I first wrote about Phantasm (1979) way back in 2007, as part of that year's Halloween Countdown. I never wanted to repeat myself here, but since I decided I wanted to include Phantasm 3-5 in this year's countdown, I felt a need to revisit the first two.
My love for this film remains strong, from the beautiful 1971 Plymouth hemi 'Cuda, to the flying sphere, to the camaraderie between the three leads, who when I was young, seemed to be about the coolest people out there. They seem a little less cool now, but the dynamics of their relationship to one another is still really strong and what really drives this series.
I'm still amazed by all of the weird stuff that's just thrown up on screen, often without connection to anything else (such as Mike's visit to a psychic), and typically without any explanation (the fly). The only explanation we are given is that something weird is going on at Morningside Mortuary involving the Tall Man and that he's stealing corpses, shrinking them down, packing them into barrels, and shipping them back to his own planet where they are reanimated as diminutive slave labor (due to the heavier gravity). Everything else is WTF dressing to move the plot and characters along.
It's a beautiful thing.
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