The film hits 4K UHD this week thanks to the fine folks at Kino Lorber!
As an admitted Zaniac, I’ll take any excuse to evangelize on behalf of Billy Zane. And every time I do, I end up pointing to the same two films as proof that, in some alternate timeline, he became the leading man he always should’ve been.
The first is Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight—a scrappy, better-than-it-has-any-right-to-be feature spin-off where Zane plays a gleefully manipulative demon trying to charm (and corrupt) a group of halfway house residents into surrendering a sacred relic. It’s the rare role that lets him cut loose: oily, funny, magnetic, and dripping—sometimes literally—with charisma. It’s a reminder that Zane’s ceiling was never “stoic heavy,” even if Hollywood often treated him that way.
The second is the real case study: The Phantom, the box office bomb turned cult favorite that’s just landed on 4K UHD via Kino Lorber. More than anything, it feels like a blueprint for the modern superhero movie—released decades too early for audiences to recognize it.
Mining nostalgic IP isn’t some new symptom of our current cinematic doom spiral. Studios were already digging through comic strips and pulp heroes in the wake of Batman—just not the caped icons we default to today. The late ’80s and ’90s gave us The Shadow, The Rocketeer, Dick Tracy, and The Phantom: heroes pulled from newspaper strips rather than comic shop dominance. The difference is that nostalgia hadn’t yet calcified into the cultural currency it is now. There was no built-in generational reverence—no automatic audience primed to show up the way they would later for Marvel, Harry Potter, or Star Wars.
So most of these films flopped. The Batman franchise spiraled into neon camp, and superhero movies quickly became box office poison—at least until Marvel Studios bet the house on Robert Downey Jr. and reset the entire genre with Iron Man.
I saw The Phantom on opening weekend and promptly forgot it—probably because it dropped the same day as The Rock and never stood a chance. But during the pandemic, I went back through that entire wave of late-’90s comic adaptations, and while most remained curios at best, The Phantom revealed itself as something else entirely. Removed from its context—and viewed post-superhero boom—it feels weirdly ahead of its time.
Created in 1936 by Lee Falk, the Phantom was arguably the first costumed superhero: mask, skintight suit, no visible pupils. Like Batman, he had no powers—just legacy, myth, and fear as weapons. And, oddly, he was always more popular overseas than in the U.S., likely because he wasn’t as overtly American-coded and benefited from the wide accessibility of newspaper strips.
At one point, even Sergio Leone circled the material. Instead, the film eventually landed with Simon Wincer (Free Willy), who leaned into its pulp adventure roots after Joe Dante exited an earlier, more comedic iteration. Zane, coming off Dead Calm, won the role after auditioning alongside Bruce Campbell and Kevin Smith.
The result is a lean, 100-minute origin story that introduces Kit Walker—the latest in a 400-year lineage of crime-fighters—as he squares off against Treat Williams’ gloriously unhinged Xander Drax, a mogul chasing mystical skulls that promise “tremendously destructive power.” It’s pulpy, ridiculous, and entirely self-aware.
I mean there’s a scene with The Phantom’s dog has a conversation, with his horse. There’s no words, but at the end they understand the plan they are about to execute.
And Zane? He’s phenomenal. Charming, playful, effortlessly heroic. He carries the film with a swashbuckling lightness that makes even the clunkiest exposition feel breezy. It’s a performance that anticipates the tone of Iron Man years early—an actor fully aware of the heightened world around him, and enjoying every second of it.
Yes, it’s a familiar MacGuffin chase. But what sets The Phantom apart is its tone—and a cast that’s clearly having a blast. Kristy Swanson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and James Remar all lean into the pulp with infectious enthusiasm. Swanson’s Diana is notably ahead of her time: independent, globe-trotting, and an active participant rather than a bystander. Even Zeta-Jones’ femme fatale sidesteps cliché, winning you over with sheer force of personality.
On the technical side, Kino Lorber’s 4K release is a knockout. Sourced from a new scan of the original 35mm camera negative (and approved by Wincer), the transfer is clean, detailed, and refreshingly natural in its HDR grading—dialing back the oversaturation of previous releases. The practical effects and stunt work shine, and yes, Zane really did interact with that tiger—something that absolutely wouldn’t fly today.
The extras are solid, highlighted by a candid and affectionate interview with Zane, who reflects on the film with genuine pride rather than revisionist distancing. The commentary track is informative, if a bit stilted, occasionally slipping into Q&A territory instead of a true conversation.
For Phans, this is easily the definitive home release. For everyone else—especially those burned out on the current superhero churn—it’s a reminder of what the genre can be when it embraces adventure, sincerity, and fun.
Rewatching The Phantom now, it’s hard not to feel like audiences simply weren’t ready for it. At a time when the genre was trending darker and more self-serious, this film celebrated the bright, earnest heroism of pulp storytelling. It wasn’t trying to be Batman. It knew exactly what it was.
The problem is, back then, nobody else did.
