(1979) ****
Man! I had such a good time watching this one. It completely embodies the concept of the amazingly awesome bad movie. What other people might call "bad," I mean. This flick runs fast on the high-octane fuel of its own enthusiasm. Even the expository stuff has a great "get things done" feel. "I can't believe Tommy's dead." "Hell of a way to break up a trio."
And we're done! Zoom!
And you can't do better for villains. As The Tall Man, actor Angus Scrimm is chewing scenery and giving the sinister googly eye from his very first line. His character combines the age-old creepiness of morticians with a pretty original idea. That is, he's from a weeeird planet where they use our dead people as slaves, after transforming them into growling, perpetually pissed-off jawas.
Enter Mike, a teenager enjoying the 70's, when there was easy access to guns, muscle cars and motorcycles to drive around in cemeteries. He starts nosing around the mausoleum (I love those endless marble hallways) and kicks off a feud with The Tall Man. When he brings the problem to his older brother, Phantasm hits a point of horror genius. Deep into last year's 'thon it would get frustrating indeed watching people continue to disbelieve the one person who knew what was going on. Jodie hears the story, asks for the proof, looks in a box containing a still-moving severed finger sitting in a gloppy pool of its yellow alien blood. He shuts the box and says "Okay. I believe you."
Just like that! What a breath of fresh air! I laughed my ass off.
Even better is Reggie the ice-cream-man’s comment when they call him up to say they made a Rage Dwarf crash a hearse into a tree, and they need help. He arrives and says "You didn't tell me the dwarf was Tommy!"
Along with the style there is a little sloppiness, but mostly it just adds to the fun. Like Myrtle, the big, unexpected black lady who pops up in their house and spooks Reggie, then completely disappears. And there’s the really bizarre ending, where it turns out that…what? None of it happened? Some of it? Can’t tell, doesn’t really matter.
3 comments:
I love this movie! I hop you're planning on watching the 3 sequels. They're all equally wonderful and confusing!
Dana here - I remember this movie so well because we watched it in one of our first "joint family" visits to the Jones' in VA. That tall man scared the be-jesus out of me.
No kidding! The one I remember us watching was Salem's Lot. I also recall looking back at Timmy, who had wrapped himself completely in blankets except for one eye.
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