Phantom of Death

Italian horror/thriller director Ruggero Deodato gives us this somewhat introspective, blood and guts tame by Deodato standards film about an Italian pianist who contracts a very rare disease that makes him age at an incredible rate. The pianist has bouts of memory loss and periods of losing mental control in which he kills, naturally mostly beautiful young women. The deaths are bloody(I saw the Uncut version) but not over-the-top fortunately. In fact the movie really works best as a cat and mouse game between Michael York as the pianist and Donald Pleasance as a plodding policeman not so hot on his trail, as long as you can get past the point that York and Pleasance are supposed to be Italians. The film is in no way great, but I was pleasantly surprised with its effective pacing, decent acting, and heart. York is a man not wholly evil, in many ways a victim of circumstance. He ages before our very eyes. He kills with anger and spur of the moment passion rather than cold-blooded calculation(at least most of the time). He is almost a man to be pitied, and York plays on this for the second half of the film with some obvious talent. Pleasance is Pleasance. A steady presence on film. He does a good job, but he looks physically exhausted and old. The rest of the cast is very adequate with particular attention going to Edwidge Fenech as York's girlfriend. A beautiful woman! A tense thriller!

"Phantom of Death" is one of the lesser known Ruggero Deodato's horror/giallo entries.Michael York plays a famous pianist Robert Dominici.He has a rare disease that contributes to turning him into psychopathic killer.Donald Pleasence plays the cop who tries to track him down.The film itself is rather dull,but it offers some really bloody murder scenes.I liked especially the scene where the woman is stabbed repeatedly until she smashes through a window.The acting is okay,but there is not enough suspense for my liking.Check it out,if you are a fan of Italian horror.6 out of 10.

It seems as though life couldn't get any better for classical pianist Robert Dominici (Michael York): not only is he an extraordinarily successful musician, and a skillful martial artist, but he also has attractive women falling at his feet, with a beautiful girlfriend, Susanna (Mapi Galán), and a doting admirer, Hélène Martell (Edwige Fenech), fighting for his attention.

In reality, things aren't so great: Robert has been diagnosed with a rare degenerative disease that rapidly ravages his body, ageing him way beyond his years, and affects his psyche, turning him into a vicious killer. Investigating the trail of bodies that Robert leaves in his wake is Inspector Datti (Donald Pleasance), who is confused by the mounting evidence that suggests a killer of ever-increasing age.

From director Ruggero Deodato, the man who gave us gory exploitation classics Jungle Holocaust, Cannibal Holocaust and The House On The Edge Of The Park, quasi-giallo Phantom of Death starts off promisingly with two murders that result in a lot of the red stuff splashing all over the screen. Unfortunately, the film soon settles into routine potboiler mode, with only one more murder (a spiked table lamp forced under the chin) and, with the identity of the killer revealed so early on, precious little in the way of mystery, thrills or suspense.

York, hidden under some pretty good old age make-up for the latter half of the film, does as well as he can with his role, but Pleasance doesn't seem to be trying as hard, giving another one of his stock detective turns that we've seen many times before in the Halloween sequels and other Italian murder/mysteries. Seasoned giallo babe Fenech is there to add some eye candy, but it is up to a couple of other Euro-lovelies to provide the obligatory nudity.

As a side note, Dominici's predicament reminded me a lot of Seth Brundle in Cronenberg's version of The Fly (1986), who suffers a similar physical and mental degeneration. Of course, Phantom of Death is nowhere near as good as Cronenberg's film.

Off Balance (AKA: Phantom of Death):

The highlight of this one, by far, is the kills. There are a couple of good kills here, but one stands head and shoulders above the rest. It's truly a classic kill for the ages!

The special effects around a character's aging were impressive.

The score was quite good.

However, the rest of the film was rather disappointing. A lot of wasted potential. Donald Pleasence and Edwige Fenech both act well, but neither of them is amazing here. Michael York is hit or miss. Some of his scenes he really nails, and some of them are a bit out of his range. There's a soapy melodrama feeling to many of the scenes in the first half of the film.

They give away the identity of the killer rather early on. At first, the film appears to want to say something deep about aging and death, but it never gets around to saying anything interesting.

The ending was disappointing. Instead of going out with a bang, it goes out with a whimper.

This thriller exists in two versions: One for TV and export that is quite tame, and an uncut version with extremely gory murder scenes which, as far as I know, was only released in parts of Europe (mainly Southern Europe). I have never seen the "clean" version, so this comment reviews the uncut (French) version.

Robert Dominici (Michael York) is a successful and attractive pianist whose life could not be better. But one day his doctor tells him that he suffers from a rare disease which makes his body grow old horrendously fast. No wonder that the disease throws Robert completely off balance (hence one of the export titles), he leaves public life and starts to kill young women in nasty ways (just before the goriest murder, Ruggero Deodato has a short cameo!). Police inspector Daddi (Donald Pleasence) has to solve the crimes.

York and Pleasence are tremendous, and the female lead is led by giallo cult actress Edwige Fenech. York's character is, despite his gruesome killings, rather truly tragic than villainous. With this film, Deodato made one of the best gialli of the 1980s, but it's a shame that the censored version is far better known in the German and English spoken parts of the world. Everybody who has the opportunity to get the uncut version should not hesitate and grab it.