On P List of Movie Reviews

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Phantasm (1979)

Rate: 7
Viewed: 6/03, 10/07, 6/11

10/07: If I can think of a horror film that's different, unique, and bizarre all at once, Phantasm easily comes to my mind.

What picture is going to start off with a man and woman having sex at the cemetery? Shot independently under a budget of $300,000, Phantasm became a huge box-office hit, grossing $22 million. It's an abstract thriller that's hard to make out and offers almost no satisfying answers.

Think of great villains, and there's no question Angus Scrimm's Tall Man is among them. His famous catchphrase "BOOOOOOYYYY!!!" still reverberates to this day. It's hard to think of Phantasm without him plus the deadly steel balls as one of them goes straight for the gardener's head.

Unfortunately, as far as the franchise goes, there will be no clarification of what the whole thing means. I hope someday there's a fifth part to explain it all finally, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

All in all, as the Tall Man would say, "You play a good game boy, but the game is finished. Now you die."

6/11: "You gotta be shittin' me man, that mother's strong!"

It's a good way of describing the Tall Man in Phantasm. As the title indicates, it's been a dream. Of course, nothing makes sense and has never did to this day. That's why Phantasm remains one of the most bizarre films ever made which makes it easy to come back to it again and again and try to make heads or tails out of the story.

There are memorable scenes: the random sex at the cemetery, the famous steel ball pumping blood out of the gardener's head, the Tall Man's BOOOOOOYYYY!!! yell, the awesome-looking 1971 black Plymouth Barracuda, and the dwarves grabbing Michael on the bed with the Tall Man right behind.

All in all, it's hard to come up with a more bizarre horror film than Phantasm, and the movie poster is a good indication of what to expect.

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