The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

The film remains the same: Lon Chaney stars as the hideously disfigured title character, who lives in the old dungeons below the Paris Opera House. The Phantom becomes obsessed with one of the opera's singers, threatening the management if she is not given the lead role in Faust. Of course, the management refuses and disaster strikes. A witch-hunt eventually ensues after the girl is kidnapped. The film has been remade and remade again, and it's of course been a much-beloved Broadway musical as well.

But this version takes the original film and provides an updated score, eerily appropriate for the caverns and catacombs of the film. Part orchestral movements, part nursery rhymes, Switchblade Symphony's score works extremely well for the most part. Unfortunately it has the feeling (and this may be the case) that songs have been lifted from an album and wedged into the movie. This leads to some awkward transitions and moments of silence -- with the feeling that Phantom is just a music video for the band.