Phantasm
(1979)
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| Directed by: |
Don
Coscarelli
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| Starring: |
A.
Michael Baldwin/ Mike |
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Bill
Thornbury/Jody |
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Reggie
Bannister/Reggie |
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Angus
Scrimm/Tall Man |
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| RATING
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PLOT-CRUNCH:
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Weird stuff is happening at "Morning Side" funeral home. A
creepy undertaker (The Tall Man) is up to no good helped by crazy midgets
(look like rabid Jawas) and flying, murdering balls. Precocious brat,
Mike (Baldwin) pokes his nose where it doesn’t belong and before you can
say "f--ked up stuff", he has the Tall Man after him. Run
Forrest run!
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THE
LOWDOWN: |
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Creepy exercise in originality that grabbed me hard but lessened its grip
in the last 20 minutes. It’s refreshing to see a horror film that’s
not a rehash of another one. Phantasm feels fresh and you never know where
it’s coming from. The film is filled with chilling images (specially
those involving the Tall Man), beautiful, morbid locations (loved the
morgue scenes), lethal flying balls, has an enigmatic, frightening villain
and moments of true suspense. The film feels like death, it feels good…
The movie does become a
tad sour in the last 20 minutes. The idea they come up with to defeat the
Tall Man is very far fetched and I didn’t buy it. And I didn’t care
too much for the typical twist ending. I guess in 1979 it was still novel.
The heroic characters
are sympathetic but for some reason I didn’t warm up to them as much as
I should have. I did love Jody’s jacket though.
On a whole there’s
no denying this film’s ability to paint many morbid tableaux, to creep
you out and to offer us a wonderful horror villain. Wait till you find out
where the midgets come from or the Tall Man’s M.O…creepy. Can you
really go wrong with a tall undertaker that steals corpses and never seems
to die? Didn’t think so.
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| ACTING: |
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A. Michael Baldwin (Mike) does great as the balls on kid, very credible
performance. Bill Thornbury (Jody) has his moments of bad acting but
manages to make the audience like him anyways. Reggie Bannister (Reggie)
manages to do the impossible: make a very bald dude, wearing a ponytail
kool. Reggie is kooler than his ice cream truck. Angus Scrimm (Tall Man)
is just plain scary, the scenes where he runs after Mike gave me the
willies. Nice job.
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| GORE: |
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Some stabbings, cut off fingers, ugly midgets but the highlight is without
a doubt the damage a flying ball does when it buries itself into your
skull and spits out your blood. Fun. The effects are all good except for
that rubber looking fly.
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| T
& A: |
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Some hot blonde shows us her tits and the ladies get a lot of flying
balls.
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| DIRECTING: |
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The film has a very grim look, nice shots, groovy ball POV’s, smoke
machines up the wazoo, slow motion and amazing lighting.
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| SOUNDTRACK: |
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Chilling score that elevates the flick to a higher level.
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| BOTTOM LINE: |
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Phantasm is a must see for any serious genre fan. No it’s
not a perfect flick but you have to admire its creativity, originality and…well…its
balls. It looks slick, moves fast and kind of has the same feel as the
first "Nightmare On Elm Street", dark and mean. Even in death
you’re not safe when the Tall Man’s around….
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| BULL'S EYE: |
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Several references to Frank Herbert's Dune, including a bar named
"Dune" and a scene where Mike is forced to insert his hand into
a black box that inflicts pain as part of a test.
The
Arrow interviews Reggie
Bannister here
Discuss
this movie on The Arrow's HORROR BOARD
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