‘I Almost Peed Myself’: 100 Years Ago, One of Cinema’s Most Brilliant Horror Scenes Stunned Audiences – Film News

Horror has brought us countless unforgettable scenes throughout history, but very few have become iconic moments in the seventh art. One of them came exactly 100 years ago, with the release of a simply classic film: The Phantom of the Opera.

I’m obviously referring to the 1925 adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s famous novel, directed by Rupert Julian. There have been several subsequent versions, but the feature film starring Lon Chaney remains unbeatable so many years later. And one of the main reasons for this is the scene in which the Ghost is unmasked.

“I almost pissed myself”

For almost half the film, the Phantom of the Opera is a mysterious being that hovers in the shadows. The filmmakers were very aware of this, so they took pains to ensure that no images of Chaney in character were released before the premiere. The objective was to cause as much surprise as possible.

In fact, the secrecy was so great that not even Mary Philbin, the actress who played Christineknew what Chaney was hiding, as revealed by the director of photography Charles van one. In this way, they managed to obtain a genuine reaction, which increases the credibility of the final result.

Of course, Van Enger himself acted as a guinea pig to test Chaney’s look, and the result was exactly what he expected: “I almost pissed myself, I fell backwards onto a stool!”

Chaney himself summed up how he managed to create such a chilling look: “People gasped at my strange makeup. It was the use of paints in the right tones and in the right places – not on the most obvious parts of the face – that created the illusion of horror… It’s all about combining paints and lights to create the perfect illusion.”

Furthermore, to provoke a stronger reaction from his co-star, he used another trick: he started insulting her, giving the impression of being angry with her and disappointed in her acting skills.

The scene itself is a turning point in the film, both for the resolution of a mystery that in other versions is only resolved in the final minutes, and for the way it moves the story forward. The Phantom’s initial reaction is to leave, leaving Christine there, but soon after, he swears revenge when he sees her with her lover, which triggers the kidnapping that begins the final stretch of The Phantom of the Opera.