The Original Classic From The Director Of THE BEASTMASTER and BUBBA HO-TEP Michael Baldwin and Bill Thornbury star in the shocker that started it all, in which two brothers discover that their local mortuary hides a legion of hooded killer dwarf creatures, a flying drill-ball, and the demonic mortician known as The Tall Man (an iconic performance by Angus Scrimm) who enslaves the souls of the damned. More than 25 years later, it remains unlike any fright film you’ve ever seen. Reggie Bannister co-stars in the heart-stopping classic from writer/director Don Coscarelli that launched the most uniquely chilling series in horror history and is still hailed as one of the scariest movies of all time. Experience PHANTASM again, now featuring frightening extras never before seen in America! Features:Widescreen Presentation TV Spots Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Don Coscarelli and Stars Michael Baldwin, Angus Scrimm and Bill Thronbury Deleted Scences, Also on DVD PHANTASM Trailer, PHANTASM III Trailer PHANTASM: Behind-the-Scences, PHANTASM: Actors Having a Ball Phantasmagoria, 1979 PHANTASM Interview, 1988 Fangoria TV CommericalJody is the kind of guy that every 1970s teen looked up to. He’s in his early 20s, has a cool car, splendid ’70s hair, 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 favorite was a big success at the time of its release, and spawned three sequels. Little wonder; it includes an inventive story, likable 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
Stills from Phantasm (Click for larger image)
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Beyond Phantasm
 Phantasm III |
 Phantasm IV |
 More from Anchor Bay – Re-Animator |
May 17, 2008
#1
Jeezus!
This movie is boring and the kid is annoying and the tall man is not scary. So, now you know…
May 17, 2008
#2
I’m a horror movie fan, and I can certainly appreciate horror movies of the late 70′s/early 80′s. Halloween, for example, is brilliant. The Exorcist, in my opinion, will dominate its genre eternally. Phantasm, however, falls flat nearly every way it turns. This movie is uneventful, riddled with bad acting, and accompanied by a very dated, cheesy soundtrack. I kept waiting for the big “ah hah” moment…the moment where I could walk away feeling good about how I just spent the last 88 minutes of my life. That moment never came. I’ve read reviews the label Angus Scrimm’s portrayal of “the Tall Man” as wonderful. I don’t get it. What was so great about a lanky old guy who walks funny? I give it two stars only because the scene with the silver ball is halfway decent. Otherwise, I’d only give it one. Save your time and money with this one…it’s a waste of both.
May 17, 2008
#3
Everything about this movie had me and my friends written all over it when it was released. There wasn’t a horror flick we wouldn’t give at least the time of day. We went to watch almost every one of them, and this one came out our first, party saturated year out of high school, and part of an outdoor double feature at that! We were primed, pumped and ready for a great flick. We left within a half an hour. They talk about how groundsetting this flick was. To us, another way to put this was totally preposterous. We laughed, and “Oh brothered” our way as far as we could into this flick, until we just couldn’t stand the absurdity any longer. Some say this movie broke the rules. That’s not necessarily a good thing. We found the entire premise of this movie ridiculous in the extent it went to try to scare us. If I were thrust in the middle of this movie I wouldn’t have been any less frightened. If you wanna buy into the product descriptin or Amazon review, go for it. I’ve bought into those sales pitches for movies I also thought were good, only to regret it later. Even when it came out on video and we gave this movie a second chance, which we rarely ever did with movies that didn’t past our muster initially, we still couldn’t get past a mere peak before laughter overtook us until we put something in more scary, like a Porky Pig cartoon. This movie ranks not only as one of my all time worst horror movies ever seen, but time in my life I’ll never get back after wasting it. This movie stinks. The fact if had sequels proves the P.T. Barnum quote of, “there’s a sucker born every minute.
May 17, 2008
#4
For a long time, I had heard about Phantasm being considered of the all-time horror classics. I never watched it because when I read about it, the plot never really interested me. Turns out that I was right…
The basic plot (if you could call it that) of Phantasm is that two brothers get somehow pulled into the weird antics occurring at the local funeral home/cemetery in their town. While at a friend’s funeral, one of the brothers witnesses “the Tall Man” lifting up an occupied coffin on his own, and putting it back in the hearse even though it is supposed to be being buried. A weird occurrence like that encourages the brothers to break in to the funeral home, where they witness……something, I’m not even sure what. It consists of flying metal balls that drill into people’s skulls, weird midgets in druid outfits, and a portal to another planet.
The real hindrance to Phantasm was its inability to play out smoothly. Don Coscarelli, in his directorial debut, uses way too many cuts and switches scenes in a frenetic, chaotic fashion that just leave the viewer confused. And the ending, I won’t spoil it, but dear Lord, I felt like I had just wasted an entire evening watching this supposedly great horror movie that turned out to be a total fluke. To top it all off, there were about two good gory moments in the entire movie, absolutely nothing to keep a horror fan interested, in my opinion. It isn’t the worst movie I’ve seen, so for that reason, I’m giving it 1.5 stars instead of just 1, but suffice it to say that I am totally missing the boat when it comes to why this film is so beloved in the horror community.
May 17, 2008
#5
“If this one doesn’t scare you…You’re Already Dead!” goes the tagline for Phantasm and, well…I must be dead. Even viewing this movie in bed…in the dark…ALONE…wasn’t a creepy experience. I can remember being TERRIFIED by images of the flying metal sphere from the TV commercials for this movie as a child, so I braced myself for finally confronting some of those childhood fears. Turns out, just like with “It’s Alive”, I had nothing to fear at all. Touted as one of the “scariest movies every made”, this movie is extremely laughable, and about as scary as Mister Roger’s Neighborhood. If the horrid, tacky 70′s fashions and musical “score” don’t get you, the excruiciatingly bad SFX will. The death spheres are designed, apparently, to drill red paint, followed by Kool-Aid, out of people’s heads. Nobody is drving the hearse! Well, unless you look through the windshield into the driver’s seat! Add a ludicrous, big rubber fly on steroids, an ending that makes NO sense whatsoever (It was all a dream? OK, then WHY did the dream suddenly become real? Or is THAT all a dream, too?). If you like truly GOOD horror movies, AVOID this train wreck at all costs! Anybody want to buy a VERY slightly used copy?