Phantasm

After the death of Tommy (Bill Cone), who was stabbed by a woman at the cemetery, Jody (Bill Thornbury) and his friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) attend the funeral at the Morningside funeral home. Jody is followed by his teenage brother Mike (Michael Baldwin), who has just lost his parents and is afraid of losing his big brother that intends to travel.

Mike snoops around the cemetery and sees the mortician known as The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) carrying Tommy's coffin alone without any help. Mike breaks in the mortuary to investigate the mystery and discovers weird dwarf creatures with yellow blood and dangerous flying spheres that protect the location. When he is chased by The Tall Man, he cuts his finger and brings it home to show Jody to convince his big brother that there is a dark secret in the mortuary. Jody, Reggie and Mike discover that The Tall Man is from outer space and is transforming dead bodies in dwarfs to work as slave in his world. Now they decide that The Tall Man must be destroyed. Will they succeed in their intent?

"Phantasm" is one of the most weird and original cult movies that I have ever seen. The surrealistic and dreamlike story entwines horror with sci-fi with many twists and bizarre characters and situations.

I saw "Phantasm" for the first time on VHS in the early 80's and I have just seen it again on DVD and surprisingly the film has not aged, only the clothing, the hair style and the special effects. But for fans like me, it is still attractive and entertaining. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Fantasma" ("Phantasm")

Note: On 28 April 2023, I saw this film again.

...I'd probably hallucinate something of this caliber. This movie is all over the place! There's a weird looking guy having sex with a weird looking gal in a graveyard, and she turns into a weird looking old guy! Then there's four-wheelin' and guitar jammin' and weird looking psychic grandmas and weird looking dwarf zombies and metallic, gardener-splattering spheres and a weird looking severed finger that turns into a weird looking bug and a hero who doubles as an ice cream man!!

The movie is highly entertaining and keeps moving, and there's the classic moment when the older brother is hit in the leg with the hammer by the kid brother ("Maybe it was that retarded kid down the street"). I loved it! But it IS weird looking....

I bought the DVD (an older one, not the one that's been referred to here) of this ages ago, watched it once, got bored and didn't watch it for months. Then I shoved it in my player the other night because I had nothing better to do and I have to say it has improved immeasurably the second time around. This is mainly because I was aware that it had a confusing plot which I'd previously decided made no sense, so I wasn't focussing on that aspect of the film this time around. Instead I noticed the really effective musical score, one of the best I've heard, and the excellent cinematography/lighting which give the film a very tense and quite frightening atmosphere. The acting isn't so good and the dialogue in one mercifully short early scene (where two characters meet before the funeral that sparks the plot off) borders on C-movie-style contrivedness, but overall it's an enjoyable flick with plenty of memorable sequences and a sense of pace and enthusiasm last seen in The Evil Dead.

Phantasm is one of those movies where you have to look beyond the constraints of a non-existent-budget sci-fi/horror flick to see underlying talent. The film suffers from some hammed up acting, classical 1970s character naivety, make-shift and jimmy-rigged special effects that don't quite work, a score that might as well be a series of MIDI files, and a plot that's all but coherent; however, Phantasm maintains a certain original charm and resourcefulness that larger budget films frequently lack.

The above paragraph really isn't a complaint (despite how it may sound). On the contrary, I'm impressed with what director Don Coscarelli managed to accomplish with the hand dealt to him. Phantasm could have been an utterly forgettable film on all levels, but instead he managed to leave a number of positive impressions.

For one, the frame composition and some key scene transitions transcend budgetary implications (in particular, the Tall Man in the cemetery and the Tall Man slow-motion shot by Reggie's ice cream truck come to mind).

Fred Myrow also comes to the forefront with intriguing and memorable synthetic score. My only complaint on the music is the synthesizer it was performed on sounds like an old 80386 game. Still, the notes played transcends the quality of the instrument it's played on.

Phantasm's trademark bladed sphere effect, however, did genuinely bother me when they stuck into their victim's skulls. The fact that the soon-to-be-dead have no physical reaction after being slapped in the forehead with a fastball goes beyond my ability to suspend disbelief, and to my dismay the effect has never been amended in later sequels. A simple flinch is all that's needed to sell the effect! Something tells me that the effect, as it stands, is part of the Phantasm trademark, part of the Phantasm charm (for the cult followers anyway), and won't ever get a more realistic edge.

Minor silly plot elements aside (Jawa grave robbers, anyone?), my only major gripe deals with the sheer open endedness of the Phantasm universe (vastly exploited in later sequels.) Phantasm is not unlike a comic book, where nothing that happens seems significant since a character can so easily wake up to another reality. Anarchy governs the Phantasm series, no rules apply so reality, fantasy, and parallel universes co-exist in such a fashion that nothing seems to matter anymore. It's like playing a game with Coscarelli in which we must abide by the rules he sets down, and he sets the rules down as he goes when situations apply to him. Why bother playing? Why care?

Still, the film has its charms, and there's something fun in the sinister eye-brow raising and growling Tall Man played effectively by Angus Scrimm. I'd caught bits of Phantasm 3 in the past, and came into this film expecting to hate the Tall Man and this entire franchise, yet I found myself grinning at each of his lines.

I say if someone can look below a cheap and cheesy surface, Phantasm is full of a pleasant surprises.

Phantasm is possibly my favourite film of all time.Why? It's not about the budget or the hype of a film, but mainly about how this film makes me feel. Phantasm director Coscarelli crafted a little gem of a horror movie that has bought me more enjoyment than any major Hollywood film I can remember. I first saw Phantasm as a kid in the 80's and it has stuck with me ever since. It was great to rediscover this film on a beautifully mastered DVD.

For me, Phantasm combines a nightmarish quality that few horror movies achieve with a nostalgic trip back in time to the late 70's. The central theme is that of young Mike being abandoned by his brother Jody, and overcoming his fears. The cryptic nature of the Tall Man's presence adds to the tension, and Myrow's eerie soundtrack is the perfect finishing touch.

Like a nightmare, there is no explanation or attempt to pander to desires for a logical conclusion. The little touches such as Jody and Reggie's jam session add to the homely feel of this movie - it's like a well worn pair of jeans. It's crystal clear that no studio executives were in the editing room at the last minute, trying to turn Coscarelli's vision into another mediocre horror film . For the director, this film was clearly a labor of love. Coscarelli is still an outsider from the Hollywood system. I am grateful that he hasn't been sucked into turning out mediocre movies for major studios but has stayed somewhat true to the original spirit of Phantasm.

Many of the comments here on IMDB criticize the film for weak FX and poor acting. When viewed in the context of a genre film made by young industry outsiders for $300,000 in 1979, I think the technical values are exceptional. Critics who claim otherwise have no idea of the work involved in the process of creating a movie, especially before the advent of video.

I've seen Hollywood blockbusters made for many millions of dollars with great technical values, and yet I can't think of one that I can enjoy time and time again like this film. If you consider yourself a fan of horror movies, you owe it to yourself to own this classic on DVD.

10/10