Phantasm

Year: 1979
Actors: Angus Scrimm, Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister
Director: Don Coscarelli
Running Time: 88 Minutes
 
Plot: 
After the deaths of Jody Pearson's parents he is left raise his 13 year old brother Mike in a small town disturbed by mysterious deaths of it's residents. Jody, Mike and there best friend Reggie who is a ice cream vendor and family man are getting suspicious about the local mortician AKA "The Tall Man", as they start to realise he is causing all the deaths in the small town, they begin to learn about what evil plans he has in store for all the corpses and where The Tall Man comes from.
Can they stop him before its too late for all the Residents of the small town ???
You'll have to watch it to find out!
 
 
Review:
Personally I think The Tall Man is Angus Scrimm's best role to date and he will forever be remembered as The Tall Man from phantasm over any of his other movie roles, Reggie Bannister is a fantastic Actor and played the role of Reggie the ice cream vendor which I personally think not only is it the best role Reggie Banister has ever played but it's the best character role in the whole movie, he is hilarious and nothing ever seems to go right for him, he stands out more than any other character and Reggie Bannister plays the role to perfection.
 
The atmosphere in this movie is very frightening it's a great case of dark and gloomy things that go bump in the night although in this case the dark and gloomy things are kick ass Dwarf Zombies out to serve only 1 master The Tall Man !!!
All jokes aside I really did enjoy this movie it will go down as being one of my favourite movies of all time, the characters are great they are very interesting which drag's you into the movie making you feel for them at every twist and turn, you feel nothing but sympathy for Mike as the tall man sets out to destroy his life and then end it.
 
The score for this movie was composed by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave it was fantastic it gave a horrifying feeling whenever it was played and worked really well with the movie.
 
My favourite couple of scene's in the movie are when The Tall Man Stands at the end of Mikes bed and his a bunch Zombies grab Mike from each side of the bed and when Mike looks in the mirror and see's The Tall Man standing behind him and quotes his famous word "BOY" and then 2 hands break through the mirror and pull him through, those 2 scenes are full of atmosphere and filled me with dread which is how a real horror movie should make you feel.
 
This movie is a Classic and had years to collect such a high reputation, it is a great example of how simple special effects can be so effective, Angus Scrim standing at 6ft 4inchs tall already he used platform shoes and suits several sizes to small to make him seem even taller, so he looked perfect for the role of The Tall Man, His dwarf zombies where all played by small children and the Flying Sphere scene was made using a finishing line attached to the sphere which was designed and crafted by Willard Green, The shot were the Sphere was attached to the mans head was filmed by sticking it to his head, then pulling it off, and filming the shot in reverse, so it looked like it flew into his head, they were all simple special effects but made the film stand out and look amazing.
 
The Movie's running time was originally 3 hours long, but Writer and Director Don Coscarelli thought it was to long for people to stay interested in watching it and made a number of big cuts to the film which ended up being only 88 minutes long, which for me was a shame id have loved to have seen the movie as it was originally shot and intended, However you can see a number of these cut scenes in the later instalment Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) but the rest are believed to be lost.
 

The movie Spawned 3 Sequels, Phantasm 2, Phantasm 3 Lord of the dead and Phantasm 4 Oblivion, However this remains the best of all 4 with Phantasm 2 coming a very close 2nd!!

Scores:

Characterization and Story telling 8.5/10
Music and Atmosphere 9/10 Overall score for enjoyment of this movie is an easy 8.5/10, its just a shame the movie was not on for the full 3 hours, however I loved it and I thought it was inventive and new, there is no better villain than The Tall Man, DON'T MISS IT!!!

Written By
Evil Bob