The Phantom of the Opera

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The Phantom of the Opera

1925

1h 47m

Horror

Music

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

91%

Tomatometer

47 Reviews

84%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

Aspiring young opera singer Christine Daaé discovers that she has a mysterious admirer intent on helping her become a lead performer. This masked presence is Erik, also known as the Phantom, a horribly disfigured recluse who lives underneath the Paris Opera House. When the Phantom takes Christine prisoner and demands her devotion and affection, her suitor, Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, sets out to rescue her.

Critics Consensus

Decades later, it still retains its ability to scare -- and Lon Chaney's performance remains one of the benchmarks of the horror genre.

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Keith Phipps

AV Club

Aug 16, 2013

The atmosphere matches Chaney's performance perfectly. His grotesque appearance is achieved with wires, cotton balls, and eye-dilating chemicals, but his character, as usual, is animated from within.

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J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Aug 16, 2013

Lon Chaney's performance as the hideous organist prowling the sewers beneath the Paris Opera is still a cornerstone of gothic horror.

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Ty Burr

Boston Globe

Nov 24, 2011

4/4

A grand, pulpy potboiler of a suspense melodrama.

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Chance Solem-Pfeifer

Willamette Week

Oct 28, 2026

Lon Chaney’s Phantom is still arresting by today’s standards because it dares to be genuinely upsetting.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Feb 13, 2023

3.5/4

If it wasn’t quite the match of the fright fests that were being made over in Europe during this decade (Nosferatu, Haxan), it was certainly one of the most epic American undertakings this side of D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille.

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Robert E. Sherwood

LIFE

Oct 7, 2021

[Phantom] is not nearly so magnificent in scale, nor so stirring in theme, as The Hunchback -- but as represented on the screen it is a more consistently thrilling story. It is spook melodrama at its wildest and weirdest, and it is beautifully done.

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Elsie M

Sep 10, 2025

This screening was accompanied by live music and it is the best way to enjoy a classic silent film.

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Kathy

Mar 7, 2024

Classic silent movie with music.

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DanTheMan 2

@DanTheMan2150AD Oct 22, 2026

A hauntingly eerie mix of poetry, gothic melodrama, and a surreal Feuillade-style serial, The Phantom of the Opera is high-camp Hollywood hokum at its wildest and weirdest. A grand, pulpy potboiler of a landmark when it comes to silent horror, over-the-top with wonderfully theatrical flourishes and elevated almost entirely by Lon Chaney’s unforgettable performance as the disfigured Phantom. Over a hundred years on, he still unsettles; Chaney is phenomenal, with his makeup reveal rightfully achieving legendary status, but what makes the performance so effective is everything he does before and after it. Behind the mask is a man desperate to be loved, but his desperation has curdled into possession and violence. His face has become the film's defining image, but his physical performance does just as much of the heavy lifting. As an essential piece of film history, The Phantom of the Opera helped establish the very language and faces of cinematic horror.

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Joaquin U

@Joaquin1 Aug 10, 2026

Entertaining. Chaney is amazing as usual. The movie itself isn’t that strong—the script is okayish, and the direction is serviceable but dull. Still, it’s a classic for several reasons: the makeup, the clever insane‑genius gadgets and traps, many of them used here for the first time in cinema. It inspired plenty of later works, especially the Broadway play, and it delivered one of the greatest monsters of all time. Almost an obligatory pleasure for fans of the genre.

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Steve D

@RT35616104 Jul 22, 2026

A classic for a reason. Haunting for its time.

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Jade W

@giveemsomethingto_jade Jun 28, 2026

You want the closest thing to the book? Watch this version. It found a spot in my heart for silent films

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Rupert Julian

Director

Lon Chaney

Erik, The Phantom

Mary Philbin

Christine Daae

Norman Kerry

Vicomte Raoul de Chagny

Arthur Edmund Carewe

Ledoux

Gibson Gowland

Simon Buquet

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Synopsis

Aspiring young opera singer Christine Daaé discovers that she has a mysterious admirer intent on helping her become a lead performer. This masked presence is Erik, also known as the Phantom, a horribly disfigured recluse who lives underneath the Paris Opera House. When the Phantom takes Christine prisoner and demands her devotion and affection, her suitor, Vicomte Raoul de Chagny, sets out to rescue her.

Director: Rupert Julian
Producer: Carl Laemmle
Screenwriter: Gaston Leroux, Bernard McConville
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Universal Pictures
Genre: Horror, Music
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 6, 1925, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 11, 2016
Runtime: 1h 47m

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