I’m gonna level with you, cats and kittens. I’m a bit of a horror buff. I like the creepy, and the kooky, and I am all about the all-together ooky. And that is why I am absolutely overjoyed to bring you my favorite horror movie of all time, the 1979 classic Phantasm.
C’mon. You remember. Phantasm. The tall, scary old guy with the flying balls that drilled open people’s heads? Ah, now you remember.
See, that’s how it is with everyone. This movie was what began my “Unsung Wonders” obsession, and is why I get elbows deep in the muck of video store bargain-bins to bring you the best that got away.
Phantasm was directed and written by Don Coscarelli, creator of some incredibly underrated films such as The Beastmaster and Bubba Ho-tep, both of which I also highly recommend. Coscarelli has a knack for writing bizarre stories that somehow work, and his direction is immaculate, driving the viewer from experience to experience.
Phantasm is the story of Michael Pearson, played by A. Michael Baldwin, his older brother Jodi, played by Bill Thornbury, and Reggie, played by none other than low-budget horror legend Reggie Bannister. The final and all-important addition to the mix is The Tall Man, the antagonist of the series, played by the illustrious Angus Scrimm.
The main story is simple, but that is not what grants this tale its strange beauty. Michael goes to the funeral of a friend of his brother’s and sees the body, coffin and all, lifted up out of the fresh grave and taken away by the director of the funeral home, a very Tall Man. He is them frightened by small, robed creatures in the woods, and runs home. Later he finds that the Tall Man and his emissaries are stealing the dead and turning them into the hooded creatures, only describable as “evil Jawas”. He, his brother, and Reggie go forth, do battle, and win free…or do they?
I would attempt to explain the rest of the plot, but that would do it no justice. I will not try to defend the transparency of the classic horror tropes used to fuel this story. Instead, I will explain that the joy of this movie, and indeed the entire series, is the dreamy ambiguity of it all. It is implied many times that the entire situation is not what it seems, and that Michael is experiencing something altogether different from the plot of the movie. Fans (or phans, as they are often known) have conjectured that the film is actually Michael coming to terms with the deaths of his parents and Jodi in a car crash that is alluded to, and that every other facet of the movie is actually symbolic.
Others have concocted, with the help of the rest of the series, an entire background and explanation that leaves the realms of horror or fantasy (phantasy) and enters the realms of the metaphysical and philosophical. Indeed, no real explanation is ever given, either in this film or the sequels, as each time it seems we are getting closer to the meat of the issue a new layer is slipped in, another ambiguity introduced.
What could have been yet another splatter-film in an era famous for them instead turns out to be a fascinating and atmospheric journey into a mystery that might be that of death…or the mind of a young boy. By the end of the film you might be unimpressed by the dated effects and sometimes stilted acting, but you will be left thinking. Phantasm ends up asking questions about the nature of consciousness and the borders between the waking and dreaming, the alive and the dead, that few films even approach, much less a low-budget relic of the late 70s.
So go to that bargain-bin and pick out this classic, pop yourself some popcorn, and get ready for a strange and beautiful journey. You won’t regret it.
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