Phantasm (film)

Phantasm
Promotional poster
Directed by	Don Coscarelli
Produced by	Don Coscarelli
Written by	Don Coscarelli
Starring	A. Michael Baldwin Bill Thornbury Reggie Bannister Kathty Lester and Angus Scrimm
Music by	Fred Myrow Malcolm Seagrave
Cinematography	Don Coscarelli
Editing by	Don Coscarelli
Distributed by	Avco Embassy Pictures (Sony Pictures Entertainment)
Release date(s)	March 28, 1979 (1979-03-28)
Running time	88 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$300,000 (estimated)
Box office	$11,988,469

Phantasm (also released as Never Dead in Australia) is a low-budget "cult classic"^{[citation needed]} horror film produced in 1977 and released in 1979. The film was directed, written, photographed, co-produced and edited by Don Coscarelli. It introduced The Tall Man (who was portrayed in the film and its sequels by Angus Scrimm), a supernatural and malevolent undertaker who turns the dead into dwarf zombies to do his bidding and take over the world. This film was released as a DVD by MGM in 1999 and then re-released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment on April 10, 2007.

The film was originally rated X by the MPAA because of the silver sphere sequence, and due to a scene involving a man urinating on the floor after falling down dead. After Los Angeles Times film critic Charles Champlin made a telephone call in a favor to a friend on the board, the rating was changed from the (commercially non-viable) X-rating to R. Champlin's positive review was quoted on the film's promotional posters.^[1]

This movie was number 25 on the cable channel Bravo!'s list of the "100 Scariest Movie Moments".

To date the film has three sequels, Phantasm II, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Phantasm IV Oblivion.

Plot

After the death of their parents, 24-year-old musician Jody Pearson is raising his 13-year-old brother Mike in a small town disturbed by the mysterious deaths of its citizens. Reggie, a family man and ice cream vendor, joins the brothers in their suspicions that the local mortician, dubbed "The Tall Man", is responsible for the deaths. Mike relays his fears to a fortuneteller and her granddaughter about the possibility of Jody departing and leaving him in the care of his aunt, along with his suspicions about The Tall Man. Mike is shown a small black box and told to put his hand into it. After the box grips his hand, Mike is told not to be afraid and as the panic subsides, the box relaxes its grip. The notion of fear itself as the killer is established and is what propels Mike towards his final confrontation in the film with The Tall Man.

Mike is pursued by minions of the Tall Man, alien dwarves,(which are kept in a small room that houses a gateway device between the two worlds), who are made from the bodies of the recently deceased, and tries to convince his brother of what is happening.

After convincing his brother and Reggie, they find a strange white room with containers in the mausoleum. There is also a gateway to another planet that Mike enters briefly where he sees the alien dwarves that have hunted him through the movie being used as slaves. While trying to escape the Tall Man, Reggie is killed while Mike and Jody barely escape. They devise a plan to lure the Tall Man into a local deserted mine shaft and trap him inside. After doing so successfully, Mike wakes with a start in his house, lying by the fireplace with Reggie sitting next to him.

Reggie tells Mike he was simply having a bad dream, something that has been a common occurrence since Jody died in a car crash. Mike goes into his room where the Tall Man is waiting and pulls Mike through his bedroom mirror.

Deleted Scenes

During 1998 MGM re-released Phantasm on VHS and DVD, the movie had a newly remastered Dolby stereo soundtrack. Also, both the VHS and DVD included deleted scenes. The cut footage included two scenes:

• The first involved Mike entering a room with 2 coffins; one is open and a body is inside, the other is closed but Mike hears sounds from inside it and thinks it’s Reggie. As he tries to open the coffin, Reggie enters the room. When Mike sees him and realizes that something unpleasant is in the coffin, the two of them close it. Mike then tells Reggie that they need to find Jody. This scene is not included on the Anchor Bay release.

• The second scene shows Mike and Jody encountering the Tall Man in the funeral home. Jody shoots the Tall Man several times with his shotgun but it has no effect on him. The Tall Man knocks Mike onto the floor and picks up Jody by the neck with one hand. Mike sees a fire extinguisher and remembers that the Tall Man reacted badly when he passed by Reggie's Ice Cream truck with its refrigerator open. Realizing the Tall Man can be hurt by cold, Mike takes out the fire extinguisher and blasts the Tall Man with it as he tries to kill Jody. The Tall Man withers in pain, screams and his head explodes.

Cast

• Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man
• Pat Roman as The Mega Dwarf
• A. Michael Baldwin as Mike Pearson
• Bill Thornbury as Jody Pearson
• Reggie Bannister as Reggie
• Kathy Lester as Lady in Lavender
• Terrie Kalbus as Fortuneteller's Granddaughter
• Kenneth V. Jones as Caretaker
• Susan Harper as Susie
• Lynn Eastman as Sally
• David Arntzen as Toby
• Ralph Richmond as Bartender
• Bill Cone as Tommy
• Laura Mann as Double Lavender
• Mary Ellen Shaw as Fortuneteller
• Myrle Scotton as Maid

Awards and nominations

• Don Coscarelli won the Special Jury Award in 1979, and the film was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film in 1980.

References

1. ^ IMDB Phantasm Trivia

External links

• Phantasm at the Internet Movie Database
• Phantasm at AllRovi
• Official Phantasm website
• The Phantasm Archives - a Series Resource