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Phantasm

Phantasm

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Frightening and bizarre film that is relentless!
Review: I give this film 5 stars when compared to other horror films, not all films. That said...

Phantasm is possibly one of the most frightening and bizarre films ever made. By modern standards this film should be completely terrible, because anyone else attempting to make a film with the same ingredients would surely screw it up: grave robbers, walking corpses, shrunken corpses reanimated, mortuaries, a flying sphere with deadly intentions, aliens and/or interdimensional travel, reanimated fingers, and a singing ice cream salesman. Sound bizarre? It is. Does it work? You better believe it!
When I first saw this film I was in college watching it in a friends dorm room on HBO. In the final scene of the film, I literally tipped the chair over backwards in surprise. It scared the living daylights out of me.
Coscarelli permeates the film with unease. The viewer is never quite sure if what he is watching is reality or some dream/nightmare world that the characters are being subjected to. The result is a fine film that delivers on chills and confuses you just enough to allow you to be surprised by events that wouldn't normally go together, but somehow do here.

Definitely rent or buy this one!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The worst movie I ever enjoyed
Review: This film is a great late 70's classic, despite (or is it because?) of its paper-thin plot and low-budget production. The Tall Man is a relentless foe who pursues overly-curious 13-year-old Michael Pearson. Mike discovers the towering undertaker is no ordinary funeral director. The Tall Man's real job is to process corpses into 3-foot dwarves that he ships to another planet to perform slave duties. Mike's crusade is joined by his brother Jody, who cool guy image is not enhanced by the scenes of him wearing a ridiculous looking pith helmet while strumming the guitar, and pal Reggie, who wears a huge bow tie and peddles ice cream. Along the way there are car chases, gun battles and hand to hand combat with evil little dwarves that bleed yellow oily stuff. The ending is a tad predictable, but provides a good lead in to the second film, which was mediocre. The 3rd and 4th ones were progressively bad. The original Phantasm, however, remains a decent flick for afficianados of horror and cult films.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's coming to Drill your Brains out.
Review: Excellent 1979 Horror fantasy movie about a Deadly Mortician
with flying killer silver Balls that Drill your Skull and suck your Brain out. It's entertaining and gory as well with some fine preformances by Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm.

Other similar movies i would recommend: Suspiria, The Evil Dead,
Poltergeist, Roland Emmerich's Making Contact, and Day of the Dead.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incredibly scary from beginning to end!
Review: This spine chiller will give you shivers like you never thought you could get. Don Coscarelli has created a backdrop for one of the scariest series ever, using the meager means of a low budget seventies production. I guarantee, if this one doesn't scare you, you are already dead! Buy it NOW!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great remastering for picture & sound from the cult classic.
Review: 13 year old Micheal Pearson (A. Micheal Baldwin) always though the morningside cemetary was a little creepy. Until the day, Micheal witness a man take a 500 pound coffin by himself with supernatural strength. Micheal decide to investigate at the morningside cemetary. He encounters a couple of flying metal sphere, a horde of cloaked mini monsters & a creppy tall man (Angus Scrimm), who is controlling it all.

An mixed of tongue in cheek humor, horror & science fiction is successful in this imaginative low budget shocker.

Written and Directed by Don Coascarelli (Phantasm Series, The Beastmaster, Survival Quest) made an instant Cult Classic with this film. DVD`s has an strong non-anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1) transfer & an excellent Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound (included also the original 2 channel mono soundtrack). This DVD is full of features:An fine running commentary track by the director:Don Coscareill (The Beastmaster) & Actors:A. Micheal Baldwin, Bill Thornbury & Angus Scrimm. 10 minutes worth of Deleted Scenes. Two different interviews with the director & actor:Scrimm. Packed with more extras. Creepy score by Fred Myrow & Malcolm Seagrave. An unusual entertaining horror film. Grade:A-.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Totally Disjointed But Enjoyable
Review: People have said to me that they can't make heads nor tails out of this odd flick, which a mixture of horror, comedy, and science fiction. The plot is simple enough: a kid enlists his friends to help him gather evidence on the town's local undertaker, who is the prime suspect in several mysterious murders and disappearances. The movie employs a lot of weird camera tricks and special effects, some done quite effectively on the low budget the producers had to work with. However, there are many eerie sequences that have left audiences confused as to what exactly was going on: is the kid dreaming this stuff or not? Don't take it too seriously! Enjoy this quirky gem.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: BOY, this a great little chiller.
Review: Phantasm is a surreal little nightmare of a movie that works despite the usual low budget flaws. When a friend of his older brother dies in a staged "suicide", a young boy spies something strange at the funeral. As he investigates the funeral home and cemetary he finds increasingly bizarre and horrible things, such as malevolent little trolls that begin popping up everywhere and a flying silver sphere that inflicts one hell of a head wound. The mortician (known only as The Tall Man) also seems to be of supernatural origin, what he does with the bodies entrusted to his care being the stuff of nightmares. Phantasm benefits from a wonderful score my Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave as well as stylish and atmospheric direction by Don Coscarelli. A cult movie that richly deserves it cult status. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good movie but the sequel is better!
Review: My review is the title. I'm using this space as a forum to petition my fellow Phantasmaniacs to urge Universal (or whatever controlling influence) to get Phantasm II on DVD. Who's with me?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bad acting, great movie
Review: Some movies like this just seem to have so much in the feel of the visuals and soundtrack they they can overcome some of the most inept acting in the history of film and still become classics. Anyone else wonder how cool it would be to hang out with Angus Scrimm and knock back a few tall cold ones?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: good ideas snuffed out by a weak story
Review: "Phantasm" is a movie that has so much going for it you can't help but get disappointed when it starts going down the drain. It's a low-budget horror that came out of the 1970s 'renaissance' and boasted a combination of horror and science fiction (although neither aspect is particularly strong). However, the interesting ideas of the story (corpses being transformed into dwarves, the murderous silver sphere, the Tall Man, etc.) aren't fully realized, and the lapses in logic and common sense grow tedious long before the movie's over.

Even a film that lacks coherent sense needs just the slightest foundation of plot to be enjoyed (i.e.--anything by Lucio Fulci), which is where "Phantasm" falls short. A noble effort--my review actually leans more toward 2.5 stars--but I can't recommend it.

On the plus side, the musical score is effectively spooky, much like a John Carpenter/Alan Howarth collaboration crossed with Goblin.


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