![]() ![]() His nose is an upturned chip, his mouth a mangled mess, his eyes threatening to pop. The reveal: a defacement more horrifying than any other cinematic iteration of the infamous Opera Ghost to date. As contemporary reviewer Carl Sandburg puts it: “Her fingers give one final twitch - and there you are!” As the mysterious Eric sits at his organ, our captured heroine Christine loosens his mask. Arguably, it’s one of the most horrifying images ever put on screen. The unmasking of the titular Phantom is one of the most well-known moments in silent film. It’s just a face that’s been distorted - without CGI obviously - but manipulated so that it looks human, but almost not.” Nowhere else is Chaney’s unique quality of “human, but almost not” more evident than in the disfigured ghoul of 1925’s Phantom of the Opera, one of Chaney’s most impressive make-up jobs, if not certainly his most famous one. Gnashing teeth, curling lips, flaring nostrils, his characters are always as upsetting as they are mesmerizing.Ī big part of why Chaney’s creature designs are so affecting is because, as horror director Jennifer Kent articulates in an interview with Mountain Xpress: “You can see that it’s a person’s face. From murderous madmen to misunderstood monsters, Chaney consistently elicits bi-tones of repulsion and empathy, curiosity and fear, horror and pity. With few exceptions, his best-known characters experience some sort of disfigurement, and the actor took the execution of these mutilations into his own hands, often at the expense of his own comfort and safety (more on that later). In addition to being one of the most evocative performers to ever grace the screen, Chaney was a pioneer of early cinematic special effects makeup. As Chaney himself explains in a rare interview in Movie Weekly, the unique circumstances of his upbringing meant that, for the actor, “gesture was always a thing of great significance.” A Silent Era performer, Chaney’s physical deftness resulted in emotionally rich, peerless performances that still resonate and shock almost a century later. is a veritable magician.Īn Old Hollywood powerhouse known for his characterizations of unnerving individuals and mangled souls, Leonidas Chaney was born on April Fool’s Day in 1883 to two deaf parents. This entire column is based around the celebration of cinematic techniques that read as magic tricks. Therefore, the success of this operation depends on other characters’ good will-in Erik’s case, Christine’s ability to show him compassion and admiration despite his ugliness, and, in Christine’s case, Raoul’s willingness to trust her and take her feelings seriously despite his intense jealousy.Welcome to How’d They Do That? - a bi-monthly column that unpacks moments of movie magic and celebrates the technical wizards who pulled them off. In both cases, removing one’s mask reveals one’s vulnerability. On another occasion, during the masked ball, Christine finally shows Raoul her anguish when she removes her mask. ![]() This moment marks a turning point in the narrative, as Christine will remain scarred by the horrifying face she has seen. The removal of masks occurs at crucial moments in the narrative on one such occasion, overwhelmed by the beauty of the Phantom’s singing, Christine spontaneously decides to disobey Erik’s orders and remove his mask, which causes Erik fear, pain, and anger. Although the mask gives Erik some control over his life, as it allows him to decide when to reveal his real face, it also signals that he has no control over one crucial factor: other people’s reactions. The mask that the “Phantom,” Erik, wears over his face symbolizes his vulnerability and the injustice he suffers from, as he is forced to hide his face because it causes too much horror in other people.
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