Phantasm Was Cutting Edge For It’s Time
In Phantasm some of the scare factor is lost due to dated haircuts and outfits, but who would have thought that a flying silver ball could be scary?
Written by BHM contributor Dr. Chills
August 1, 2009
Release: March 28, 1979
Written and Directed by: Don Coscarelli
Starring:
A, Michael Baldwin as Michael Pearson
Bill Thornbury as Jody Pearson
Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man/Undertaker
Kenneth V. Jones as Caretaker
Kathy Lester as Lady in Lavender Reggie
Banister as Reggie
What do you get when you cross the hairdresser for ‘The Partridge Family’ with a psychotic slave master from another planet with a penchant for shrinking dead people and making them into dwarflike zombies? Phantasm – that’s what.
I first saw this classic horror movie many years ago when I was a teenager. I remembered three distinctive things about the movie: 1) Scary, flying silver balls, 2) a creepy old guy and 3) yellow embalming fluid. I must admit it was slightly less scary watching the film later in life, but not by much. Perhaps it was the datedness of the haircuts and outfits that kept the original terror of Phantasm just out of reach.
Phantasm begins with a funeral scene and some friends saying goodbye to a dear loved one who has recently passed. The cemetery lies on a grassy field of green, but is overshadowed by a very large and ominous funeral home set up on the hill. Mike (A. Michael Baldwin), the younger brother of main character Jody Pearson (Bill Thornbury) who was forbid by his older brother to attend the funeral, sneaks in anyway. There he discovers the creepy and unusually tall caretaker (Angus Scrimm) of the funeral home digging up the body of the dearly departed and hauling the coffin into the back of a hearse. This is where the story begins to unfold.
After much cajoling, begging and pleading, Mike manages to convince his Jody that there is serious trouble at the cemetery and in the funeral home that sits on the property. With the help of some local psychics (Mary Ellen Shaw & Terrie Kalbus), Jody, Mike and a cast of other Townie-like characters proceed to unravel the mystery.
The rag tag crew of ghost hunters find themselves paired against beautiful witchy women who secretly work for The Tall Man, and hearse-driving, cloak-wearing dwarfs on a mission of death, scary flying silver balls, portals to other worlds and yes – pernicious yellow embalming fluid.
Phantasm is among BHM’s top 100 horror films of all time due to the fact that it introduced us to some very cutting edge stuff in the late 1970’s. The flying balls, for example - who would have thought a shiny silver ball could be so scary? This film also experimented with new special effects in the form of the portal which led to another planet, and the all white, twilight zone like room with some especially strange energy surrounding it. The film was cutting edge for the 1970’s and pretty cool even now in the 21st century.
Through hard work and sheer determination, the characters manage to put The Tall Man and his band of evil dwarfs down, at least until Mike wakes up from his nightmarish dream. But what’s that behind you in the mirror, Mike? Is it real? To find out, you have to see the sequel, Phantasm II
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