The Core Universal Monster Movies Ranked Worst To Best

“Feast your eyes! Glut your soul on my accursed ugliness!”

The elaborate sets of The Phantom of the Opera are nothing short of spectacular. The Paris Opera House and the dungeons beneath are absolutely gorgeous, and are far from the striking yet minimal German expressionist horror films that served as inspiration.

One of the film's most memorable and visually impressive moments is its colour scene, in which the Phantom crashes a masquerade ball dressed as Poe's Red Death. But of course the scene that the film is best remembered for, and frankly the only scene that almost puts it on the level of Nosferatu and The Phantom Carriage, is the horrifying unmasking scene.

Lon Chaney, 'the man of a thousand faces', famously did his own Phantom make-up, and it's said that no publicity shots of his design were teased prior to the film's release, for maximum impact. The concept of the design was essentially to resemble a skull: he painfully pulled back the tip of his nose with wire, glued back his ears, manipulated his eyeballs to bulge and painted around his eye sockets. The effect reportedly resulted in patrons collapsing at the big reveal.

A likely reason for Chaney having thrived so much as a silent horror actor was his upbringing around two deaf-mute parents, which taught him to be so expressive. Not to limit his talents to acting and special effects make-up, he also contributed to the direction of the film. Damn, what a fella.