Phantom Phans

[NobleGreyHorse]

I can't think of her name, but she looks like the old woman from Murder, She Wrote.

Angela Lansbury. I see it.

 

[Rossacciu]

I always wanted to read Susan Kay's book but never could find it. Heard it was amazing and true to the canon of the original book.

Also there was a horror movie based on PotO with Julian Sands as a handsome, Fabio-haired phantom who bones Christine a few times--some of them consensually, too! He was raised by sewer rats or something. Never really saw more than a few clips. But it was bizarre.

 

[Hummingbird]

There's also the one with Robert England who makes the Phantom a more monstrous and darker character.

 

[Golly]

I always wanted to read Susan Kay's book but never could find it. Heard it was amazing and true to the canon of the original book.

Also there was a horror movie based on PotO with Julian Sands as a handsome, Fabio-haired phantom who bones Christine a few times--some of them consensually, too! He was raised by sewer rats or something. Never really saw more than a few clips. But it was bizarre.

It is. It's been uploaded to youtube. However, if you'd like a slightly quicker and dirty (and fairly amusing) take on it, The Phantom Reviewer has a series of videos riffing on it. Like his name suggests, he's an online reviewer that tries to cover as much Phantom-based media as he can. He's sort of a product of his time though, as you'll see he has a theme song and some memes. There's some amusing and informative stuff, though.

 

[Saney]

There's also the one with Robert England who makes the Phantom a more monstrous and darker character.

That's the only one I've seen.

 

[Henry Bemis]

Here's two particularly salient excerpts from a Phantom self-pub that really sum it all up. (Notably, a self-pub from 2003, before Gerard Butler inflicted his chest hair on the world, indicating that these are longstanding misinterpretations.)

A reflection from Christine Daaé about the men in her life:

Spoiler: Dumb

"Adores... that is the difference between my two lovers. Raoul's love is stoked by jealousy, Erik's by adoration."

And a diatribe from same after the Inexplicably Evil Raoul rounds up a gang to beat a lily-white innocent Erik to a pulp:

Spoiler: Dumber

"Raoul, how could you? Look at yourself. You're handsome, Raoul, you have a sweet face... you could marry almost anyone you want, and yet you choose the one person you cannot have, one already taken. This man, Raoul, doesn't have your good looks, or your friends. He doesn't have all the cute girls of Paris running after him. And you think you have to have the one girl he loves because you're jealous. He has one person, Raoul, one person in this whole world who loves him, one hope in his life. All he asks for is me; I am all he wants. He would be overjoyed and satisfied to have me. You are rich, monsieur, surrounded by a flock of women. This poor man has one precious little lamb, and you are trying to steal it away from him, not wanting to take from your plenty. Why, Raoul, why must you have me? Choose someone else. I am Erik's!"

Where to begin: The massive polar shift in making Raoul the violently jealous madman and Erik the unforceful lover? The notion that being a deprived underdog entitles you to a reward? Christine reducing her own life to being said reward?