Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge

Rob Estes

Pauly Shore

Jonathan Goldsmith

**Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge** is an American horror film loosely based on Gaston Leroux's ***Le Fantôme de l'Opéra*** released in 1989 and directed by Richard Friedman.

## Plot

In an unlit store, a shadowy figure steals clothes and a crossbow. Melody Austin and her friend Susie get jobs at the new mall, just before its scheduled grand opening. The shadowy Eric Mathews, his face half scarred, excitedly sees Melody, his former girlfriend, from hidden vantage points around the mall, and leaves flowers and gifts for her. He breaks open a mannequin head to fashion a half-mask. When a mall maintenance worker spots Eric in the ventilation ducts, Eric kills him by forcing his head into a running fan. Eric attacks anyone who threatens Melody; he kills a guard, who spies on women in the dressing room via mall security video, by crushing him into an electrical panel using a forklift. A masked mugger attacks Melody in the parking lot, but Eric shoots him with the crossbow. Later the mugger is revealed to be the mall pianist; Eric kills him on the toilet with a poisonous snake. The mall owner's son, Justin, harasses Melody's friend Susie; Eric kills him with a lasso pulled into the mall escalator. Reporter Peter Baldwin becomes interested in Melody, investigates the suspicious fire, and with Melody, Susie and pal Buzz, tries to learn if Eric is still alive. A year earlier, Eric Mathews' house was destroyed in a suspicious fire which apparently trapped and killed him, just after he saved his girlfriend Melody. Now, a year later, in the mall built over the site of his home, Eric plants a time-delay bomb beneath the mall, timed to coincide with the mall's grand opening.

Mall guard Christopher Volker attacks Melody and Peter at gunpoint as they talk, in a car, about the fire; he boasts that he is the arsonist. As they escape and Volker chases them with his car, Eric leaps onto the roof, distracting him and causing a crash. Later, Volker attacks Melody again, knocking her unconscious. Eric fights him, then kills him using the automatic box crusher, and carries Melody to his lair.

Buzz tricks a guard away from the video surveillance booth so he and Susie can search for Melody. Melody awakens, and talks with Eric. She is glad he is alive, but confesses she does not love him anymore; he angrily declares that he has planted the bomb, so she will die and be with him forever anyway.

As Peter searches for Melody in the tunnels, Eric deploys the snake to kill him, for being interested in Melody. When Peter retreats, then later finds them anyway, Eric tries to fight and kill him, but Eric is stunned by Melody's shout that she loves Peter. Peter takes the chance to knock Eric out, so the pair escape and are able to warn Buzz and Susie of the bomb. Eric revives and kills those involved in the arson, the coverup, and the construction of the mall: mall owner Harv Posner and the complicit Mayor Karen Wilton. Melody, Peter, Buzz, Susie, and all of the mall patrons escape, as Eric's subterranean bomb explodes, destroying the mall.

## Cast

* Derek Rydall - Eric Mathews
* Kari Whitman - Melody Austin
* Rob Estes - Peter Baldwin
* Pauly Shore - Buzz
* Kimber Sissons - Susie
* Jonathan Goldsmith - Harv Posner
* Gregory Scott Cummins - Christopher Volker
* Morgan Fairchild - Karen Wilton
* Ken Foree - Acardi
* Tom Fridley - Justin Posner
* Dante D'Andre - Piano Man