Phantasm steps out of my fuzzy childhood memories and proceeds to make things even more confusing than I had thought they were in the firs place, and I kinda like it.
It’s hard to lose a friend or a loved one. When that friend commits suicide unexpectedly it can be very hard to get past. Tommy had a few very close friends he left behind when he apparently decided to stab himself to death. Jody, Reggie and Jody’s little brother Mike were shaken up after his death, Mike especially. Jody didn’t want his little brother to even be at the funeral at Morningside Cemetery. However that doesn’t stop Mike from riding his dirt bike to the grounds and watching through his binoculars. However, what mike sees after the funeral is more disturbing than anything he would have seen there. Mike watches a the “Tall Man” that is the care taker at the cemetery, single handedly lifts Tommy’s coffin and puts it in the back of the hearse.
After seeing the unexplainable sight of what the Tall Man did, Mike is understandably upset and tells his brother what he saw. Jody thinks that Mike is just distraught from the death of Tommy and blows him off. Jody and Reggie try to move on and go about their lives but Mike isn’t about to let this go. Mike soon uncovers what the Tall Man is up to and forces his brother and his friend to help him. It’s even worse than what the three of them could have even imagined.
Phantasm has long been a hole in my horror movie library that I have needed to fix. I vaguely remember watching bits and pieces of at least one of them decades ago. Everything I ever knew about the movie series was the Tall Man, the silver death balls, and a body snatchers kinda twist. That’s it. I think what shocked me the most about this movie (and possibly the further four movies in the series) is that the prominently displayed silver death ball things are barely even in the film. I think they are on screen maybe two or three times and a total of like 2mins tops.
This film is bizarre is so many ways, I don’t think I could go into them all here and not write a book about it. From the way that so much is unexplained with the Tall Man (though maybe they get into that in later movies), the psychic grandma, and timeline of the movie itself. However easily my two favorite “what the fuck” moments are easy to point out. The single scene where they introduce the lady in Jody’s house that shows up literally for a jump scare and is never seen again, at all. The best is the ending. So… you know… spoiler alert I guess. At the end of the movie, the big bad is vanquished and things seem okay again. Cut to Mike standing on Jody’s grave. Then we get a scene of Reggie (apparently now Mike’s guardian) talking to Mike about how they miss his brother. Apparently Mike died in a car wreck and that is the ONLY line that is paid to this fact. I laughed so hard because all I could think of was “Poochies Death” in the Simpsons.
I will definitely be watching more of these movies over the next however many months and years. This might be the best example of a psychological thriller/horror from the 80s I can think of. I’m sure it’s not for everyone, but I am very happy to have finally seen it.
Comments