Classic Movie Review: Phantasm (1979)

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Phantasm

Directed by: Don Coscarelli.   

Written by: Don Coscarelli.

Starring: Michael Baldwin (Mike), Bill Thornbury (Jody), Reggie Bannister (Reggie), Lynn Eastman-Rossi (Sally), David Arntzen (Toby), Bill Cone (Tommy), Angus Scrimm (The Tall Man).

 

Watching Phantasm for the first time for this project, I couldn’t help but wonder what it was about this film that has inspired such fandom that the film would rank in the top 100 horror films of all time on the definitive website of such things – They Shoot Zombies, Don’t They? – and almost any other list that goes that deep – not to mention four sequels, the most recent of which came out in 2016, which is also the only film in the franchise not to be directed by the original director, Don Coscarelli. The original is obviously done on a very limited budget – but those horror films can sometimes have their charms, as it forces filmmakers to do inventive things to get what they want onscreen when they can’t just spend their way there. But Phantasm isn’t particularly good on any level – it’s a rather shoddy mishmash of unfunny humor and unscary horror, which seemingly pulls the twists and turns of its plot out of thin air. It’s not that Phantasm is a particularly bad low budget horror movie – just a thoroughly mediocre one, so it somewhat mystifies me that it has such a cult following, all these years later. What did I miss, here?

 

The most interesting aspect of Phantasm is the coming-of-age story of Mike (Michael Baldwin), the main character, who is a 12 year old boy, who has just lost his parents in a car accident. He is now being raised by his brother, Jody (Bill Thornbury) – a travelling musician, who Mike (not without reason) is worried is going to leave him behind – meaning he’d be alone. This is a good spot to start a horror movie from – a kid, already familiar with death, being thrown into a world he doesn’t understand when he sees the films villain – The Tall Man (Angue Scrimm), who works at the funeral home, single-handedly lifting a coffin. As he starts to try and figure out what’s going on with The Tall Man, things get stranger, more dangerous, and more horrific.

 

I guess it’s the horror elements that really don’t work for me in Phantasm. They mostly seem goofy for me – especially in a scene where Mike finally gets Jody to believe him about what’s going on, and shows him the finger of the Tall Man that he had hacked off (complete with bright yellow blood) – and the finger turns into a buzzing insect. Or the silly metal balls that fly around after people. The ultimate solution to the film – the reason everything is happening – is just too silly to take seriously.

 

I do realize that if you were to describe many horror movies using this logic, they would sound silly. But the great horror movies are able to overcome that with atmosphere and suspense – if the movie is scaring you, or keeping you in suspended animation with creeping fear, you don’t realize how dumb things are as they are happening in front of you. Phantasm never really did that for me. I was never scared by the movie, because everything seemed so slapped together. The setup for the movie is good – everything else falls flat. At least for me, because the large cult following the film has is further proof that horror is perhaps the most subjective of genres.