PhantasmI came home from work early. I was not feeling well, had a headache, and decided to take a late nap. I dreamed--as people do--and the dreams I had were of something familiar, but also surreal, something which was painted in the recognizable colors of reality, but was staged in a fashion which was not possible. The rules do not apply to our subconscious--we interpret the world in our R.E.M. cycles without the confining shackles of logic and reason, because it calls to something more primal within us, those inner emotions which control our impulses; so it is in Don Coscarelli's Phantasm.
|
|
Phantasm possesses that inner emotion, which is expressed like the cold chill of terror, a lurking creeping crawling its way under your skin. The film was made in 1979, and is a hallmark of the era and the style of horror film associated with the period. This is apparent in the dress and manner of main character Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) and his brother, Jody (Bill Thornbury), as well as the score, which has the cool, chilling, harpsicord-like synthesized tones which pervade the entirety of the movie. But Phantasm also deals heavily in dreams; this is fitting, since the definition of "phantasm" is a perception of fantasy, something that exists in one's mind or dream. The surreal, dream-like quality of the film lends itself to being one of a fantasy throughout, like a half-remembered dream you "feel" more than "think". The abject lack of coherence and logic at times--as well as infrequent and disarming moments of levity--does not diminish the horror, but rather the experience is made all the more unsettling. By its ardent defiance of tonal consistency, the film unseats you just to throw you back into the cold shock of ghoulish monsters. Phantasm is like a beast from its own dimension of understanding, where things like the weird jawa-esque creatures and gender-bending transformations of the insidious antagonist--the "Tall Man" (Angus Scrimm)--deftly dance between the strange, creepy, and even oddly funny. The unpredictability of the film keeps us on our toes, as strange moments follow other strange visions, and that score haunts away; so it is surprising--but also follows in the weird fashion of the film--when a finger becomes a demon fly, and flying orbs sprout spikes and drills. Dialogue from one character frequently cuts away into different scenes, as though it remained as a lingering thought, as we are transported along the somnambulatory quest.
Beyond simply being a tale about the bizarre occurences at the Morningside cemetary and funeral home--headed by the Tall Man--the story is importantly about family. Mike, and his brother Jody, lost their parents a couple of years prior to unexplained causes, and Jody is left raising Mike; but Jody wants to hit the road, and Mike doesn't want to feel abandoned. He follows Jody everywhere--even when he's not supposed to--because he doesn't want to be alone. It is understandable, because even though he is surprisingly adept at fixing cars and even handling a shotgun, Mike is still just a thirteen-year old boy. Jody's a cool, "David Hasselhoff" kind of guy, the kind of guy who Mike looks up to and idolizes. When Mike first sneaks off to visit the funeral of their recently-deceased friend, Tommy, it's more likely that Mike is actually there to spy on Jody. Frankly, Mike does his best when he is at Jody's side, either helping him out of danger, or being helped by him, a hero worship kind of fantasy. And there is strangeness in Mike's world of Phantasm; for instance, when he solicits the aid of the elderly fortune teller to see what it is Jody will do when he does leave, and also discuss what he saw at Morningside which unnerved him, the granddaughter--who speaks for the fortune teller, or is one herself--manifests a black box which she informs Mike he must put his hand inside. The moment is supposed to educate Mike that his fear is his greatest enemy, and yet when the experiment is over and Mike pays her, the box and money vanish, and Mike nary blinks an eye. This is no error, but an indication of the relationship Phantasm has with the audience, that the rules are not so clear as we might expect, and that like in a dream, we must be ready to both question and accept what we are seeing, and let the rules unfold as the story progresses. Unsurprisingly, there are a couple of moments where Mike and Jody both dream, envisioning the Tall Man stalking them, haunting them, a presence which transcends our mere three dimensions of space. It is a rare situation which makes strides to snatch away our equilibrium of sanity, the grounded feeling we have when we take these things for granted, but Phantasm draws us deep into the spiral of its trance, as it leaves its hypnotic brand on our psyche.
Recommended for: Fans of an unsettling and creepy horror movie, one which is strange like a waking dream, and feels like the memories remaining from one, sticking in the back of the mind.
Beyond simply being a tale about the bizarre occurences at the Morningside cemetary and funeral home--headed by the Tall Man--the story is importantly about family. Mike, and his brother Jody, lost their parents a couple of years prior to unexplained causes, and Jody is left raising Mike; but Jody wants to hit the road, and Mike doesn't want to feel abandoned. He follows Jody everywhere--even when he's not supposed to--because he doesn't want to be alone. It is understandable, because even though he is surprisingly adept at fixing cars and even handling a shotgun, Mike is still just a thirteen-year old boy. Jody's a cool, "David Hasselhoff" kind of guy, the kind of guy who Mike looks up to and idolizes. When Mike first sneaks off to visit the funeral of their recently-deceased friend, Tommy, it's more likely that Mike is actually there to spy on Jody. Frankly, Mike does his best when he is at Jody's side, either helping him out of danger, or being helped by him, a hero worship kind of fantasy. And there is strangeness in Mike's world of Phantasm; for instance, when he solicits the aid of the elderly fortune teller to see what it is Jody will do when he does leave, and also discuss what he saw at Morningside which unnerved him, the granddaughter--who speaks for the fortune teller, or is one herself--manifests a black box which she informs Mike he must put his hand inside. The moment is supposed to educate Mike that his fear is his greatest enemy, and yet when the experiment is over and Mike pays her, the box and money vanish, and Mike nary blinks an eye. This is no error, but an indication of the relationship Phantasm has with the audience, that the rules are not so clear as we might expect, and that like in a dream, we must be ready to both question and accept what we are seeing, and let the rules unfold as the story progresses. Unsurprisingly, there are a couple of moments where Mike and Jody both dream, envisioning the Tall Man stalking them, haunting them, a presence which transcends our mere three dimensions of space. It is a rare situation which makes strides to snatch away our equilibrium of sanity, the grounded feeling we have when we take these things for granted, but Phantasm draws us deep into the spiral of its trance, as it leaves its hypnotic brand on our psyche.
Recommended for: Fans of an unsettling and creepy horror movie, one which is strange like a waking dream, and feels like the memories remaining from one, sticking in the back of the mind.