Infamous exploitation film producer Thomas Fries, hoping to kick start a slasher movie franchise comparable to Halloween or Friday the 13th, greenlit Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge, a project that retold Phantom of the Opera in a suburban mall with superfluous nudity, splatter effects, and several kung fu fight sequences. Quickly churned out with little care and even less in the way of budget, this film was soundly rejected by both critics and audiences; even fans of campy horror cheese tend to have ambivalent feelings about this one. So, why is Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge being covered by this podcast? Well, this mostly happened because it was Cheryl's turn to pick the movie and she was curious about this one. Ryan strains a bit to come up with subtextual issues to discuss, but he ultimately settles upon themes of patriarchy and entitlement that are present in the 1910 source novel (he also compares the film to Batman Returns and Venus in Furs). Sylvan and Pete are along for the ride. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ryan-valentine3/support