Seems like I’ve been watching a lot of cult classics recently. I ain’t complaining!
While Re-Animator and Society were heavy on excellent gore, which in large part is why those movies became cult classics, the reason for Phantasm‘s success is a bit more difficult to pinpoint. It has gore, yes, but it’s not expertly done, nor is it gratuitous enough for that to be the reason people are lured to the film, like Dead Alive for example. The plot is jumbled and rather confusing, cutting from scene to scene with a complete lack of flow. The way it jumps around, one has to wonder if half the script was lost during the movie’s making. And, with the exception of Angus Scrimm (what a great name for a horror movie actor, by the way), the acting was horrible.
So, why after all these years is Phantasm still a good horror movie, one that manages to entertain and keep you glued to the screen despite all its flaws? It’s undeniable. The movie is poorly made and the movie is great.
IMDB synopsis: Mike, a young teenage boy who has just lost his parents, afraid to lose his brother follow him to a funeral, where Mike witnesses the Tall Man lifting a coffin on his own. Mike decides to investigate, and discovers that the Tall Man, protected by his flying spheres, is shrinking dead bodies down to half their normal size and reanimating them as slaves. It is then up to Mike, his brother, and Reggie the ice cream man to stop the Tall man.
That’s a good synopsis by IMDB, for a change. It’s an odd film with peculiar reasons for what’s happening, and it’s never fully explained, which is perhaps part of the allure. Or maybe it’s the Tall Man or the killer spheres that viewers are attracted to. I just don’t know. No matter how much I think about it, I can’t explain why Phantasm is a great horror movie. But it is.
Judge for yourself. Watch it on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YC97hcEovg