Phantasm

Phantasm

Advertisements for Phantasm were the first time I'd seen hands shoot out of the ground to grab someone, and I was hooked. A year later my brother took me (tender age of 9) to see Alien in the movie theatre and I was ruined for life. But I'm getting ahead of myself. How about a riddle? What do you get when you take $30 worth of special effects, characters from Star Wars, a cemetery, a really ugly kid and some out of work musicians and mix them all up for a few seconds - like shoving a dirty old stick in a can of fresh paint?

You should know there’s no meaning to the above metaphor, so anyway, Phantasm has our ugly young kid, let's call him Willy since I can't remember his name, discovering that this weird looking guy who runs the local cemetery/mortuary has been doing booming business by turning the recently dead into Jawas and shipping them to Mars. Oh no, I think I may have given away the plot.

Doesn't matter, anyway, since plot isn't really this film's strong point, that would be advertising. What's nice is seeing examples throughout history of crummy little films like this one achieving a measure of success due to crafty marketing of a few splashy images from the movie. Who could resist the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) and that kooky flying sphere? (Plenty - Ed.) Who could understand what any of it meant?

Phantasm doesn’t quite deliver chills, and it only has one good gore scene, the lonely sphere attack, but it does have an alien bug made out of a rubber spider and some toothpicks. It also has a genuine hippy-rock song played by two of the principals, which stops the show because it's so damn good and seems completely off the cuff. It has a boatload of goofy charm because of its earnest stupidity - it's a hell of a lot of fun actually. Through lots of low-rent, over-the-top ‘70s pulp horror action and excitment, Phantasm maintains a breathless pace that forgives its otherwise total dork-osity.

Go on and check out Phantasm again, so you can watch that weird lookin,' triangle-headed kid abused by just about everything in the movie. You'll feel a unique satisfaction.

DVD: Since when did watching crappy out-takes and deleted scenes that were so bad they were taken out of an already crappy movie become a privilege people would pay for? Since people started earning money, apparently. That said; if you have fond memories of Phantasm, then shell-out, because this special edition has a bunch of extras and is commonly found in bargain bins. Not to brag, but I got Phantasm and a special edition of The Fog for a total of $9.99! So what if they're crap. $9.99! Like I was saying, Phantasm both looks and sounds fine in a nice widescreen transfer with either Dolby 5.1 Stereo Sound or the original Mono Soundtrack and it also comes with 3 TV spots, the Theatrical trailer, an Australian TV promo sequence, a Fangoria promo, scenes from a Fango convention, deleted scenes, behind the scenes stuff, audio commentary from the director and the 3 leads, (but not Scrimm) a 1979 interview, numerous stills galleries, radio promos and songs, a short booklet, and a pathetic Easter egg. Wow!


	Phantasm Advertisements for Phantasm were the first time I'd seen hands shoot out of the ground to grab someone, and I was hooked. A year later my brother took me (tender age of 9) to see Alien in the movie theatre and I was ruined for life. But I'm getting ahead of myself. How about a riddle? What do you get when you take $30 worth of special effects, characters from Star Wars, a cemetery, a really ugly kid and some out of work musicians and mix them all up for a few seconds - like shoving a dirty old stick in a can of fresh paint? You should know there’s no meaning to the above metaphor, so anyway, Phantasm has our ugly young kid, let's call him Willy since I can't remember his name, discovering that this weird looking guy who runs the local cemetery/mortuary has been doing booming business by turning the recently dead into Jawas and shipping them to Mars. Oh no, I think I may have given away the plot. Doesn't matter, anyway, since plot isn't really this film's strong point, that would be advertising. What's nice is seeing examples throughout history of crummy little films like this one achieving a measure of success due to crafty marketing of a few splashy images from the movie. Who could resist the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) and that kooky flying sphere? (Plenty - Ed.) Who could understand what any of it meant? Phantasm doesn’t quite deliver chills, and it only has one good gore scene, the lonely sphere attack, but it does have an alien bug made out of a rubber spider and some toothpicks. It also has a genuine hippy-rock song played by two of the principals, which stops the show because it's so damn good and seems completely off the cuff. It has a boatload of goofy charm because of its earnest stupidity - it's a hell of a lot of fun actually. Through lots of low-rent, over-the-top ‘70s pulp horror action and excitment, Phantasm maintains a breathless pace that forgives its otherwise total dork-osity. Go on and check out Phantasm again, so you can watch that weird lookin,' triangle-headed kid abused by just about everything in the movie. You'll feel a unique satisfaction. DVD: Since when did watching crappy out-takes and deleted scenes that were so bad they were taken out of an already crappy movie become a privilege people would pay for? Since people started earning money, apparently. That said; if you have fond memories of Phantasm, then shell-out, because this special edition has a bunch of extras and is commonly found in bargain bins. Not to brag, but I got Phantasm and a special edition of The Fog for a total of $9.99! So what if they're crap. $9.99! Like I was saying, Phantasm both looks and sounds fine in a nice widescreen transfer with either Dolby 5.1 Stereo Sound or the original Mono Soundtrack and it also comes with 3 TV spots, the Theatrical trailer, an Australian TV promo sequence, a Fangoria promo, scenes from a Fango convention, deleted scenes, behind the scenes stuff, audio commentary from the director and the 3 leads, (but not Scrimm) a 1979 interview, numerous stills galleries, radio promos and songs, a short booklet, and a pathetic Easter egg. Wow!