- Actors: Angus Scrimm, A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister
- Director: Don Coscarelli
- Disc Format: Color, Dolby, NTSC, THX, Widescreen
- Language: English
- Subtitles: English
- Rated: R
- Studio: Well Go USA
- Release Date: December 6, 2016
- Run Time: 89 minutes
Easily one of
the strangest horror movies ever made, Phantasm
has a little bit of everything crammed into one movie. The 1979 cult classic is
a rare sci-fi horror film made on a low budget. There are moments of gore (primarily
involving the sphere weapon), a dark sense of humor, erratic and purposefully
disorienting editing, and even a bit of unexpected realism (a victim urinating
during his death scene is still shocking today). This movie is far from a
masterpiece, but there are undeniable moments of genius in here, and this
remastered version presents them in startling clarity.
Don Coscarelli’s
bizarre vision begins as confusingly as it ends, with the basic story involving
a pair of brothers, an ice-cream truck driver, and a mortician that they
suspect is responsible for a series of deaths in the small California town. Mike (A. Michael Baldwin)
is a 13-year-old worried that his 24-year-old brother (Bill Thornbury), and his
official guardian, is considering leaving town without him. These concerns are quickly
dispatched after Mike witnesses the town mortician, who he simply calls The
Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), lifting a coffin on his own. In an attempt to
investigate the strange occurrences at the cemetery, Mike accidentally draws
the attention of The Tall Man and his evil minions.
The cemetery is
crawling with small creatures cloaked in hooded coats but this is just the
beginning of the oddities to be discovered. The Tall Man also has the ability
to dispatch spherical weapons, when his finger is dismembered it remains active
and alive, and eventually Mike discovers a portal to another world within the
walls of the mortuary. This is all presented in a way that makes reality feel
dream-like, and by the end of the film I am always left scratching my head and
wondering what really occurred within the narrative.
Meticulously
restored by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, Phantasm has never looked better, at least not in my lifetime.
There is absolutely no static on the image, so that all of the bizarre details
can be admired in complete clarity. Occasionally this works as a double-edged
sword, showing the faults in the low budget filmmaking as well as the
accomplishments. But this is part of the enjoyment of Phantasm; it was filmed
economically, with a certain degree of creativity becoming a part of the film’s
charms. Many of the horror franchises that followed Phantasm were predictable and formulaic, following a pattern that
is easy to discern. Even with the distance of decades, Phantasm is marvelously erratic. The new Blu-ray release also
features a new 5.1 Surround Sound mix, which is particularly adept at
increasing the creepiness of the dwarf-like creatures.
The new remastered Blu-ray release also
comes with a DVD copy of the film, and an assortment of new and archival
special features. There are interviews from 1979 with writer/director
Coscarelli, as well as actor who played the iconic villain, Angus Scrimm. New
features include an episode of the television show “Graveyard Carz,” in which
they restore a ’71 Pymouth ‘Cuda, the car heavily featured in the film. The
audio commentary for the film includes Coscarelli, Baldwin, Scrimm, and
Thornbury. There are also a handful of deleted scenes and a trailer gallery.
Entertainment Value:
8/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 7/10
Historical
Significance: 8/10
Special Features: 7/10
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