If suitable films are like waking dreams, then worthy awe films are like waking nightmares. Few can match the power of Phantasm in this regard. Masquerading as a B-shocker, it gradually develops a kind psychological depth shared only by the best in the genre - films like The Exorcist and Silence of the Lambs.
To commence with, the yarn is frankly outrageous: after the death of a finish friend, two brothers (Mike and Jody, played by Michael Baldwin and Bill Thornbury) survey some curious things about the Morningside Funeral Home where their friend - and their parents, who died two years earlier - are interred. It seems the dour funeral director (a character known only as The Large Man, indelibly rendered by Angus Scrimm) is not quite human. He’s able to prefer fully occupied coffins by himself, as the younger Mike secretly observes; he bleeds yellow blood; he has a outlandish reaction to cold; and he is aided by little silver spheres that trail the halls of the mausoleum, doing unspeakably repugnant things to intruders. It seems his main activity, though, involves a unusual exhaust of the corpses of the dearly departed - a spend we learn in the striking left-turn the film takes in the third act.
Somehow, what could have been a very comical film takes on an unnerving, Lynchian kind of surreality, thanks in spacious measure to a well-developed subtext about abandonment, isolation, despair, and guilt. These are the anxieties that drive nightmares, and - despite the frequent humor throughout - writer/director Don Coscerelli infuses the proceedings with a poignant sense of sadness and dismay. Like Herzog’s Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, or Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Phantasm isn’t unbiased a scary film; it has the authentic texture of a shadowy, disturbing dream.
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And this, in a film where a major sequence involves a titanic, obviously rubber insect flown around on a fishing line! It could have been a true Ed Wood moment, but instead, we prefer into it somehow. Unbelievable.
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In The Titanic Man, Angus Scrimm has created a classic terror film villain, in the Frankenstein’s monster/Dracula/Wolfman/Mummy sense, rather in than the Freddy/Jason tradition. There is no sense of irony in his view or performance. No camp. No winking, wisecracking, or self-aware irony. Unbiased a considerable, implacable, disagreeable presence.
Reggie Bannister rounds out the cast as a musician/ice cream vendor (!) who assists the brothers in their quest to rid the world (or at least their town) of the heinous that has descended.
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The performances (a couple of minor characters notwithstanding) are remarkably skilled, walking that comely line between believability and exaggeration virtually demanded by the genre.
The DVD is crisp and well produced. There is a luscious introduction by The Gargantuan Man himself, Angus Scrimm, to bag things rolling. There is a first-rate deal of supplemental material to be found on the disc, and a thorough commentary track by Coscarelli, Scrimm, Baldwin, and Thornbury.
All told, an noble addition to any dread fan’s collection.
“If this one doesn’t dismay you, you’re already tiresome.” Or so goes one of the taglines passe in the promotions for PHANTASM, the 1979 low-budget film from auteur Don Coscarelli that has become a much-loved apprehension classic. By today’s standards, the film doesn’t quite near the level of terror promised by that slogan. But PHANTASM is nonetheless a well-made indie flick that has always been a staunch crowd-pleaser due to its enigmatic, unpredictable script; the ingenious and effective low-budget special FX; gracious directing and cinematography by Coscarelli; expedient acting, especially from the four principals; and a very memorable, haunting glean.
PHANTASM follows precocious 13-year-old Michael (Michael Baldwin), his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury), and friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) as they investigate the enigmatic goings-on at the creepy nearby funeral parlor. Honest who or what is that unpleasant Ample Man (Angus Scrimm) that seems to have the hurry of the station? What is his portion in the modern disappearance of corpses at the mortuary, and what is his relationship to the elfish eidolons lurking in the graveyard shadows?
PHANTASM’s script is loosely structured and rather broken-down in spots, but this actually heightens the unpredictability of the position and thereby gives the film an unnerving surrealistic quality. And when combined with bizarre imagery (e.g., an airborne chromed sphere drilling into a human head) ; black, atmospheric sets and on-location sites; and a genuinely creepy, inscrutable antagonist like the Mountainous Man, the movie transcends the script and evolves into a 90-minute spine-tingling nightmare-on-film.
The first-rate musical salvage also adds powerful to the nightmarish quality of PHANTASM. Calm by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave, it is stylistically reminiscent of John Carpenter’s secure for his groundbreaking film HALLOWEEN, released a year earlier. But unlike Carpenter’s one-man synthesizer accumulate, Myrow and Seagrave’s music is performed on multiple instruments, delivering a rich, three-dimensional sound that makes PHANTASM’s aural atmosphere seem considerable more ominous than that of HALLOWEEN.
Though it has been over 20 years since its initial release, PHANTASM has former surprisingly well. As with its aforementioned predecessor HALLOWEEN, the gore is minimal, especially when compared to the wave of bloody awe films that splashed up on the cinematic shore in the 1980s and beyond. But the eerie, surreal ambiance of PHANTASM can calm acquire a viewer’s skin coast, and the malignant Stout Man, with all his accursed accoutrements and paranormal paraphernalia, is calm handsome damned creepy. Yes, PHANTASM has a definite ineffable 1970s drive-in quality that identifies it as a product of its era, but rather than being an annoyance, this seems to add yet another layer of “otherworldliness”–at least from a contemporary standpoint.
MGM’s DVD release of PHANTASM offers the film in a non-anamorphic letterbox format in the film’s current aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The digital transfer is fair dapper, with only moderate filmic and digital artifacts sometimes apparent. Colors are shimmering and radiant, though darks are a bit on the muddy side. Soundtrack audio options include a fresh Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound remix, which sounds suited, or the film’s unusual 2.0 mono.
The supplements on MGM’s DVD release of PHANTASM are outstanding. First off, the disc comes packaged with a very nice booklet that contains a heed from writer/director Don Coscarelli, as well as a myriad of gripping tidbits about the film and its stars. On the disc itself, a really frosty alternate audio track offers a feature commentary with Coscarelli and the film’s essential actors. Also included are outtakes, deleted scenes, trailers and TV spots, TV interviews with Coscarelli and Angus Scrimm, and remarkable more! These extras alone are worth the very reasonable retail designate, but buyers earn the frosty film, too!
To recap, PHANTASM is a minor cult classic that both ardent dread fans and casual viewers alike will score genuinely appetizing, and the loaded-with-extras DVD from MGM is nothing short of Phantastic!
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