Review of Phantom of Death

Introduction

Along with Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento, Ruggero Deodato was part of the new wave of Italian horror in the 1970s and `80s. Deodato is best known for `Cannibal Holocaust`, but is a fairly prolific director, making nine films and a mini-TV series in the 1980s alone. One of these films was `Phantom of Death`, starring Michael York and Donald Pleasance.

York plays Robert Dominici, a gifted pianist with a beautiful girlfriend, but his life is torn apart when he is diagnosed with progeria - a rare disease which accelerates the aging process. Dominici is distraught and becomes a crazed killer, murdering everyone who sees him or knows about his condition. Police Comissioner Datti (Pleasance) is in charge of the case and Dominici begins a game of cat and mouse with him.

Video

The 1.66:1 video is shown pillarboxed in a 1.78:1 frame and is fairly unremarkable, with some softness and far from stellar colour and contrast.

Audio

The DD 2.0 stereo soundtrack is reasonably clear, but does feature a typically fine score by Pino Donaggio.

Features

Just `forthcoming attractions` which run before the main menu, and are also available separately for: `The New York Ripper`; `The Black Cat`; `Carnal Violence`; `Manhattan Baby`; `Baby Yaga` and `The Killer Nun`.

Conclusion

`Phantom of Death` is a fairly typical slice of 1980s Euro-horror: an interesting but daft premise; some gore and nudity; the usual dubbing and strange casting choices - why are both Italian leads played by British actors? However, the promising storyline is sadly is let down by poor pacing and is unnecessarily slow, plot threads are introduced and then randomly dropped so there is a distinct lack of coherence to the narrative. The violence and gore are fairly tame and there is only one brief shot of female nudity - these would normally be used to cover-up shortcomings in the film, so without them the weaknesses are all to evident.

The film is only notable for the excellent special makeup effects by Fabrizio Sforza, which show Dominici`s rapid aging, but I was constantly reminded of the even better effect of turning Jeff Goldblum into `The Fly` two years earlier.

`Phantom of Death` is not remarkable by any stretch of the imagination and certainly not one of the best Italian exports of the decade, so is probably one for hardcore Ruggero Deodato fans only.