Phantasm (1979)

A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber known only as the Tall Man, who keeps a lethal arsenal of terrible weapons with him.

Director:

Don Coscarelli

Writer:

Don Coscarelli

Stars:

A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister

2 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
A. Michael Baldwin	...	Mike (as Michael Baldwin)
Bill Thornbury	...	Jody
Reggie Bannister	...	Reggie
Kathy Lester	...	Lady in Lavender
Terrie Kalbus	...	Fortuneteller's Granddaughter
Kenneth V. Jones	...	Caretaker (as Ken Jones)
Susan Harper	...	Girlfriend
Lynn Eastman-Rossi	...	Sally (as Lynn Eastman)
David Arntzen	...	Toby
Ralph Richmond	...	Bartender
Bill Cone	...	Tommy
Laura Mann	...	Double Lavender
Mary Ellen Shaw	...	Fortuneteller
Myrtle Scotton	...	Maid
Angus Scrimm	...	The Tall Man

Storyline

Mike, a young teenage boy who has just lost his parents, afraid to lose his brother follow him to a funeral, where Mike witnesses the Tall Man lifting a coffin on his own. Mike decides to investigate, and discovers that the Tall Man, protected by his flying spheres, is shrinking dead bodies down to half their normal size and reanimating them as slaves. It is then up to Mike, his brother, and Reggie the ice cream man to stop the Tall man.

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Plot Keywords:

fellatio | hot woman | breast | c cup | feminine hair | 

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Taglines:

If you're looking for horror that's got balls...IT'S FOUND YOU.

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for nudity, violence, and intense scenes

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 March 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

Morningside

Filming Locations:

16232 Pacific Coast Hwy, Huntington Beach, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$300,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$11,988,469

Company Credits

Production Co:

New Breed Productions Inc.,Bad Robot

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono 4-Track Stereo (Visurama)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The alien dwarves bear a strong resemblance to the Jawas of Star Wars, but the design for the dwarves was already completed before Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) was released.

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Goofs

(at around 1h 19 mins) When the rocks are filling the pit at the end, a black tarp covering the hole is visible beneath the dirt.

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Quotes

Jody: Now, remember: you don't aim a gun at a man unless you intend to shoot him. And, you don't shoot a man unless you intend to kill him. No warning shots. Hey, you listening to me? No warning shots. Warning shots are bullshit. You shoot to kill, or you don't shoot at all.

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Crazy Credits

The remastered version begins with the Bad Robot logo appearing in one of the Tall Man's spheres.

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Alternate Versions

Another scene cut from Phantasm, but shown in Phantasm: Oblivion is 'The "Just the wind" sequence. Mike is walking down one of the town's streets at night. Reggie's Ice Cream Truck stops next to him. Mike sees Reggie and jumps in. As they drive. Reggie hears something and he asks Mike if he heard it. Mike replies "It's jJust the wind." Reggie nods. And they drive off. We see the tail light fade off into the darkness.

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Connections

Referenced in Blood and Guts with Scott Ian: Walking Dead's Greg Nicotero Gores Scott Ian (2012)

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Soundtracks

Sittin' Here At Midnight
by Bill Thornbury
Thornbury Music

User Reviews

This gives new meaning to the word "BOOOYYY!"

In 1980, Magnetic Video released the full length 90-minutes long version on video, with a difused glow throughout the entire film. In the latter part of the 1980s, the film was issued again on video, but one sequence (which takes place in near complete darkness in The Tall Man's glowing white room) was accidentally edited out by the people supervising the film to video transfer. This version of the film ran 87/ 88 minutes in length. When Phantasm was issued on DVD in the late 1990s the scene was restored, but the colour balance and the soft diffusion was corrected, which I think robbed the film of some of its atmospheric effect. My review is based on Magnetic Video's 1980 release.

This haunting, dreamlike hallucination of a movie was written, directed, photographed, produced and edited by Don Coscarelli, it doesn't make much sense but it's still a great bit of fun to watch with the lights turned out. This kid named Mike convinces his older brother Jody that there is something weird going on at the local cemetery. So he and Jody break into the old mausoleum and find out that it's actually some kind of factory where people are killed by a flying metal ball, crushed down to a height of about 3'2", dressed up like little monks and packaged up into round metal garbage cans and shipped off for use as slave labour in some other dimension. A dimension ruled and resided over by the six and a half foot tall mortician (known throughout the entire ordeal as just simply "The Tall Man") working at this cemetery. When The Tall Man kills another friend of theirs, they decide to put and end to him, or at least try to.

This movie has many different layered meanings, over the years some people have said that it's a reference to corporate America coming in (in the form of The Tall Man) and killing off everyone (by turning everything into a 'business') and some have said that this movie is also about a kid's loss of innocence and fears about everyone around him leaving (or in this case dying) Whatever the hell this movie is about, it's still great fun, followed by a couple of really disappointing (and belated) sequels.