You won't be disappointed!

Simply A Masterpiece

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I found out about this film from horror compilation Ultimate Boogeymen: The Killer Compilation, which consisted of notable scary movie villains, killers and monsters, I was hoping it might be something worthwhile. Basically following the deaths of his parents, 24-year-old musician Jody Pearson (Bill Thornbury) raises his 13-year- old brother Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) in a small Oregon town disturbed by the mysterious deaths of its citizens. Family man and ice cream vendor Reggie (Reggie Bannister) joins the brothers in their suspicions of the local mortician, dubbed the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), they believe he is responsible for the deaths. Mike relays his fears to a Fortuneteller (Mary Ellen Shaw) and her Granddaughter (Terrie Kalbus) about the possibility of Jody departing and leaving him in the care of his aunt, and his suspicions about the Tall Man. Mike is shown a small black box and told to put his hand inside, something grips his hand, he panics, before being told to calm down, and the grip of the box relaxes, he is taught that there should be nothing to fear but fear itself. Mike decides to enter the mausoleum, and finds the lair of the Tall Man, a series of corridors with wall burials, he is pursued by flying silver spheres, capable of drilling into the head of a victim, and a number of minions, that are in fact deceased townspeople, their corpses have been shrunk down. Jody and Reggie are sceptical about Mike's stories of what he has found, but they are eventually convinced, they all enter the mausoleum, and find white room filled with containers, as well as two beams. Mike unintentionally finds that the beams are a gateway, leading to another planet, he enters this briefly, and sees the dwarfs working as slaves, Reggie tries to escape from the Tall Man, but appears to be stabbed and killed. Mike and Jody barely escape, and devise a plan to lure the Tall Man into a local deserted mine shaft and trap him inside, they are successful, then Mike suddenly wakes up, lying next to the fire. Reggie is there and tells him he was having a nightmare, in fact Jody was killed in a car accident, this has been a common occurrence for Mike. In the end, Mike enters his bedroom, he is shocked to find the Tall Man there waiting behind the door, and he is dragged through the bedroom mirror by one of the dwarf minions. Also starring Kathy Lester as Lady in Lavender, Kenneth V. Jones as Caretaker, Susan Harper as Girlfriend and Lynn Eastman-Rossi as Sally. Scrimm does make a menacing villain, but it sits right between imaginative and illogical, a macabre fun-house mortuary is fine, and the shiny flying balls drilling and spilling blood are nasty, but the science-fiction stuff and slave dwarfs take it to a ridiculous level, a weird but sort of alright cult horror. Okay!

It's important, first off, that you understand that horror films (with the exception of horror from the 30s and 40s) is about my least favorite genre. It's mostly because too many newer films rely on too many gory special effects and not enough on a real plot. They're often just one senseless murder after another. While many love the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises, they just don't appeal to me. I'm saying all that because this certainly has to effect my impressions of "Phantasm"....especially since I actually LIKED the movie! It sure ain't sophisticated...but it is incredibly frightening and cool.The biggest reason I liked this film is that unlike so many other slasher films, there is a backstory...an actual REASON for the killings. It's not some indestructible guy in a hockey mask or Leatherface doing all the killing but a weird group of aliens who run a mortuary and do so in order that they can reanimate the dead and send them back to their home planet to become slaves! And, when Mike discovers this, the movie jumps into warp speed--with one crazy, terrifying scene after another....and it NEVER lets up!What I also appreciate about the movie is that although it's incredibly violent, the deaths all are done with low-tech 1979 special effects so it doesn't look the least bit realistic (though I liked the fake urine used in one scene...a nice little touch). If seeing folks REALISTICALLY slaughtered happened in the film, it would have turned me off...and I would have turned off the movie! Overall, weird, very inventive and strangely fun. By the way, although the lead was only 16 and the film was CLEARLY marketed to teens, it is NOT a teen film. There's too much in the gore and boobie departments to make this a film for teens...unless, of course, you're trying to raise a young psychopath.

Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) and his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) are mourning the death of their parents in a small Oregon town. Together with their friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister), an ice cream man, they must do battle with a nefarious undertaker known only as The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) and his various minions...not to mention a neat flying sphere that can puncture skulls.Writer / director / cinematographer / editor Don Coscarelli truly hit paydirt with this enduring fan favorite, a horror / fantasy classic that spawned a franchise spanning over three and a half decades. A great film it is not, but it sure is a fun and entertaining one. Admittedly, the acting is mostly amateurish and our heroes less interesting than our villain. But Coscarelli clearly enjoys himself playing with as much "it's all supposed to take on the tones of a nightmare" shtick as he can. He never does worry about any of this making sense.Baldwin, Thornbury, and Bannister are at least likable as our heroes, especially Bannister, whose character turned into more of a badass as the series went on. Kathy Lester is alluring as a mysterious "lady in lavender". But "Phantasm" ultimately belongs to the imposing Scrimm, whose appearance is very memorable. "BOOOYYY!!!"The film also benefits from a music score by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave that is pretty catchy, in particular its haunting, somewhat "Halloween"-esque main theme.The main set piece involves the sphere mutilating a caretakers' face; Coscarelli fought the MPAA to keep this sequence in the film and actually succeeded.Worth watching, at least once, by devotees of the horror genre.Seven out of 10.

"This review is of the newly released remastered version on DVD/blu-ray" Horror fans are the most dedicated fans you will find. The only group that comes close are those who love the tear jerking romantic films like THE NOTEBOOK, movies that will be watched again and again. But horror fans will not only watch a movie multiple times, they will buy every edition that comes out, will watch every extra in detail and will watch the film with every commentary track included. That's how dedicated they are.So when it was announced that the 1979 horror classic PHANTASM was being restored this year in a 4k version supervised by J.J. Abrams, the director of the first two movies in the new STAR TREK movies, SUPER 8 and the recent STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, fans were thrilled to know the movie was in good hands. It turns out that Abrams was a fan of the film as well and contacted director Don Coscarelli to help with the restoration. Not only have they cleaned up the look they've polished up the soundtrack as well.If you're not aware of the film it's an interesting tale. Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) is a pre-teen troubled after the death by accident of his parents. When his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) helps with the funeral of his friend Tommy, Mike sneaks about the cemetery watching the funeral. Rather than the normal situation he watches as the funeral director known only as the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) returns to the gravesite after everyone has gone and single handedly lifts the coffin into his hearse to take back to the funeral home.This is just the first encounter Mike has while dealing with the deaths around him, Jody possibly leaving town and leaving Mike with his aunt. With each encounter with the Tall Man Mike finds himself drawn into something bigger than a few deaths or the mysterious behavior of the man. In the funeral home he wanders the halls of the mausoleum and is nearly caught by a groundskeeper. But as he is grabbed a flying silver sphere suddenly comes down the hall with three protruding blades in it, sticking into the groundskeeper's forehead and draining him of blood.Mike tries to tell his brother about what is happening and eventually convinces him he's not seeing things. With the aid of Jody's best friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister), the three determine to enter the mausoleum and discover just what the Tall Man is up to. Shrunken humans, odd shaped people, a portal to places unknown and more flying spheres help to make this film a combination of science fiction and horror with a little heavier lean on horror. The story might sound simple but the visual storytelling of Coscarelli makes it all work and holds your interest from start to finish.The movie did decent at the box office but nothing spectacular. Even though it was considered a low budget film the look, style and feel of the film make it seem all the more impressive. While it does have that low budget drive-in atmosphere about it the movie offers more than most films made for those locations ever offered. This could be the reason that the film has drawn such a dedicated fan base.It had enough fans that the film spawned 3 other sequels over the years. Oddly enough most were never completed under the same studio banner making their release in a box set nearly impossible (and yet it happened). Each sequel left an open ending with more story to tell. That has resulted in what has been called the final installment, PHANTASM: RAVAGER, which also comes out this week.Fans of the film will be ecstatic over the look of this restoration. I've never seen the film look better than this and I've seen it a number of times, from my first viewing at the local drive-in to VHS to DVD. The images here are sharper than ever before, the darks are actually dark rather than the milky look they've had in some incarnation and the clean up on some of the effects make them better than they've ever appeared. Abrams and his crew deserve recognition for the wonderful job they've done here.If you love the film you'll want this edition in your collection. It also includes some notable extras including an episode of GRAVEYARD CARS where they recreate the classic car from the film, interviews from 1979 with Coscarelli and Scrimm, deleted scenes and a commentary track with Coscarelli, Baldwin, Scrimm and Thornbury. And if you've never seen the film before now is your chance to do so with the best edition you will more than likely ever find. With Christmas around the corner this is the perfect gift for any horror fan. Just look for PHANTASM: REMASTERED.Speaking of horror fans those who can't get enough of trailer compilations, those previews shown before movies, will want to get their orders in for TRAILER TRAUMA 3: '80s HORROR-THON from Garagehouse Pictures. With over 250 trailers and running over 7.5 hours, this trailer compilation will most likely be one of the best ever offered. It comes out December 21st, just in time to make it under the Christmas tree.