|
Phantasm (MGM DVD) (1979) review by Billion$Baby The starting place for Don Coscarelli's cult classic science fiction and fantasy horror saga. Shot for a measly $300,000 and written, directed, photographed and edited by Coscarelli. Whilst I love the sequels, none of them have yet managed to attain the same powerful impact of this non-linear, often dreamlike feature. Although Phantasm 4 came close with it's use of previously unseen footage from the original. What also makes this film so important is it's very early fusion of horror and comedy, never mind the hugely unusual blend of horror and sci-fi.
This is one of those very rare films where the budget constraints made little, if any, difference to the final film. The special effects are usually excellent throughout with the obvious highlight being the infamous Sentinel Sphere sequence where a caretaker's head is drilled into, and the contents within sprayed out behind, by the flying mausoleum guardian. The sphere was inspired by one of Don's nightmares and the clever use of fishing lines and reverse photography were used to create this brilliant set-piece death. It's a bit more disturbing in this franchise entry as this sphere kill has the dead man's urine pooling around his jeans afterwards!
This film introduced Angus Scrimm ( real name, Lawrence Rory Guy) as the nefarious Tall Man, the indestructable creature from another dimension. One of horror's greatest ever screen villains. Coscarelli's film features some interesting brilliant white locations, an unusual idea only partially realised by Lucas on his THX 1138 feature and also seen later on at the very start of Xtro. There is a close similarity between the Star Wars jawas and Coscarelli's dwarves, which is rather unlucky as Don has mentioned that he was already filming Phantasm when the first Star Wars trailers aired!
The plot is about as far out as horror gets: a creature from another dimension stealing the dead and shrinking them down to dwarf size (to cope with the difference in gravity) to ship back home as slave labour. There's also an interesting psychic sub-plot between two brothers and many other surreal way-out-there moments. Oh, and you simply have to make special note of the brilliant progressive rock score by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave which adds a huge impact to the bizarre proceedings. P.S. The Tall Man is apparently also a shape changing transsexual in this film. A plot point mercifully dropped in the sequels. ;)
What's perhaps most interesting about this film is that whilst it still stands alone as a seperate and complete body of work, it's also the first chapter in a brilliant (and incredibly unconventional) still running saga that puts all other horror franchises to shame. This special edition from MGM boasts incredible extras which makes one wonder why it only boast's a (far better than vhs but still prone to white specks), non-anamorphic 1,85:1 print. Weird, well at least it has 5.1 sound. This dvd is an essential buy for any fan of the original film or franchise, purely for the incredible extras if nothing more:
- A 4 min intro by Scrimm
- Audio commentary by director and cast. Scrimm was actually present for this but there was a fault with his microphone and his remarks had to be re-recorded and replaced.
- Very cool animated menus with easter egg hidden optional music choices
- 10 minutes of deleted (non-Phantasm 4!) scenes
- 20 mins of behind the scenes footage with commentary
- Trailers and radio spots
- Huge still galleries with promotional and merchandising material on show
- Two audio tracks to play - beware the horrible disco remix of the classic score!!
- 4 min Australian television promo with Scrimm
- A Scrimm Fangoria television commercial and a 10 minute Fangoria convention appearance
- Almost 30 minutes of a '70 interview with Coscarelli and Scrimm - the interviewer looks like an extra from Saturday Night Fever
- An informative behind the scenes booklet
More Phantasm extras than you can shake a stick at - buy this disc now! This is a film and dvd that every horror fan should own.
|
©
2002 - present Horrorview.com., All Rights Reserved | Horrorview™
is a trademark of Crying on the Inside Productions, INC.
All movie titles, pictures, and materials are registered trademarks
and/or copyrights of their respective holders.