At the Midwood Mall, prices aren’t the only things being slashed…
Phantom of the Mall: Eric's Revenge is a 1989 American slasher film directed by Richard Friedman, and starring Derek Rydall, Jonathan Goldsmith, Rob Estes, Pauly Shore, Kari Whitman, Ken Foree, and Morgan Fairchild.A young man named Eric apparently dies in a suspicious house fire after saving his girlfriend, Melody. One year later, a new mall is constructed atop where Eric’s house once stood, where a shadowy, uninvited guest is preying on the mall’s crooked developers.
Tropes:
- Air-Vent Passageway: Eric can travel anywhere in the mall by navigating his way through the mall's enormous vent system.
- Animal Assassin: After the mugger who attacked Melody is revealed to be the mall pianist, Eric kills him on the toilet with a poisonous snake.
- The Can Kicked Him: After the mugger who attacked Melody is revealed to be the mall pianist, Eric kills him on the toilet with a poisonous snake.
- Catapult Nightmare: Melody sits bolt upright in bed after having a nightmare about the night Eric supposedly died in the house fire.
- Climbing Climax: In the climax, Eric leaps from a vent, and tosses the mayor through a window. Melody runs from the office and crawls onto the girders holding up the mall roof. Eric then pursues Melody out on to the steel work.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Harv Posner is a property developer and owner of the mall. When the Matthews became sole holdouts—refusing to sell their property so he could build the mall—he orders Volker to burn their house down: killing the Matthews and disfiguring their son Eric.
- Corrupt Politician: After discovering Eric's plot to blow up the mall, Peter and Melody find Mayor Wilton, and tell her everything. The mayor pulls a pistol and marches them to Harv's office. There, the mayor confesses she is part owner of the mall and was in on the Matthews murders.
- Deadly Rotary Fan: When a mall maintenance worker spots Eric in the ventilation ducts, Eric kills him by forcing his head into a running fan.
- Destination Defenestration: Eric lifts Mayor Karen Wilton over his head before hurling through the office window into the atrium of the mall where she falls to her death.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Eric uses a weed burner in a hardware store to turn Harv Posner into a Man on Fire. Posner then stumbles into a display of propane tanks, which explodes and sets fire to Eric. (One does does have to question the practices of a hardware store that not only keeps fully fueled weed burners on the shop floor, but displays them next to filled propane tanks.)
- Forklift Fu: Eric kills a guard, who spies on women in the dressing room via mall security video, by crushing him into an electrical panel using a forklift.
- Grave Robbing: Melody wonders if Eric is truly dead, and Peter insists they must exhume his body. When they dig up his coffin, they discover it is empty.
- Ground by Gears: After Volker attacks Melody again, knocking her unconscious, Eric fights him, then kills him using the automatic box crusher.
- Hoist Hero over Head: Eric lifts Mayor Karen Wilton over his head before hurling her through the office window into the atrium of the mall where she falls to her death.
- Knows the Ropes: The mall owner's son, Justin, harasses Melody's friend Susie; Eric kills him with a lasso pulled into the mall escalator.
- Man on Fire: Eric uses a weed burner in a hardware store to turn Harv Posner into a human candle. Posner then stumbles into a display of propane tanks, which explodes and sets fire to Eric.
- Mooning: Buzz tricks a guard away from the video surveillance booth by mooning the camera, so he and Susie can search for Melody.
- Mythology Gag: Eric's use of a lasso to murder Justin is a tip of the hat to Erik's uncanny use of a lasso as murder weapon in the original The Phantom of the Opera.
- Nobody Here but Us Statues: After breaking into the sporting goods store, Eric poses as a mannequin when a security guard walks past. When the guard realises Eric isn't a mannequin, Eric stabs him to death.
- No OSHA Compliance: One does does have to question the practices of a hardware store that not only keeps fully fueled weed burners on the shop floor, but displays them next to filled propane tanks.
- Outside Ride: Mall guard Christopher Volker attacks Melody and Peter at gunpoint as they talk, in a car, about the fire; he boasts that he is the arsonist. As they escape and Volker chases them with his car, Eric leaps onto the roof, distracting him and causing a crash.
- Stalker with a Crush: Eric's love for Melody has transformed into obsession. He uses the cameras at the mall to watch her every move, breaks into her locker to leave her orchids (her favourite flowers), and breaks into her car to leave her the purple dress she had admired earlier.
- Theatre Phantom: The film follows a young man who apparently dies in a suspicious house fire after saving his girlfriend, Melody; a year later, at the new mall built over the site of the burned-out house, thefts and murders begin to occur as a mysterious figure secretly prowls around the shopping center and takes a keen interest in watching over and protecting Melody.
- What's Up, King Dude?: A teenage girl and her reporter boyfriend can rock up to the mayor's home to explain their theory about how the new mall is being haunted by a Theatre Phantom, and they will not only be allowed in, but listened to.
