KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978) on Netflix

NR19781h 36mFantasy Horror Music

The rock band KISS headlines a concert at a California amusement park, to the dismay of engineer Abner Devereaux, whose animatronic creations are ignored. Fired by the park, he plots revenge.

Netflix3.5/5
IMDb4.6/103,738 votes
Rotten TomatoesNot available

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Plot summary

Magic Mountain, a California amusement park, is preparing for a concert by the rock band KISS. Abner Devereaux, the park's engineer, built its animatronic attractions, and he resents that the show has pushed his work aside. Calvin Richards, who owns the park, tells him the concert will bring in money the park needs to fix the quality problems plaguing those creations. Melissa, a park guest, is looking for her boyfriend Sam Farrell, an employee who assists Devereaux and has not been seen. Three punks sabotage a ride, and Devereaux takes the blame. Richards dismisses the engineer for erratic behavior, and Devereaux swears revenge on Richards, the park, and KISS.

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

Ace Frehley said little to the pair of screenwriters but "Ack!", so he was originally given no lines except that interjection; on learning of it he threatened to leave the project, and lines were soon written for him.
Frehley later stated that he had tons of fun shooting the film, although he has also claimed that both he and Peter Criss were "loaded" on alcohol and cocaine during production.
Voice actor Michael Bell dubbed Peter Criss's dialogue because Criss refused to participate in post-production, leaving his real voice heard only in an acoustic performance of "Beth", though Criss denied this and said he "went to all the looping".
The concert in the film was recorded in the parking lot of Magic Mountain on May 19, 1978 in front of a crowd of 8,000, with tickets given out by local AM station KTNQ, where "The Real" Don Steele was a disc jockey.
On May 27, the last day of filming, Criss and tour manager Fritz Postlethwaite were involved in a serious car accident; Postlethwaite suffered burns but soon returned to work for Kiss, while Criss's injuries were minor.
In an early-1990s interview, Gene Simmons compared the film to Plan 9 from Outer Space, joking that the two films would make a perfect drive-in double feature.