Phantasm
Amazon.co.uk Review
Jody is the kind of guy that every 1970s teen looked up to. He’s in his early 20s, has a cool car, splendid 1970s hair, a leather jacket, plays guitar and (naturally) snags all the girls. His little brother, Mike, in particular, admires him and emulates him at every turn. Things start to go astray, however, when the two brothers and their friend Reggie attend a funeral for a friend. Mike notices a tall man working at the funeral home; in the course of his snooping, he sees the tall man put a loaded coffin into the back of a hearse as easily as if it was a shoebox. Jody doesn’t believe his little brother’s stories, though, until he brings home the tall man’s severed finger, still wriggling in what appears to be French’s mustard. From there, the film picks up a terrific momentum that doesn’t let up until the sequel-ripe twist ending.
Phantasm was one of the first horror movies to break the unspoken rule that victims were supposed to scream, fall down and cower until they were killed. Instead, Mike and Jody are resourceful and smart, aggressively pursuing the evil inside the funeral home with a shotgun and Colt pistol. Furthermore, the script has a great deal of character development, especially in the relationship between the two brothers. The film even has a surprisingly glossy look, despite its low-budget origins, and little outright gore (except for the infamous steel spheres that drill into victims’ heads). This drive-in favourite was a big success at the time of its release, and spawned three sequels. Little wonder; it includes an inventive story, likeable characters, a runaway pace and, of course, evil dwarves cloaked in Army blankets. The end result is one of the better horror films of the late 1970s. Hot-rod fans take note: Jody drives a Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda, the pinnacle of 1960s muscle cars, rounding out his status as a Cool Guy. –Jerry Renshaw
Phantasm rates as one of the better lower budget horrors of the latter 70s.Released at the tail end of 1978, Phantasm has now gone on to acheive cult status within the horror movie fraternity.The story revolves around two orphaned brothers who happen to live near a cemetry, where all manner of sinister occurrences have become common place. Events begin to take an ominous twist for the brothers when a close friend meets a mysterious demise.During the funeral, the younger brother notices a giant undertaker known simply as the Tall Man,played to great effect by Angus Scrimm, single handedly lifting a casket and loading it into the back of his hearst and driving away.In true horror film style, the curiosity of the boy gets the better of him and decides to investigate-oh dear.As expected, his meddling opens up a can of worms he wished he hadn’t.Within the cemetry, all manner of ghoulish events await those who dare to enter. Resurected corpses, blood thirsty hooded dwarves reign terror, and perhaps one the most memorable forces of evil being a metal ball with protruding spikes which flies through the air mercilessly pursueing its prey before draining the victims of their blood.Phantasm has spawned a number of sequels, although being credible films in their own right, none can ever equal the masterful original, which even by todays standards over twenty years on remains a true testament of classic horror movie making. Aside from the excellent story, spine chilling moments and a truly fantastic nemesis in the shape and form of Angus Scrimm, who lends a great deal of presence to the role as the maniacal undertaker,is in my opinion among one of the best on screen foes the horror genre has seen, the film’s soundtrack score is also worthy of praise.All in all, Phantasm has the lot. Oh, I haven’t even mentioned the ending, well I wouldn’t want to give to much away, but its a great finale-one which leave your nerve endings shot. Phantasm truly is a classic of its time, when you consider the film’s limited budget and distribution via a small independent production company-it has certainly stood the test of time. So be prepared for a rollercoaster ride of thrills and moments to make you cringe in the dark.Beware of the tall man.
Rating: 4 / 5
even though shot on a modest budget phantasm is a masterpiece by don coscorelli .the stars of this franchise of movies are “the tall man ”
“flying silver spheres” & those little nasty dwarves from hell ” or maybe not! but theres plenty of one liners to take the edge off the bleakness.
but for value this boxed of five discs,phantasm,phantasm ii,phantasm iii
phantasm iv oblivion &bonus you get a lot for your money.if you buy the sphere with the same ammount of discs expect to pay more,but its worth
it! basically when you watch the films you make up your own mind “is jodie dead?” “was phantasm all a dream in mikes head?” have a look theres
plenty of blood for gorehounds .incidentally,ive got the boxed set & the
sphere set ,ah but then im a phan !
Rating: 5 / 5
An absolute feast for fans of this franchise. You get all four films plus a bonus disc with a juicy feature length documentary and some other good stuff.
The films are all in great picture quality and with new 5.1/DTS mixes. They all have commentaries, their trailer and biographies/photo galleries.
Really the only negative thing I could say is that the censored footage from number two is still missing, as well as the additional/deleted scenes. If the people who sold a bootleg set some years ago could get a hand on the work print, why no one from Anchor Bay. But that’s just quibbling, you will not get better versions of these films, with better extras or in better quality.
The films themselves are of course the classic first one which really is a very unique film, even for a 70s underground horror film, number two is a great horror-actioner, number three an illadvised tour into zombie-comedy and number four sort of a metatext on the whole Phantasm universe.
In this set, even the subpar third film is acceptable and the very underrated fourth part caps the series with a perfect ending, at least for me personally.
Rating: 5 / 5
The PHANTASM series is one of the best horror series ever made. Far above your average Freddy/Jason slasher films, this series has a story, characters you do care for and an eerie atmosphere rarely seen in other films.
Rating: 4 / 5
Like everyone that has reviewed this film before me, I am going to sing it’s praises, however, unlike those before me, I’m not quite sure why. This film did everything it was supposed to do as a horror film. It scared me in a few areas, it was quite gory in others and it was easily one of the ten most quirky and bizarre films I have ever seen. I can’t tell you why anything transpires the way it does in here, I can’t even tell you why people do the things they do, but I don’t really think that is the point of the film. Like David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, this is more of mind altering experience or a dream that just doesn’t make any sense. Perhaps this is a film that is esoteric by design and if that is the case then perhaps I should just watch it over and over again until I do have some sort of puerile grasp of it.
Dictionary.com’s definition of a phantasm is “in Platonic philosophy, objective reality as observed by the five senses.” Another definiton it gives is simply, “a notion”. And if you watch this film from beginning to end you will see why this makes all the sense in the world, yet it is still an abstruse concept that is meant to be exactly what it is.
The film begins with a funeral of one of Jody (Bill Thornbury) and Reggie’s (Reggie Bannister) best friends. Jody’s little brother, Mikey ( A Michael Baldwin) is a precocious kid who can’t seem to stay in one place and follows his big brother everywhere he goes. Hence he is at the funeral but is surreptitiously hiding out in the bushes. As the funeral ends, he sees the caretaker lift a casket all by himself and put it into his truck. This is the nascency of the bizaare rituals that encompass the film.
Michael decides to investigate the strange looking mansion where the cemetery rests. Once he breaks into the house, he is chased by some strange Jawa looking creatures and by a sphere that seems to come out of nowhere and drains your head of blood. He does escape and finally gets his big brother to believe him when he says that things aren’t quite right up at the Morningside Cemetery. Now, up until this point, the film is quite linear. You have your classic set-up, a spooky looking mansion where the dead are taken and your typical stupid characters that do the traditional scary movie things, like going to investigate a haunted house all by yourself, gratuitous breast shots, some eerie music and dark nights. But that is where the title “typical horror film” ends and it crosses over into Rod Serling territory. From here on out, it just goes weird, but in a goosebump inducing way that keeps you frozen in your seat.
Don Coscarelli can take all of the praise and/or blame for this eccentric film. He wrote, produced, directed, was the DP, the editor and as another reviewer so aptly pointed out, he probably swept the floors at night and fetched coffee for those on the set. This is his incarnation. I also happen to agree with other viewers that say that this film has one of the most haunting yet mellifluous scores which is on par with Carpenter’s Halloween theme. Both are intricate pieces to the presence of the film. Words like haunting, eerie, creepy and forbidding all come to mind when you hear the score. It is also uncanny to see some of the similarities to A Nightmare On Elm Street and Phantasm. Nightmare was a little more clear with what it was trying to say but both films have an overtly murky and dream like exploration into realms that many of us have yet to understand.
The underlying theme in this film is the unsolved questions that plague many of us when we wonder what happens when you die. Most of us believe that you go to Heaven or Hell. But those are just theories. And if theories are unproven then what is stop you from believing that this movie could really be the answer to those questions? As the tag line for the film so poignantly points out, “If this one doesn’t scare you, you’re already dead.” What if all of this was true? What if you could be stolen and made into something that you did not ask to become? Who is the Tall Man and what is he doing here in our world? One of the most harrowing yet well done plot pieces is when Mikey goes to the girl’s house and finds an old picture of the Tall Man sitting on a horse carriage, looking like it is circa 1776. This leaves the viewer ripe with questions.
Phantasm will leave you with more questions than answers but I will say this about the film. In a day and age where you get prosaic, banal and myopic efforts like ( take your pick of most of the horror that has “graced” our screens since the Scream and Blair Witch craze) and you compare them to films like Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Phantasm, you quickly realize that the 70’s and early 80’s was the genesis of the horror film. I realize horror probably dates back to Nosferatu and it became respected with Psycho, but to look at the films that were born in the 70’s and 80’s, it’s a veritable, indefeasible list of some of the most revered and imitated horror films of all time. Now that I have seen Phantasm I can easily see the mark it has left on other films.
9 out of 10—-As I said, I still can’t tell you what this film is all about nor can I tell you what it all means or how it all ends, all I can say is that it made me feel something strange with it’s disingenuous stroke of the brush. This is a film that absolutely demands a second and third viewing….which is what I am about to do right now. BOY!!!!!!!
Rating: 4 / 5