil record tycoon is haunted and taunted by the disfigured composer Winslow Leach, whom he once wronged.
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Cast
- William FinleyWinslow / The Phantom
- Paul WilliamsSwan
- Jessica HarperPhoenix
- Gerrit GrahamBeef
- George MemmoliPhilbin
- Archie HahnThe Juicy Fruits / The Beach Bums / The Undeads
- Jeffrey ComanorThe Juicy Fruits / The Beach Bums / The Undeads
- Peter ElblingThe Juicy Fruits / The Beach Bums / The Undeads
- Colin CameronBand
- David GarlandBand
Recommendations
- 90
Variety
A very good horror comedy-drama about a disfigured musician haunting a rock palace. Brian De Palma's direction and script makes for one of the very rare backstage rock story pix, catching the garishness of the glitter scene in its own time. - 90
The New Yorker
The film is a one-of-a-kind entertainment, with a kinetic, breakneck wit. - 88
Slant Magazine
This is De Palma pouring the new wine of his formal inventiveness and anti-authoritarian irreverence into the old bottles of archetypal myths, and it remains a supremely entertaining anomaly within his filmography, yet entirely emblematic of his filmmaking sensibilities. - 83
The A.V. Club
A smorgasbord of camp, Grand Guignol, and bird imagery that thumbed its metal beak at commercial considerations. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
A better rock'n'roll parody than The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and one of director Brian De Palma's more original efforts, Phantom of the Paradise combines elements of The Phantom of the Opera and the Faust legend into a fairly entertaining, but only sporadically successful, horror-musical comedy. - 70
Time Out
A highly inventive updating of the Phantom of the Opera story to the rockbiz world - complete with borrowings from Faust and The Picture of Dorian Gray. - 70
The Guardian
A garish cult thriller. - 60
Chicago Reader
This was one of De Palma's early efforts, and its excesses can be chalked up to youthful enthusiasm—the ideas seem appealingly audacious even when they misfire, which is more often than not.
