Review: Phantasm (1979)

Stars: Micheal Baldwin, Bill Thornbury

Budget: $300,000

Directed By: Don Coscarelli

One of those proper gems you come across from time to time. Though today this series definitely has it's own cult following.

Made for a minuscule $300k which even back in that time wasn't a lot of money. mainly due to practical effects still costing a pretty penny then.

wouldn't exactly call it a micro budget film but it is definitely bordering on that.

On the subject of effects this film does spectacular amounts on the budget it has. One of the most iconic being the flying ball with drills and blades.

this film also does what a lot of franchise films did back then too. have a recurring character, that being Reggie, played by Reggie Bannister who would show up as his character in nearly every chapter of the franchise. Despite seemingly being killed in some of the previous films.

Also iconic film monster the Tall Man is of course introduced as the films series main bad guy.

so we see in the beginning of this film a young lad having sex with a good looking woman, who subsequently kills him. Though to most the mind scarring knowledge that the woman is the Tall Man.

At his funeral people think Tommy has committed suicide, so obviously it's been set up to look like that. Even his two friends Reggie and Jody think he has.

Later on Jody's younger brother (Mike) see's the tall man easily lift the coffin with one arm, which kind of freaks him out. So much so he tries to keep tabs on him.

This eventually leads to Mike being chased by one of the films 'short guys'. stumbling on and catching his older brother Jody about to have sex with the tall man in woman form, in the cemetery. His brother (thinking he's been cock blocked) is annoyed and doesn't believe Mike.

Mike keeps looking but is caught by a caretaker, who is then killed by the steel sphere, Mike then just about escapes the Tall Man cutting off some of his fingers in a door.

Mike uses one the fingers to convince his brother of the Tall Mans doings, Reggie also joins after seeing the finger transform. In an action scene with the short men they find one of them is a shrunken Tommy. This reveals some of the Tall Mans plans.

The rest of the film is pretty much a push and pull between the heroes and the Tall Man, which is pretty funny as the gang find out the rest of the Tall Mans plans.

This film took an amazing $12 on its tiny budget, which screamed sequel, we didn't actually get one until 1988, just over 8 years later. Part 3 was 1994, part 4 was 1998 and then we didn't get another one until 2016, each to varying degrees of success. I may well get around to reviewing them at some point too. As for this film It's a fun romp, not one of my favorite franchises but a franchise none the less which as you all know hold a space in my dead heart.

THN awards Phantasm (1979) a strong 3 out of 5 stars with a recommendation to watch.