Synopsis
A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber known only as the Tall Man, who keeps a lethal arsenal of terrible weapons with him.
Who is the Audience for This Movie?
People who enjoy 80’s style horror.
Review
Going back to watch Phantasm as an adult is a weird experience. As a kid I always thought the box art/posters for all of the movies in the franchise looked awesome yet I could not remember anything that happened in any of the ones I watched (1-3).
After finishing the first entry in the series it made perfect sense why I couldn’t remember anything specific about Phantasm, it makes no sense. For at least the first 20-30 minutes so little makes sense from a basic storytelling perspective that it leaves you baffled for the rest of the movie. It feels like that were taking elements from every good horror movie they had seen and smashing them all together with wonky editing.
It is painfully obvious very early on this is a low budget movie and in some cases that can lead to directors using the space on every set they do have to its maximum potential, however, the directors of Phantasm revert to using similar shots way too often so it makes the movie look even cheaper.
Beyond the negative technical aspects I found myself enjoying the genuinely creepy nightmare fuel scenes that are sprinkled in just enough to keep the movie from lagging. When shit goes wrong in this movie it hits hard and fast going from 0 to 100 in no time.
The younger part of me was hoping it would be a movie franchise to revisit but after the lacklustre impact Phantasm had on me I cant say I am motivated to watch any of the sequels.
On a side note, at what point in time did boning in a cemetery become hot? Is this something people fantasize about doing?
