Mall culture meant everything in the ’80s. Your town didn’t really exist until you got a giant indoor shopping mall. Strip malls didn’t count. The indoor was the perfect place for teens to either work or hang out after school and on the weekends. Where else would you get frozen yogurt, a cool t-shirt and throwing stars in air conditioned comfort? There were malls stretching across the country, but there was one special mall that culturally impacted us all. When I was writing ’80s Teen Flick Festival guide book, the Sherman Oaks Galleria turned out to be in as many movies as Andrew McCarthy. It was the Mall that mattered. First it became a hot spot by being name checked in Frank Zappa and Moon Unit’s “Valley Girl.” To fortify this distinction, the high schoolers in Fast Times At Ridgemont High worked and played video arcade games there. Teens would return to the Galleria in Night of the Comet since it was a safe haven from the zombie-like creatures roaming the street. The Galleria got nasty when the security robots went wild in Chopping Mall. The movie Valley Girl only had an exterior shot of the Galleria and didn’t go inside this sacred space. At the end of the ’80s, the Galleria returned one more time to the screen in The Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge. We see another deadly time at the mall except it’s not robots with laser beams taking out people who dark to lurk around the mall late at night.
The Midwood Mall has revolutionized shopping in Midwood where the citizens previously had to drive long distances to shop in a controlled environment. Mayor Karen Wilton (The Seduction’s Morgan Fairchild) has delivered her promise to make this happen a year ago when they snagged the last hold out landowners. Melody Austin (Men At Work‘s Kari Whitman) gets a gig at one of the fine restaurants. She doesn’t quite want to work at the mall since it’s built on the land that used to belong to her old boyfriend Eric (Popcorn‘s Derek Rydall). She was with him the night his house burned down under not quite mysterious circumstances. The fireman never found Eric’s body in the ashes. At first she suspects Eric’s spirit in the form of a phantom is haunting the mall. But it turns out there might be more to Eric lurking above the Orange Julius in the vents. Does this phantom want revenge on the people that built the mall or Buzz (Pauly Shore) working at the frozen yogurt stand?
The Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge is a fun transposition of Gaston Leroux’s classic novel The Phantom of the Opera in the proper ’80s context. Who went to the opera in 1989? Everyone either went or was dragged to the mall. The idea that a mall developer would do nasty things to get homeowners to sell isn’t that far fetched. In Cary, one homeowner refused to sell so the future mall owners tore everything down along the property line so they were stuck looking out their windows at a giant mud trap. After this was done, the mall owners filled for bankruptcy and never built their massive edifice. Instead the property became a massive strip mall.
Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge has its horror elements and quite a few risky stunts. But there is a bit of comedy on the screen thanks to Pauly Shore doing his schtick before he busted out with MTV and Encino Man. There’s also a bit of romance when Melody hooks up with a local reporter played by hunky Rob Estes from Melrose Place and Silk Stockings. For those of you who really enjoyed the ’80s, you’ll remember Whitman as Playboy’s Playmate of the Month for February 1988. Her being with Playboy was what led to her cameo in Beverly Hills Cop II as Playboy Model.
There’s three cuts of Phantom of the Mall in the Blu-ray boxset. The first disc has the theatrical version. On a second disc you get a new 2K scan of the TV cut that played cable for quite a bit in the ’90s when Pauly Shore was a theatrical monster. Even though it has extra scenes, they had to snip out enough R-rated action to make it a minute shorter than the theatrical cut. The third cut is the Integral Fan Cut that inserts the bonus scenes from the TV version into the theatrical cut. You’re getting the whole Phantom in 96 minutes.
Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge is the proper send off to the Galleria. While there still is a Sherman Oaks Galleria, the mall is a totally different mixed use complex. All the cinematic memories have been renovated away. They don’t even have a video arcade. If you visit there, you’ll feel like a phantom.
Video is 1.85:1 anamorphic. The resolution is sharp enough that you’ll be seeing the various shop names around the Galleria and the names of games at the arcade. The audio is an LPCM stereo mix. The levels are right for the screams and the muttering of shoppers. The movie is subtitled in English.
Shop Til’ You Drop!: The Making of Phantom of the Mall (42:22) gives plenty of tales from the production with director Richard Friedman, screenwriters School Schneid, and Tony Michelman, actors Derek Rydall and Gregory Scott Cummins, filmmaker Tony Kayden and special make-up effects creator Matthew Mungle. There’s a discussion of horror and mall culture. The screenwriters talk about how they met up and wrote for TV. The duo wanted to do a horror feature.
Audio commentaries include one with director Richard Friedman. Ewan Cant and Amanda Reyes, The third is composer Stacy Widelitz and associate producer Robert J. Koster. You’ll be wanting to stick around the mall all night long listening to these tales.
The Vandals Go to the Mall (12;56) lets Joe Escalante of the band The Vandals talk about coming up with the theme song. He said the band was paid handsomely for the song. So this is a happy story. He gives a history of the Orange County band and how they were big on KROQ. He was the drummer. You might see him and the band in Suburbia and Dudes. He went to law school when the song came out.
Alternate and deleted scenes (7:20) are five moment taken from the TV Cut of the film including an alternate ending.
Domestic Trailer (1:41) has a red band to warn you all that there’s some R-rated images. We get told that Eric is still alive and inside the Mall looking for revenge.
International Trailer (1:59) doesn’t feature the red band warning.
Image Gallery has 57 promotions photos, press photos, make up shots, posters, magazine ads, newspaper ads and the VHS box.60-page fully-illustrated perfect-bound book featuring new writing by Daniel Budnik and Amanda Reyes
Large fold-out double-sided poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Justin Osbourn
Six postcard-sized lobby card reproductions
Arrow Video presents: Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge (Limited Edition). Directed by Richard Friedman. Screenplay by Scott J. Schneid, Tony Michelman & Robert King. Derek Rydall, Jonathan Goldsmith, Rob Estes, Pauly Shore, Kari Whitman & Morgan Fairchild. Rating: Rated R. Running Time: 90 minutes. Release Date: November 23, 2021.
