Phantasm
1.5/4
Starring: Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm
Rated R for Nudity, Violence and Intense Scenes
When I dream, it's surreal. It makes total sense while I'm in the dream, but when I wake up, I realize how surreal and incoherent it all is. Perhaps this effect is what writer/director Don Coscarelli was going for. The plot rarely makes sense, characters are added and dropped with no explanation, important scenes are left on the cutting room floor while meaningless ones drag on long after they've made their point, and so on. That this was made during the hippie era should surprise no one.
Mike (Baldwin) has just lost his parents. Now his older brother Jody (Thornbury) has lost one of his friends to suicide. Actually, he was murdered by a one-night stand post-coitus in a cemetery, but no one knows this. Mike, who follows his brother around nonstop fearing abandonment, sees the undertaker (Scrimm) take the coffin for himself. Things get weirder and eventually Mike, Jody and Reggie have to summon all their courage to take down a mysterious figure who is certainly not human.
"Phantasm" is a bad movie, there's no doubt about that. But the one positive quality about it is its strangeness. The totally bizarre nature of the story is weirdly compelling in a way that cannot possibly be intentional. Well, I mean, I suppose its possible; some scenes bear similarity to, I'm not kidding, "2001: A Space Odyssey," which isn't surprising considering that that is Coscarelli's favorite movie. But he's no Kubrick, that's for sure.
The acting befits a movie of this quality. Which is to say, it's not very good. It's like amateur hour at the community theater. At best, the actors seem like they're reading off cue cards. At worst, they seem straight out of a bad soap opera. None of them have gone on to be known names, which doesn't surprise me in the least.
"Phantasm" isn't devoid of tension. The first appearance of the metallic spheres, which like the villainous Tall Man, have become hallmarks of this cult franchise, is chilling, but it ends with some laughable gore. The special effects are sometimes convincing, but only the basic stuff, like car crashes or gunshots. The dwarvish monsters and the gore are laughably absurd. Roger Corman would love this stuff.
The more movies I see and the more of a life outside of them I have, the less patience I have for movies like this. It's not that it's bad, although it is that. It's that it's so boring. It can't be valued as a scarefest or camp. Only as a way to go on an acid trip without taking any LSD.
Starring: Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm
Rated R for Nudity, Violence and Intense Scenes
When I dream, it's surreal. It makes total sense while I'm in the dream, but when I wake up, I realize how surreal and incoherent it all is. Perhaps this effect is what writer/director Don Coscarelli was going for. The plot rarely makes sense, characters are added and dropped with no explanation, important scenes are left on the cutting room floor while meaningless ones drag on long after they've made their point, and so on. That this was made during the hippie era should surprise no one.
Mike (Baldwin) has just lost his parents. Now his older brother Jody (Thornbury) has lost one of his friends to suicide. Actually, he was murdered by a one-night stand post-coitus in a cemetery, but no one knows this. Mike, who follows his brother around nonstop fearing abandonment, sees the undertaker (Scrimm) take the coffin for himself. Things get weirder and eventually Mike, Jody and Reggie have to summon all their courage to take down a mysterious figure who is certainly not human.
"Phantasm" is a bad movie, there's no doubt about that. But the one positive quality about it is its strangeness. The totally bizarre nature of the story is weirdly compelling in a way that cannot possibly be intentional. Well, I mean, I suppose its possible; some scenes bear similarity to, I'm not kidding, "2001: A Space Odyssey," which isn't surprising considering that that is Coscarelli's favorite movie. But he's no Kubrick, that's for sure.
The acting befits a movie of this quality. Which is to say, it's not very good. It's like amateur hour at the community theater. At best, the actors seem like they're reading off cue cards. At worst, they seem straight out of a bad soap opera. None of them have gone on to be known names, which doesn't surprise me in the least.
"Phantasm" isn't devoid of tension. The first appearance of the metallic spheres, which like the villainous Tall Man, have become hallmarks of this cult franchise, is chilling, but it ends with some laughable gore. The special effects are sometimes convincing, but only the basic stuff, like car crashes or gunshots. The dwarvish monsters and the gore are laughably absurd. Roger Corman would love this stuff.
The more movies I see and the more of a life outside of them I have, the less patience I have for movies like this. It's not that it's bad, although it is that. It's that it's so boring. It can't be valued as a scarefest or camp. Only as a way to go on an acid trip without taking any LSD.
Comments
Post a Comment