Product Details

• Actors: A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester, Terrie Kalbus
• Directors: Don Coscarelli
• Writers: Don Coscarelli
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: AVCO Embassy Pictures
• DVD Release Date: September 28, 1999
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (213 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792841344
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,872 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Phantasm" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Jody is the kind of guy that every 1970s teen looked up to. He's in his early 20s, has a cool car, splendid '70s hair, leather jacket, plays guitar and (naturally) snags all the girls. His little brother, Mike, in particular, admires him and emulates him at every turn. Things start to go astray, however, when the two brothers and their friend Reggie attend a funeral for a friend. Mike notices a tall man working at the funeral home; in the course of his snooping, he sees the tall man put a loaded coffin into the back of a hearse as easily as if it was a shoebox. Jody doesn't believe his little brother's stories, though, until he brings home the tall man's severed finger, still wriggling in what appears to be French's mustard. From there, the film picks up a terrific momentum that doesn't let up until the sequel-ripe twist ending. Phantasm was one of the first horror movies to break the unspoken rule that victims were supposed to scream, fall down, and cower until they were killed. Instead, Mike and Jody are resourceful and smart, aggressively pursuing the evil inside the funeral home with a shotgun and Colt pistol. Furthermore, the script has a great deal of character development, especially in the relationship between the two brothers. The film even has a surprisingly glossy look, despite its low-budget origins, and little outright gore (except for the infamous steel spheres that drill into victims' heads). This drive-in favorite was a big success at the time of its release, and spawned three sequels. Little wonder; it includes an inventive story, likable characters, a runaway pace, and, of course, evil dwarves cloaked in Army blankets. The end result is one of the better horror films of the late 1970s. Hot-rod fans take note: Jody drives a Plymouth Hemi 'Cuda, the pinnacle of 1960s muscle cars, rounding out his status as a Cool Guy. --Jerry Renshaw

Stills from Phantasm (Click for larger image)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark dreams are made of this..., May 24, 2004

By 

Wing J. Flanagan (Orlando, Florida United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phantasm (DVD)

If good films are like waking dreams, then good horror films are like waking nightmares. Few can match the power of Phantasm in this regard. Masquerading as a B-shocker, it gradually develops a kind psychological depth shared only by the best in the genre - films like The Exorcist and Silence of the Lambs.

To begin with, the story is frankly outrageous: after the death of a close friend, two brothers (Mike and Jody, played by Michael Baldwin and Bill Thornbury) discover some strange things about the Morningside Funeral Home where their friend - and their parents, who died two years earlier - are interred. It seems the dour funeral director (a character known only as The Tall Man, indelibly rendered by Angus Scrimm) is not quite human. He's able to lift fully occupied coffins by himself, as the younger Mike secretly observes; he bleeds yellow blood; he has a strange reaction to cold; and he is aided by small silver spheres that roam the halls of the mausoleum, doing unspeakably gruesome things to intruders. It seems his main activity, though, involves a novel use of the corpses of the dearly departed - a use we learn in the striking left-turn the film takes in the third act.

Somehow, what could have been a very silly film takes on an unnerving, Lynchian kind of surreality, thanks in large measure to a well-developed subtext about abandonment, isolation, despair, and guilt. These are the anxieties that drive nightmares, and - despite the frequent humor throughout - writer/director Don Coscerelli infuses the proceedings with a poignant sense of sadness and dread. Like Herzog's Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, or Lynch's Mulholland Drive, Phantasm isn't just a scary film; it has the authentic texture of a dark, disturbing dream.

And this, in a film where a major sequence involves a large, obviously rubber insect flown around on a fishing line! It could have been a real Ed Wood moment, but instead, we buy into it somehow. Amazing.

In The Tall Man, Angus Scrimm has created a classic horror film villain, in the Frankenstein's monster/Dracula/Wolfman/Mummy sense, rather in than the Freddy/Jason tradition. There is no sense of irony in his conception or performance. No camp. No winking, wisecracking, or self-aware irony. Just a powerful, implacable, evil presence.

Reggie Bannister rounds out the cast as a musician/ice cream vendor (!) who assists the brothers in their quest to rid the world (or at least their town) of the evil that has descended.

The performances (a couple of minor characters notwithstanding) are remarkably skilled, walking that fine line between believability and exaggeration virtually demanded by the genre.

The DVD is crisp and well produced. There is a delightful introduction by The Tall Man himself, Angus Scrimm, to get things rolling. There is a good deal of supplemental material to be found on the disc, and a thorough commentary track by Coscarelli, Scrimm, Baldwin, and Thornbury.

All told, an excellent addition to any horror fan's collection.

47 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beware the Tall Man, Booooyyyy!, April 14, 2004

By 

Michael R Gates (Nampa, ID United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phantasm (DVD)

"If this one doesn't scare you, you're already dead." Or so goes one of the taglines used in the promotions for PHANTASM, the 1979 low-budget film from auteur Don Coscarelli that has become a much-loved horror classic. By today's standards, the film doesn't quite reach the level of fright promised by that slogan. But PHANTASM is nonetheless a well-made indie flick that has always been a real crowd-pleaser due to its enigmatic, unpredictable script; the ingenious and effective low-budget special FX; excellent directing and cinematography by Coscarelli; good acting, especially from the four principals; and a very memorable, haunting score.

PHANTASM follows precocious 13-year-old Michael (Michael Baldwin), his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury), and friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) as they investigate the enigmatic goings-on at the creepy nearby funeral parlor. Just who or what is that terrifying Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) that seems to have the run of the place? What is his part in the recent disappearance of corpses at the mortuary, and what is his relationship to the elfish eidolons lurking in the graveyard shadows?

PHANTASM's script is loosely structured and rather weak in spots, but this actually heightens the unpredictability of the plot and thereby gives the film an unnerving surrealistic quality. And when combined with bizarre imagery (e.g., an airborne chromed sphere drilling into a human head); gloomy, atmospheric sets and on-location sites; and a genuinely creepy, inscrutable antagonist like the Tall Man, the movie transcends the script and evolves into a 90-minute spine-tingling nightmare-on-film.

The excellent musical score also adds much to the nightmarish quality of PHANTASM. Composed by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave, it is stylistically reminiscent of John Carpenter's score for his groundbreaking film HALLOWEEN, released a year earlier. But unlike Carpenter's one-man synthesizer score, Myrow and Seagrave's music is performed on multiple instruments, delivering a rich, three-dimensional sound that makes PHANTASM's aural atmosphere seem much more ominous than that of HALLOWEEN.

Though it has been over 20 years since its initial release, PHANTASM has aged surprisingly well. As with its aforementioned predecessor HALLOWEEN, the gore is minimal, especially when compared to the wave of bloody horror films that splashed up on the cinematic shore in the 1980s and beyond. But the eerie, surreal ambiance of PHANTASM can still make a viewer's skin crawl, and the malignant Tall Man, with all his accursed accoutrements and paranormal paraphernalia, is still pretty damned creepy. Yes, PHANTASM has a certain ineffable 1970s drive-in quality that identifies it as a product of its era, but rather than being an annoyance, this seems to add yet another layer of "otherworldliness"--at least from a contemporary standpoint.

MGM's DVD release of PHANTASM offers the film in a non-anamorphic letterbox format in the film's original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The digital transfer is pretty clean, with only moderate filmic and digital artifacts sometimes apparent. Colors are bright and vivid, though darks are a bit on the muddy side. Soundtrack audio options include a new Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound remix, which sounds good, or the film's original 2.0 mono.

The supplements on MGM's DVD release of PHANTASM are outstanding. First off, the disc comes packaged with a very nice booklet that contains a note from writer/director Don Coscarelli, as well as a myriad of interesting tidbits about the film and its stars. On the disc itself, a really cool alternate audio track offers a feature commentary with Coscarelli and the film's principal actors. Also included are outtakes, deleted scenes, trailers and TV spots, TV interviews with Coscarelli and Angus Scrimm, and much more! These extras alone are worth the very reasonable retail price, but buyers get the cool film, too!

To recap, PHANTASM is a minor cult classic that both ardent horror fans and casual viewers alike will find genuinely enjoyable, and the loaded-with-extras DVD from MGM is nothing short of Phantastic!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very odd, but very good, April 26, 2000

By 

Inspector Gadget "Go Go Gadget Reviews" (On the trail of Doctor Claw) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Phantasm (DVD)

As a successful director of kid's films, Don Coscarelli felt like moving into horror. But he was out of ideas so he shut himself in a mountain cabin for a few weeks and dreamt up Phantasm. God only knows what he was smoking or drinking in order to conjure up a story like this. I've been watching it for over six years, trying to get my head around it. But like the most complex of David Lynch films, there are still some parts of the puzzle that are too warped to fit.

Mike and Jody Pearson are two brothers living in small town California. Their parents have recently died, leaving twenty-something Jody in charge of 13-year-old Mike. But Jody is restless and cannot stay cooped up in such a small town for long. Mike dreads that Jody will dump him with an aunt or uncle and disappear beyond the horizon.

But that's the least of his worries for the moment. Jody's friend has mysteriously committed suicide and after his funeral Mike, hiding in the bushes, sees the undertaker, a sinister Tall Man, heave the coffin out of the ground all by himself and dump it back in the Hearse.

Knowing something ain't quite right about all this, Mike investigates the funeral home and is attacked by hooded dwarfs, flying killer chrome spheres (inspired by one of Coscarelli's nightmares) and is chased by the Tall Man. He gets away but loses a shoe and hacks off some of the Tall Man's fingers for proof.

It's not an ordinary finger, it oozes some kind of yellow puss (embalming fluid perhaps) and still pokes around on it's own. Convinced of supernatural interference, the brothers team up with their Ice Cream vendor pal Reggie to kick the Tall Man's head in. It ain't that easy I'm afraid and the film turns from weirdo horror into positively strange sci-fi as the trio discover more and more inexplicable activity going on at Morningside Cemetery.

The film doesn't have many faults. But it is quite frustrating seeing the characters do no more than go to the cemetery and go home, then go to the cemetery and go home for, more or less, the entire running time. Don Coscarelli shot about 3 hours worth of footage and only ended up using half that. There are loads of fun scenes left out that, while not essential to the film's plot, could have kept things more balanced.

The total 70s feel is a major plus though. Man, I wish I were a kid back then. The big hair, the flares, the cool cars, the loose women and the funky music are all part of this film. The hip 70s score is also incredibly funky and spooky at the same time. Once you start humming it there's no stop.

It's also very different from the typical 70s horror formula. There are no masked killers, no women being chased through the woods and no slasher fodder characters. Mike, Jody and Reggie are bold and decisive and choose to fight instead of running and hiding. The setting of rural California is also a refreshing change from medieval castles, hick villages or haunted houses.

Angus Scrimm, who plays the Tall Man, is no doubt the film's best asset. He hardly says a word but he OWNS every scene he's in. His physical presence and menace makes him a damn cool horror villain and he ought to be as iconic as Freddy or Jason.

No matter what way you look at it, Phantasm never makes complete sense. You can turn it upside down, inside out and back-to-front and you might be able to work most of it out, but there will always be one thing that sticks out. Don Coscarelli claimed he wanted it to be open-ended and ambiguous as a way of not having to make any sequels.

That tactic didn't work.