Phantasm

[Andy]

Just wondering, any phantasm fans on here? id never seen these movies before but krackers was over this weekend an we did a beer induced phantasm marathon and im actually getting into these movies now.

Anyone else here seen/like these films?

[axlish]

http://home.comcast.net/~axlish/EP_13_PIC.jpg

[rongravy]

Yeah, Phantasm 2 is what brought me in. Helps the first one go down a little bit smoother.
Wonder when they'll reboot it...

[MikePizzoff]

Phantasm is one of my favorites! What a great flick. Excellent atmosphere, sets, script, soundtrack, characters..... everything! It's really bizarre, which is the main reason I love it, but that makes it tough to get other people into it.

My girlfriend and I own the first one. Plan on getting the rest of them, but haven't seen them since wayyy back... in the 80s, probably.

[LouCipherr]

Yeah, Phantasm 2 is what brought me in. Helps the first one go down a little bit smoother.
Wonder when they'll reboot it...

It's only a matter of time.


It's really bizarre, which is the main reason I love it, but that makes it tough to get other people into it.

I think that pretty much sums it up. "Bizarre" :lol:

I still liked it though - was creppy to me when I was a kid. It hasn't aged well (the first one), but I still watch it when it comes on. Something about The Tall Man that's just... creepy.

[soulsyfn]

I used to watch the first 3 all the time when I was younger but I havent seen it in ages. I will have to check them out again for sure.

[Andy]

To be honest (krakers will probably kill me lol) i thought the first one was pretty lame, but the second really picks it up and i actually got into it, i ended up watching the 4th one on my todd later on lol.

[MoonSylver]

To be honest (krakers will probably kill me lol) i thought the first one was pretty lame

:stunned:

You kids today...:duh:

(j/k) Like a lot of things, it was probably better if you saw it when you were younger/back in the day/the 80's/whatever... Things that don't age well to newer viewers probably hold up better to those that were exposed to them "way back when" in a lot of cases.

That being said, love's me some Phantasm!:thumbsup: Still dig the 1st, 2nd just added to the awsomeness, 3rd...eh...never did track down the 4th...:(

[C5NOTLD]

First two I really enjoyed.

Got to love those late 1970s/early 1980's trailers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJojkFFUsdo

[LouCipherr]

Got to love those late 1970s/early 1980's trailers

"Phantasm... is it.... a sucky trailer?"

:lol:

[Mr.G]

To be honest (krakers will probably kill me lol) i thought the first one was pretty lame, but the second really picks it up and i actually got into it, i ended up watching the 4th one on my todd later on lol.

same here....liked the first one, loved the second. Never got around to three or four. Worth my time?

[triste realtà]

Holy crap, Spherical was posting here and he plugged his forum and retcon theory!

[DubiousComforts]

Like a lot of things, it was probably better if you saw it when you were younger/back in the day/the 80's/whatever... Things that don't age well to newer viewers probably hold up better to those that were exposed to them "way back when" in a lot of cases.

You can only have pity upon the generations of fans that missed out on these films when they were new and so fail to appreciate them today. Unless you lived through that era, you really have no clue as to the impact Phantasm had on the horror film genre.

It was released just prior to ALIEN but was low budget and so it took a bit longer to make its rounds to local theaters. Word of mouth quickly spread about this scary, bloody film with the Goblinesque soundtrack that typically played late-night screenings. The silver sphere scene was already legendary.

There was no instant home video gratification at that time. To see these films, you had to get your ass to the theater which was nowhere near as easy as it is today. Phantasm was a 'hard' R when theaters still enforced movie ratings.

The first sequel, though entertaining, pales in comparison to the original. Films like Re-Animator had already set new standards for the horror genre, so Phantasm II offered nothing new. Of course, the effects are technically better since an entire special effects industry had sprung up in the 8-9 years between films, but if it took the sequel to get you into Phantasm, then you've completely missed the point.

[axlish]

From an outsiders perspective, and someone who watched all four films for the first time, recently, it is my opinion that Part 4 is the gem of the series. A very ballsy idea that was pulled off to perfection. I've heard a lot of chatter regarding another entry, but I don't think it is needed after such an amazing conclusion to part 4.

[MoonSylver]

You can only have pity upon the generations of fans that missed out on these films when they were new and so fail to appreciate them today. Unless you lived through that era, you really have no clue as to the impact Phantasm had on the horror film genre.

It was released just prior to ALIEN but was low budget and so it took a bit longer to make its rounds to local theaters. Word of mouth quickly spread about this scary, bloody film with the Goblinesque soundtrack that typically played late-night screenings. The silver sphere scene was already legendary.

There was no instant home video gratification at that time. To see these films, you had to get your ass to the theater which was nowhere near as easy as it is today. Phantasm was a 'hard' R when theaters still enforced movie ratings.

Mmmm...even in the early days of home video, before the internet, there was something gratifying about finding the movies that (it seemed) no one else but you knew about, or that you didn't even know about yourself. That first reaction of "WHOAH! WHAT THE $%&#*$^ WAS THAT!!!" is something that isn't easily replicated, if at all.

I know it's something I certainly miss. Doesn't happen much, if at all anymore. Not like "back in the day", when all of the hidden gems were still hidden, the thrill of the discovery of the heretofore unknown was there, and all of them seemed slightly sinister & dodgy, just sitting there on the shelf, waiting for you to rent them. It was like belonging to a secret society, or maybe a cult.:evil:

[triste realtà]

psst...we're doing it all over again with eurohorror

[The Great Gazoo]

I love the first phantasm. It is one of those films that I can go to over and over again, like horror comfort food.

[jded]

Unless you lived through that era, you really have no clue as to the impact Phantasm had on the horror film genre.

The first sequel, though entertaining, pales in comparison to the original.

Exactumoondo!

The first still stokes your curiosity and generated mystery with the slimmest of resources for such things like special effects. Take for example the kitchen door bursting open and flying away to... Who knows where. And look, there's the tall man almost glowing on the other side.
He's sort of like frozen and motionless and then in that split second he comes to life and he's off, after you.
How'd they do it? Well. Easy. Had this guy strapped to the other side holding the door creating the illusion.

I would haved loved that Coscarelli taken more time and put some extra scenes of "the other world", (the tall mans planet) in there. Reggie could have had a freak out session like he was on acid. That munchkin thing in part 2 was almost on him like white on rice. Excellent!

Part 4 Oblivon had me super confused, kinda like Lynchs "Lost Highway." Anybody got a clue as to what Oblivions all about then have it.

[Eyebiter]

Waiting for the inevitable Phantasm remake announcement in three, two, one...

[krakenslayer]

Exactumoondo!

The first still stokes your curiosity and generated mystery with the slimmest of resources for such things like special effects. Take for example the bedroom door bursting open and flying away to... Who knows where. And look, there's the tall man heavily lit and almost glowing on the other side.
He's sort of like frozen and motionless and then in that split second he comes to life and he's off, after you.
How'd they do it? Well. Easy. Had this guy strapped to the other side holding the door creating the illusion.

I would haved loved that Coscarelli taken more time and put some extra scenes of "the other world", (his planet) in there. Reggie could have had a freak out session like he was on acid. That munchkin thing was almost on him like white on rice. Excellent!

Part 4 Oblivon had me super confused, kinda like Lynchs "Lost Highway." Anybody got a clue as to what Oblivions all about then have it.

Part 4 had Mike fleeing into the desert after discovering a sphere in his head. Reggie follows him. The Tall Man appears to Mike and basically tells him that he is becoming like him. I always assumed that Mike was being primed to be the "next Tall Man" for when the Tall Man's current form wears out. Mike wants to kill the Tall Man, and decides that the best way to do so is to attempt suicide in order to bring the Tall Man out of the woodwork (he knows the TM wants him alive) then use his new sphere powers to kill him. He tries it but finds himself under TM's power and very nearly shakes TM's hand (which would have sealed his Faustian deal). He pulls away and uses his new power to summon a spacegate and escape to another dimension. Here, he finds his brother who takes him back to where the TM began - he meets a gentle, kind old mortician called Jebediah Morningside who is basically the Tall Man before he became the Tall Man.

Jebediah lives in the 19th century and is obsessed with life and death, he applies the disciplines of science and alchemy to the problem and comes to discover (possibly via extradimensional contact) how to maniplulate time and space. He builds the first spacegate after discovering that the key to distorting space was the use of precise vibrations. Mike tries to kill Jebediah in order to stop the Tall Man from being created, but fails. We see Jebediah travel through his space gate as a gentle old man, but when he comes back, he is the Tall Man and is holding a sphere. In his own words "the game begins". Where he went and what happened to turn him is never revealed.

Jody, Mike's brother, begins to show signs of being under the Tall Man's power.

Meanwhile, on the highway in the present day, Reggie fights various monsters constructed by the TM to kill him, including a zombie cop and a beautiful woman with death spheres for tits. During his battle with sphere tits, he discoverers that the tone of his tuning fork has a detrimental effect on the TMs minions (vibrations, remember?).

Mike comes back to the present and uses his psych powers to turn the hearse he travelled in into some kind of makeshift weapon. He is reunited with Reggie. During their reunion, Mike whispers to Reggie not to trust Jody. Reggie secretively hands Mike the tuning fork.

Mike is taken through the spacegate to a huge mortuary in another dimension. Jody and the TM try to extract the sphere from his head but he manages to freeze them in time using the tuning fork. He kills Jody, who bleeds yellow ooze (he's a minion) and escapes the Tall Man back to where he left Reggie. The Tall Man follows but Mike uses his super weapon to fire makeshift death spheres at the Tall Man and then blows him up with a homemade explosive device.

Another Tall Man comes through the gate, but this one seems different somehow, like he is in a trance. He takes the sphere from Mikes head and leaves with it back through the gate. Mike, somehow still alive, tells Reggie he is dying before entering into an internal catatonic world where he is still a child. Reggie promises to save him somehow, grabs his gun, and runs through the gate after the Tall Man.

My theory is this: the "second" Tall Man that came through the gate in a trancelike state was Jebediah, being controlled by the sphere in Mike's head. This is why he is carrying the sphere and seems dazed when he returns to the 19th century. It's a perfect circle, and actually, although Reggie doesn't realise it... Mike wins - he killed the Tall Man in 1998, and then the sphere in his head creates the Tall Man back in 18-something. So you see, the Tall Man's existence is confined between these two dates, he can never succeed in destroying the world because his birth and death are linked in an infinite feedback loop.

That make any sense? :P

[Philly_SWAT]

Just wondering, any phantasm fans on here? id never seen these movies before but krackers was over this weekend an we did a beer induced phantasm marathon and im actually getting into these movies now.

Anyone else here seen/like these films?

Phantasm? Never heard of it....:)
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l150/Philly_SWAT/DSC04800.jpg?t=1286849883

[Neil]

Waiting for the inevitable Phantasm remake announcement in three, two, one...

There's been loads of talk over the years hasn't there?

[axlish]

There's been loads of talk over the years hasn't there?

There has been rumors about a Roger Avery scripted 5th film (written in the 90s). There was also some hot and heavy talk about a potential Phantasm episode of Masters of Horror. Neither project ever gained enough steam to lift off. I don't think that I've ever heard anything solid regarding a remake. A remake might be worthwhile if Coscarelli were at the helm. I'm kind of leaning towards the series remaining as it is, ending with part 4. I think it was a perfect, and fitting conclusion to the series.

[shootemindehead]

Never got into these when I saw them years ago. But I have...ahem...aquired the first two and will give them a spin soon.

---------- Post added 14-Oct-2010 at 03:14 PM ---------- Previous post was 13-Oct-2010 at 05:28 PM ----------

Ok, so I watched these 2 last night. The first was ok. But, just ok. Didn't make a bit of sense though. Kind of reminded me of an Italian horror movie from the same period. Probably the music doing that. The kid acting in the main role (Michael Baldwin) was pretty good and those little feckers running around were sort of creepy, as was the atmosphere throughout. But, at the end I was a bit meh about the whole show. Still, it was bad for a movie made on 300.000 quid.

'Phantasm II' I thought was terrible and the main lead, the kid from the first one grown up and with a different actor, was awful. Again, it didn't make a bit of sense. But, it doesn't have to I spose. It also has some weid changes in the flashbacks to the first film.

I might venture into Phantasm III and IV land later. But I'm not expecting them to get any better.

[MoonSylver]

Some thing Shootem' doesn't like? :stunned::eek: :lol: :nana:

(j/k dude!)

[shootemindehead]

Bah! Humbug!

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/humbug-scrooge.jpg

[Mike70]

'Phantasm II' I thought was terrible and the main lead, the kid from the first one grown up and with a different actor, was awful. Again, it didn't make a bit of sense. But, it doesn't have to I spose. It also has some weid changes in the flashbacks to the first film.

I might venture into Phantasm III and IV land later. But I'm not expecting them to get any better.

I'm right there with you on this one. I've always thought that the second phantasm was absolutely atrocious. hang in with the series though, the third movie has the original cast in it and is much, much better than II.