Cast off as a freak at an early age, this masked mad genius has created a subterranean home beneath the theater and taken an obsessive interest in the lovely, golden-throated orphan Christine. But another, more shadowy figure dictates policy and procedure at the opera house with an even tighter fist: The Phantom. The men, feeling their way in this new venture, find themselves at the mercy of reigning diva Carlotta, a narcissistic, temperamental Italian soprano used to getting her way.

Innocent young Christine Daae is a talented chorus girl with a Paris opera company that has just been bought by naïve scrap metal magnates Andre and Firmin. But this long-awaited feature is the first based on Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award-winning musical, which is less a horror film than a haunting tale of obsession, jealousy and unrequited love. There have been numerous big-screen adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera over the years, from Lon Chaney’s classic 1925 horror film to a 1989 version starring Robert Englund (aka Freddy Kruger) as the hideously scarred aria lover.

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