As a low budget production Phantasm is a solid 10/10. It has an inventive story line and some highly memorable moments. It features the iconic floating metallic sphere, the iconic Tall Man and his iconic catch phrase "Bo-ay!" (Boy!). The production was very nonprofessional - no money, no script, no schedule - and Don Coscarelli must have been guided by an extremely lucky star, when he managed to transform many diverging elements into a movie that seems to be planned that way. Even a scene that absolutely looks like a filler - two guys plaing guitars - later turns out to have been a somewhat important part of the plot.
With regards to its production history, this is a miraculous movie. But people who don't care about that, shouldn't expect too much. After all, this is a very low budget science fiction horror movie from 1979 and it does have quite a few flaws, not only the obvious technical ones. Sometimes the story gets too silly, experts in glorifying call this "dream logic". And the final twist is, at least today, really annoying. But it is not boring, it is strange and it is definitely worth watching. It is the best of the 5 "Phantasm" movies, all of them made by Coscarelli.
Phantasm II (1988) has better special effects, better dwarfs, more spheres, an even better pronunciation of "Bo-ay!". But it looks like there had been a growing demand for a sequel, but Coscarelli didn't really have a story to tell. That should be part of the logic of dreams: No sequels! Phantasm III (1994) offers some new ideas and plot elements. It's a bit insane. Yes, the pesky "dream logic" is in the movie title, but it's nothing to build on. Coscarelli should nonetheless have gotten rid of it after the first Phantasm. Phantasm IV (1998) and Phantasm: Ravager (2016) are quite similar: artsy melancholical swansongs. "Artsy", actually.
After watching the 4 sequels, the triumph of Phantasm (1979) seems even more glorious! How is this even possible? Coscarelli had more money, he had more skills, more knowledge, more time, he had had a lot of input from fans and critics of his movies. First and foremost of course it is the imperfection of Phantasm 1 that should have made it easy to top it. Still that didn't happen. The erratic movie logic - for some it's a nightmare.
