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Phantasm

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Phantasm
Credits
Title: Phantasm
Directed by: Don Coscarelli
Written by: Don Coscarelli
Produced by: D.A. Coscarelli; Paul Pepperman
Music by: Fred Myrow; Malcolm Seagrave
Cinematography: Don Coscarelli
Edited by: Don Coscarelli
Production
Distributors: AVCO Embassy Pictures
Released: June 1st, 1979
Rating: R
Running time: 88 min.
Country: USA
Language: English
Budget: $300,000 [1]
Gross: $11,988,469 [1][2]
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Phantasm is an American independent horror film of the supernatural gore-thriller subgenre. It is the first installment in the Phantasm film series that will produce four sequels. The movie was written and directed by Don Coscarelli and produced by Coscarelli's studio, New Breed Productions. It was distributed theatrically through AVCO Embassy Pictures and premiered in the United States on June 1st, 1979. The film stars Michael Baldwin in the heroic male lead as Mike Pearson with Bill Thornbury as his younger brother, Jody. Reggie Bannister plays the part of ass-kicking everyman Reggie and creepy-ass Angus Scrimm takes on the role of the film's antagonist, the Tall Man.

Plot[]

Tall Man over body

The Tall Man haunts your dreams!

China Grove hillbilly musician Tommy Masterson decides to make love to a voluptuous lavender clad blonde woman behind the tombstones at Morningside Cemetery. Just as he climaxes, the lavender lady pulls out a long knife and stabs Tommy through the gut. The last thing he sees before he dies is a tall gray-haired man standing over top of him. The blonde is nowhere to be seen.

Band mates Reggie and Jody Pearson learn about Tommy's death. As far as they are aware, Tommy took his own life by wedging his hunting knife into the floorboards of his house and falling upon it. The two meet up with friend George Toby who has come in to town to attend Tommy's funeral. Michael tells Toby that he plans on leaving town, leaving Mike in the care of their Aunt Belle. Mike overhears this and becomes increasingly upset at the idea.

The following day, Jody and Reggie attend Tommy’s funeral. Jody is glad that his little brother Mike is not present. He fears the boy never fully recovered from their parents’ death two years prior. As Jody wanders the hall of the mausoleum he begins to hear strange raspy scratching sounds echoing from around darkened corners. As he investigates he is greeted by the caretaker who briskly informs him that the funeral is about to begin. (The caretaker is the same man who was seen standing over Tommy’s body.)

Jody and Mike

Jody and Mike.

Mike Pearson arrives regardless blasting his little Yamaha motorbike through the graveyard. He hides in the bushes during the burial and watches the entire procession through a pair of binoculars. After Reggie and Jody leave, Mike notices the Tall Man effortlessly lifting up Tommy's coffin and placing it back into the hearse. Freaked out, Mike seeks solace in the arms of a girl named Sarah and her fortune telling grandmother. He tells the grandmother that he is concerned about his brother leaving him. Mike is informed that if Jody does leave, then he will take Michael with him. Mike also tells the old woman about the strange tall man he saw at Morningside. The old woman mystically makes a black box appear before Michael's eyes. The two instruct Mike to place his hand inside the box. As he does so he feels an intense pain shooting through his hand. It is explained that the pain he feels is only a reflection and that it is fear that is the killer. The pain he feels is all in his mind. Feeling less then satisfied with the experiment, Mike drops five bucks on the table and leaves.

That night, Jody drives down to Dune’s cantina to drown out his sorrows. Mike follows him about like a puppy dog and watches his brother through the windows of the bar. Jody hooks up with a cute blonde and the two decide to head down to Morningside to have sex. The overly obsessed Michael of course follows them. As Mike watches his brother priming himself up to fuck this chick, he hears strange noises coming from the bushes. Before he can react, a midget wearing a brown robe attacks Mike. Mike races past the copulating couple screaming at length. Jody leaps up and chases after his brother. He calms Mike down and tells him that he is just imagining things. He gives Mike the keys to his ’71 Cuda and tells him to go home. The lady in lavender is nowhere to be found, and Jody has no idea how close he nearly came to being killed.

Jody and the Tall Man

Jody and the Tall Man.

The next day, Mike sees the Tall Man walking down the street. The Tall Man pauses in front of Reggie's Ice Cream parlor and takes note of Mike's presence. Mike quickly returns home. The Tall Man sends his dwarf servants after Mike and they try to kill him in the garage at the Pearson home. However, the dwarves quickly vacate the premises when they discover that Jody has returned home. Mike explains to Jody how the little people tried to topple the Cuda on top of him while he was working on it. Jody of course doesn't believe him. Mike decides to investigate on his own.

Armed with a hunting knife he goes down to Morningside Mausoleum. He breaks into the mausoleum and comes upon a zombie-like worker milling about. Skirting past the worker without being seen, Mike inspects the empty marble halls of the rotunda. The Tall Man finds him and sends a small flying steel sphere after him. The sphere chases Mike around the corner, but Mike runs into the waiting arms of the worker drone. Wrestling with the thug, Mike bites him on the arm forcing the man to drop him. Using two sharp spikes, the sphere races by and imbeds itself into the face of worker drone. It projects a drill bit into the man’s forehead and extracts all of his blood which it then jettisons out through an expulsion port at the back of the device. Mike takes off as the Tall Man finds him again. Retreating into a small room, Mike crushes the Tall Man’s fingers inside of a door. He chops his fingers off with his knife and a strange yellow ooze drips out from the stumps. One of the discarded fingers continues to twitch upon the floor. Mike collects the dismembered digit and returns home.

Tall Man 004

The Tall Man is pissed!

Showing Jody the wiggling finger, he convinces his brother that the Tall Man is definitely something from another world. Mike goes to pack up the finger so he can show it to the police when it transforms into a strange alien insect. The creature attacks him and Mike barely succeeds in wrapping up inside of his jacket. The two brothers struggle valiantly and ultimately shove the insect the garbage disposal. Reggie stops by and Jody and Mike bring him up to speed.

Jody decides to check out the mausoleum. Re-treading his brother’s steps, he goes into the basement where he is attacked by one of the demented little gnomes. Jody manages to blast the being with a well-placed shot from his gun. Jody then jumps into his car and leaves. Mike picks him up later on the highway and the two race home. As they are driving, a white hearse pursues them. Taking pot shots at it with the shotgun, they manage to steer the hearse into a tree. They inspect the wrecked vehicle only to find that it was being driven by one of the dwarves. Jody pulls back the thing's hood. He is shocked to discover that the dwarf is actually the corpse of Tommy Masterson scrunched down to midget size. He is impaled on a tree branch with yellow ooze spilling out of his lip.

Jody decides that Mike would be safer at his friend Sally's antique store. As Mike is wandering about the shop, he comes upon an old black and white photo of the tall man driving a 19th century horse-drawn carriage. The man in the photo turns his head and stares directly at Mike.

Meanwhile, Tommy's corpse is loaded into the back of Reggie's Ice Cream truck. The corpse breaks free and overturns the truck, but Reggie manages to survive.

Tall Man pointing

Stalking another victim.

The Tall Man however, is a little bit miffed over having his fingers cut off and he goes to collect Michael (Even though they’ve all grown back on their own). He kidnaps Mike from his own house and locks him in the back of another hearse. But Mikey is armed this time and uses the automatic weapon to blast out the back windows. Leaping to freedom, Mike lands on the asphalt as the hearse careens out of control exploding into a nearby tree.

Mike hikes it over to Morningside where he finds Jody wandering around. The two are chased by one of the killer spheres, but Jody blows it out of the air with a well placed shot from his rifle. As they wander about they come upon Reggie alive and well. (See, I told ya!) The three enter a large white walled chamber lined with blue vats containing the bodies of dwarf workers. In the center of the room are two large tuning forks. Mike goes to inspect the device and learns that it is actually a doorway to an alien dimension. The Tall Man is an other worldly figure who operates on Earth in order to collect the bodies of the dead and transform them into his slave army. The zombies need to be crunched down to midget size because of the accelerated gravity and heat of the alien world. The Hardy boys go outside to try and find the Tall Man leaving Reggie to take care of the gateway. Reggie disrupts the tuning forks and the vibrational attunement collapses. A vacuum is created and everything begins hurling about the room. Reggie races outside to escape but is stabbed in the stomach by the Tall Man. (Tally is doing his lavender lass transvestite thing here.) But Reggie’s sacrifice is not in vain however as the entire mausoleum is lost to the swirling vacuum.

Blood sphere

Bloody balls.

Jody and Mike decide to spring a trap for the Tall Man. They plan on baiting him to follow them to Singer’s Creek where they intend on dumping him into a thousand foot deep mine shaft. The Tall Man comes after Mike once again and tries to capture him by way of strange mystical pitfalls that he creates. Mike avoids them though and lures the caretaker to Singer’s Creek. The Tall Man falls into the mine shaft and Jody appears using his shotgun to set off a rockslide sealing him in. The Hardy Boys have solved the case of the dwarf-raping octogenarian!

At this point, Michael wakes up. Nearly the entire film has been a horrible nightmare. Reggie is there by his side and explains to him that his dreams were brought on by stress over losing his brother in a tragic car wreck the year before. There never was a Tall Man! Reggie promises to take care of Mike. Mike goes up to his room where he sees the reflection of the Tall Man in the mirror. A dwarf appears and pulls Mike into an unknown dark world.

Cast[]

Actor Role
Michael Baldwin Mike Pearson
Bill Thornbury Jody Pearson
Reggie Bannister Reggie
Terrie Kalbus Fortuneteller's granddaughter
Ken Jones Caretaker
Susan Harper Girlfriend
Lynn Eastman Sally
David Arntzen Toby
Ralph Richmond Bartender
Bill Cone Tommy
Laura Mann Double Lavender
Mary Ellen Shaw Fortuneteller
Myrtle Scotton Maid
Angus Scrimm The Tall Man

Notes & Trivia[]

Headhunter's Horror House Wiki has a collection of images related to Phantasm.

Recommendations[]

See also[]

External Links[]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 IMDB; Phantasm (1979); Box office & business.
  2. ↑ Box Office Mojo; Phantasm (1979); Domestic Total Gross.
  3. ↑ IMDB; Dac Coscarelli; Trivia.
  4. ↑ IMDB; Kate Coscarelli; Trivia.
Film Series
This article relates to the films within the Phantasm franchise. This template will categorize articles that include it into the Phantasm films category.
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