Phantom of Death (1988)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent, a Must See

Charming and brutal

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

To us horror fans, Euro-horror is the optimum; Portland's video/DVD store Movie Madness even has a section devoted to it. Unfortunately, "Un delitto poco comune" (called "Phantom of Death" in English) has little to show for itself. The plot involves something about a piano player (Michael York) who unwillingly assumes a different identity and goes around committing murders, but the whole movie is poorly strung together and barely goes anywhere. A particularly bad scene is when Donald Pleasance is telling someone something, and then they cut the scene and he finishes the sentence several minutes later! All in all, there are plenty of cool Italian horror flicks (anything by Mario Bava or Dario Argento is right up there). No need to waste your time on this one.

This film became an instant must see for me after reading the plot outline - how could I resist a film about a killer who was unlucky enough to catch a disease that makes him age rapidly? This film is quite heavily flawed, but it's safe to say that director Ruggero Deodato hasn't squandered it, as Phantom of Death is a very fun little thriller that makes good use of its central idea and features some very nice scenes of gore. Yes, you've got to expect a lot of the red stuff from a man whose biggest film credits include The House on the Edge of the Park and Cannibal Holocaust, and the film certainly doesn't disappoint; as we've got a woman being stabbed though a window, another having her throat sliced open, a decapitation and other such macabre happenings. The plot focuses on a piano player who, after losing some of his hair, discovers to his horror that he's one of the few adult sufferers of a disease that speeds up the aging process. As you might expect, this has a profound effect on his mind as well as his body; and it ultimately leads him to murder...One of the main weak points of this movie stems from the plotting. The screenplay is very disjointed, and the film doesn't always flow well. Furthermore, it suffers from the common Italian thriller flaw of not always making a great deal of sense - so it's lucky that the ideas and their implications are usually enough to carry the film. The acting is a strong point for the movie, however, and this one features some rather risky casting. Michael York takes the lead role and brings class and sophistication to it, which ensures that the classic British actor is always more than the common sleazy killer seen in most Giallo's. Donald Pleasance is his opposite number, and while he isn't given an awful lot to do in his role as the police officer on the case; he's a hell of a lot better than he was in the Halloween movies in which he made his name. The central cast is rounded off by classic Giallo temptress Edwige Fenech, who still looks great despite this film being made over a decade and a half since her immortal roles in Sergio Martino's classy Giallo's. Overall, this isn't great or a classic; but Phantom of Death shows some great originality (something Giallo's aren't well known for) and entertains despite its obvious flaws. Well worth seeking out!

"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.

Ruggero Deodato's Un Delitto poco comune aka Off Balance (1987) is an Italian thriller about a wealthy and happy pianist (Michael York) whose life turns upside down after the doctors find a very rare and lethal disease inside him. He starts to grow older very fast, having only few months to live or so and things turn even darker for him as someone starts to viciously murder those close to him. The plot follows police agent Donald Pleasance's attempts to find the killer before it's too late as well as the pianist's own efforts to return a some kind of balance to his life.Film maker Ruggero Deodato has made one of the most challenging and important films of all time, Cannibal Holocaust (1979) which tells about rotten media violence and the animal species that consumes it. The film is notorious for its unspeakable acts of carnal violence but none of it is in vain or gratuitous which is way too much for some viewers to understand and admit as most of them can't face themselves on the screen. Deodato has also made pure exploitation trash like the 1980 La Casa sperduta nel parco aka The House at the Edge of the Park or Inferno in diretta aka Cut & Run (1985) both of which are mostly just extremely gratuitously violent but also have at least some thoughts and themes to make them more interesting than other nasty and gory Italian films of the period.Off Balance is written by Gianfranco Clerici whose other credits include the mentioned masterpiece Cannibal Holocaust with Deodato as well as The House at the Edge of the Park but also Lucio Fulci's sadistic and misogynistic terror tale Lo Squartatore di New York aka The New York Ripper (1982) the last two of which are perfect opposites to the firstly mentioned and its subject matter. Off Balance is easily among their weakest works but, fortunately, has some brain too in addition to blood.The film has a very promising beginning with the first murder scene taking place during the credits inter-cutting to calm scenes depicting the protagonist play piano in his concert. The film moves fastly from the beginning and the characters and their relations get introduced well too. But ultimately, after the first half or so the film loses its fire and becomes slower with plenty of talk and things that don't make too much sense, mostly involving the killer and his (absent) motives for his vicious acts. I can't name one single explanation for his acts and that is rather frustrating once one has realized that. The things that are discussed in the second part are also interesting and important but they are presented with too much contrast with the more lively first half.The film's theme about aging and living one's life while it's offered and on hand is of course important and surprisingly well-concentrated on in the script and practically the whole last part is about this and not about the killings anymore. The film tries to make the audience understand how important it is not to let your life pass by without living it, as there may come times in the future that you start regretting it as life after all would have offered something interesting and worth living. It definitely doesn't say life or youth ends when your hair go off but it says that some things should be understood not by experience but for example by other people around us or art depicting these things.The film works also as a pure giallo thriller as it has its moments of suspense and mystery and of course the graphic blood letting. There are few nasty murders in the film, both at the very beginning and they are definitely very "Italian like" with the huge amount of red color sprayed over the screen. The second one is very close to Dario Argento's style but serves not any other purpose than itself, unlike the great usage of similar effect in Argento's Tenebre (1982) for example. The effects are pretty good and the aging character becomes all the more tragic as we see the horrible face mutations of his in so little time. York does a believable role and never over-acts at all.Off Balance is more promising and potential than some other films of the giallo/slasher genre and since it's Italian, it could've been so much more than it now is. Deodato and Clerici have once proved to be a very efficient couple but it seems they're ambitions are either not supported by the producers anymore or have just changed a little bit in themselves. 3/10