Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge (1989)

before discussing Phantom of The Mall, here are so random notes:

I saw Land of the Dead and thought it was fantastic. It's just too bad it took some many rotten zombie movies coming out over the last few years to make this happen. If Land of the Dead had dropped, and we had all not just seen those other crap films on the big screen, imagine how fresh it would seem. What a rush that would have been. More films is not always a good thing for the genre, they are just good for selling issues of Fangoria, which, incidentally, is no longer carried at the store I work in.

I read somewhere that Land of the Dead survived the ratings board by having black liquid fly from the head shots instead of red. That does make the MPAA look ridiculous.

I've been watching a lot of tapes here at home with Cub and will not be reviewing the more popular titles due to the large amount of reviews out there on the internet for films with large cult followings and DVD reissues. I could go so far as to make a policy where this blog only reviews movies that are out of print, but I don't want to set up any rules for myself. I do have such a collection where I could review forgotten horror with regularity and never run out of tapes to post about. I should stick mostly to those, but then again, anything goes. At times I even like to go way off-topic...

Some quick opinions on what I've watched lately... Mario Bava's Shock (1977) was amazing, I swear scenes from Ju-on: The Grudge were lifted from it. Sisters (1973), by Dario Argento's sworn enemy Brian De Palma. Also excellent. Blood that bright-red would not be seen again until Suspiria. The Last Slumber Party (1987). Not good. I think some of it was shot on video and some on cheep film. The only redeeming quality? The 'teens' (played by obvious adults) frequently homophobic valley-speak. I'll mention one more that I watched, Trick or Treat (1986), which is perhaps overrated because of it's rock star cameos, but is basically 80's teen horror done right. Admit it, everyone needs to see a horror movie that ends at a school dance every once in a while. (note: actually Trick or Treat does not end at the dance, it should have, all the following scenes are anticlimactic)



"At Midwood Mall Prices Aren't The Only Thing Being Slashed"
I first came across a Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge poster in a dollar bin at a memorabilia store on Hollywood Blvd. I bought about twenty-five other posters that day, but the Phantom poster was ugly and just who was Eric and why had I never heard of him or this movie before? When I later saw the tape selling at Amoeba for two bucks, I passed that up as well. I was on a European-only horror streak at the time. Well now that I finally have given in to the Phantom's temptations I wish I'd bought the poster. Why? Phantom of the Mall is a lot of fun with fast pacing, novel kill scenes, and a young Pauly Shore. Also in the cast, and no stranger to malls, Ken Foree (listed first in the closing credits for some reason)!! Foree plays a security guard.


so would that be your worst nightmare... finding an eyeball in your frozen yogurt?

Finding an eyeball anywhere would be my worst nightmare--- frozen yogurt, cereal, bedside, shower, kitchen cabinet, fridge, pasta..... be it wherever. Cub, that eyeball in that yogurt looked super fake and not scary. It's like one of those eyeball gumballs you get from the machine.... typical eighties I guess.

tell everyone about Pauly Shore, weren't you supposed to call him or something?

I was supposed to call him but did not... come on... it's pauly shore, would you go on a date with him??... plus I was dating you at that time ;) However, I did get a nice hand massage from him... he's actually a better masseuse than he is an actor.

Ouch, he is gonna read that you know...

So as Phantom of Mall is ending, and we see Eric lying there dead (like that's a spoiler..), we may feel tingles and chills, because we've been moved by the tragedy of it all. Then over the closing credits blasts a song from the Vandals, with this chorus, that will wake you from your emotional state of shock.

Is there a phantom in the mall?

Folks are bound to ask.

Is he the phantom of the mall?

Or just some retard in a broken hockey mask?