FRANCHISE ME: PHANTASM

I think you nailed exactly what makes Phantasm so great. It feels like either the work of a genius or the work of someone who has absolutely no idea what they are doing at all and I love it for that. The ending I think might be my favorite part. We watch Reggie get stabbed in the stomach, and they capture the Tall Man in an old abandoned well, and then we cut to a scene with Reggie taking care of Mike telling him that Jody died in a car crash. What!? It makes absolutely no sense, yet it works! What other film is able to really accomplish that? It's so good.

Also, I want to point out how badass the one scene with Jody in the mortuary (basement I think) where he has a dwarf crawling at him and he dispatches it by shooting point blank over his head. 

And Reggie man. When I first saw Reggie my first thought was "who is this bald piece of shit?" Little did I know he would become my favorite action hero ever. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoMoreMrNiceGaius 

 

 

And Reggie man. When I first saw Reggie my first thought was "who is this bald piece of shit?" Little did I know he would become my favorite action hero ever. 

Haha. YES!

I think everyone went through that transition with Reggie. He's just so, so... bald.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshua Miller 

I think everyone went through that transition with Reggie. He's just so, so... bald.

Not only is he bald... He's rocking a skullet! At first I held it against him, but now it's just a symbol of fucking awesome he is. 

Reggie owns the skullet.

If I go bald, Im buying an acoustic guitar, a rubber band, and an ice cream truck. Fact. PHANTASM just works, it's so amazing and easily one of my favorite films. Also, having read DUNE a few years back, it ocurred to me that Coscarelli must have read it as well. The "black box" scene is a lift if I've ever seen one.

The hand in the box bit always has me thinking of DUNE and melting finger flesh. Wonder if that's what Mike was feeling when he whimpered, "It hurts!"

The way this film plays out like a nightmare is perfect for the tired and impressionable mind. For me PHANTASM is best watched after a long period of hard work/labor. Being exhausted and brain dead makes this movie that much more impactful. Angus Scrimm makes this a classic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshua Miller 

I think everyone went through that transition with Reggie. He's just so, so... bald.

"Oh Reggie,  I LOVE your head!!!"

A taste of things to come!

BTW, I fucking love this franchise.  Not a single bad entry in my eyes.  I just hope Phantasm V gets made someday, especially considering the fact that everyone involved wants to do it and the script is supposedly ready to go.

Quote:

Originally Posted by andrewhawkins 

The way this film plays out like a nightmare is perfect for the tired and impressionable mind. For me PHANTASM is best watched after a long period of hard work/labor. Being exhausted and brain dead makes this movie that much more impactful. Angus Scrimm makes this a classic.

I blind bought it about ten years ago while visiting my cousins in another state and ended up watching it extremely late at night after everyone went to bed.  I was half asleep at the time.  You can imagine how that turned out.  Needless to say, I instantly fell in love and made sure to pick up the rest of them when we went shopping again later in the week.

What's extremely hilarious is that halfway through watching Phantasm IV, I realized I had seen part of it before!  I showed up at a friend's house back in the day right after it hit home video and he was watching it.  I had only half paid attention at the time because it made zero sense to me and I hadn't seen the others.  What's really hilarious is that he rented it having never seen the others either.  And the rental store apparently had the first three IN STOCK when he rented it.  Not sure what was going through his brain when making that call.  After it was over, we proceeded to start a Friday The 13th marathon..............none of which we had ever seen at that point in our lives.  We had separately raided the local rental store and managed to snag copies of all eight films.  We made a weekend of it.  Fun times.

And onto post #3......

Sorry, I can't stop.  I have quite a few stories about this series.  Anyway, I sat down and rewatched all four of them recently.  As is a requirement for this franchise, they were late night viewings.  I watched the first two on a Friday night and the latter entries on the following night. 

My wife woke up about halfway through the first one.  She watched it for about twenty minutes.  She then gave me a confused look, proclaimed "what the fuck are you watching?!?!?", and then went back to sleep.  About halfway through Phantasm II, she woke up again.  Why?  Her first Phantasm-themed nightmare!  Slam dunk for Coscarelli!

A couple of things. There's a tone and apocalyptic atmosphere in this series that always reminded me of King's Dark Tower series. And I was always bummed that DC hasn't worked more. He's a bit left field to have Jackson and Raimi's careers, but he should be more prolific IMO.

As a big fan of WTF horror subgenre, this is one of my favorite series hands down. Badass moments. Weird moments. Scary moments. It's like a fever dream itself. That feeling of unease gets under your skin for sure.

I have to admit Miller, I'm sort of disappointed that you didn't bring up the rarely discussed (as far as I know) sexual ambiguity of the Tall Man. Yes, it "makes sense" for him to shapeshift into a gorgeous woman to attract prey, but does he actually have to engage in sexual activity (twice) with said prey? I think not. Half of it is obviously obligatory nudity, but I've always contended that something else is going on with the other half, and I love it. The film is littered with moments that touch upon and seemingly challenge male heterosexuality and machismo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by S.D. Bob Plissken 

BTW, I fucking love this franchise.  Not a single bad entry in my eyes.  I just hope Phantasm V gets made someday, especially considering the fact that everyone involved wants to do it and the script is supposedly ready to go.

I'll second that love for the franchise overall. But for me, III and IV don't work. III made the fatal mistake of a near-extended cameo role for Mike focusing entirely on Reggie (not a bad thing per say), sassy bad-ass black chick and Mike Jr. IV was just...I'm sorry but so cheap looking.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 

A couple of things. There's a tone and apocalyptic atmosphere in this series that always reminded me of King's Dark Tower series. And I was always bummed that DC hasn't worked more. He's a bit left field to have Jackson and Raimi's careers, but he should be more prolific IMO.

Bubba Nosferatu is dead as a doornail, which is depressing because had it been financed we would have gotten a Ron Perlman Elvis and a Paul Giamatti Col. Tom Parker battling lesbian vampires.

The bright side is that he just finished production on a new horror comedy.  It's an adaptation of the cult novel John Dies At The End and has Giamatti and Clancy Brown among its cast.  I'm sure we'll get to see it sometime next year.  Here's hoping Phantasm V gets off the ground in the near future as well.

...........and I second the "Coscarelli would be perfect for The Dark Tower" sentiment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by S.D. Bob Plissken 

Bubba Nosferatu is dead as a doornail, which is depressing because had it been financed we would have gotten a Ron Perlman Elvis and a Paul Giamatti Col. Tom Parker battling lesbian vampires.

 

I love Don Coscarelli. I love all four Phantasms, The Beastmaster and Bubba HoTep, but I am so glad that Bubba Nosferatu got killed. Bubba HoTep was a surprisingly emotional film, that was about much more than Elvis fighting a mummy. It was about trying to find meaning and purpose in life at the end of life.

I feel like some of that sentiment would be diminished if we were to see Elvis also fought vampires and stuff too. I'm glad Coscarelli is doing something else.

In anyone else's hands, I would naysay the shit out of a Bubba Ho-Tep sequel.  That said, I was actually looking forward to it due to the fact that Coscarelli was so gung-ho about making it.  Bubba Ho-Tep is an excellent film and stands wonderfully on its own.  A sequel is not needed in the least, but I can't help but mourn the loss of whatever craziness that Don would have wrought in his follow-up.  I doubt we'll ever get Bubba Nosferatu, let alone the semi-jokingly referred to third entry (Bubba Sasquatch), so I guess we'll never really know.

Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to John Dies At The End.

All this Coscarelli talk is propelling me towards a marathon of his filmography.  Considering I just picked up Survival Quest, which I haven't seen yet, now seems like a better time than ever.

Quote:

Originally Posted by S.D. Bob Plissken 
Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to John Dies At The End.

Just read the summary on wikipedia. Don't ask me what I just read though. I don't get it. But it sounds potentially as bizarre as the Phantasm series with work.

I will be rewatching PHANTASM series this week though (and BUBBA as well), because of this article.

All the more reason I'm looking forward to such a concept in the hands of Don Coscarelli!

Although the mythology of the series is perplexing, I do like the few bones we are thrown. For instance, the revelation that there are human brains inside of the spheres (suggesting that they have a degree of autonomy), and tying Mike's new powers into the fact that he now has a sphere inside his skull.

The diverging Mike/Reggie plots in the latter two films was a mistake. The fourth film feels like two unrelated stories.

I'll give Coscarelli this, he had the balls to persevere through any technical difficulty. He recasts Mike, de-casts Mike, and kills off girlfriends and little kids willy nilly, continuing the series on sheer willpower.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bartleby_Scriven 

Although the mythology of the series is perplexing, I do like the few bones we are thrown. For instance, the revelation that there are human brains inside of the spheres (suggesting that they have a degree of autonomy), and tying Mike's new powers into the fact that he now has a sphere inside his skull.

Although ya know it might be the other way. What if that sphere was in Mike's head the entire time and that is why the Tall Man was looking for him? You say new found powers but Mike has always had mental powers, mostly visions. In the last film he just gains another one, telepathy. Perhaps the reason that finally showed itself was that the ball was almost out and Mike was fianlly close to replaceing the Tall. Like the powers were part of the final stages of the transfer. It makes much more sense anyway. If the balls have brain matter in them and he wanted Mike's in there why stuff it in his head and then take it out. No he would cut him open, take the brain and put it in the ball. If you remember the line he said before he started the cutting tool was something like "let me free you from this flesh).

I don't think it's been mentioned, but if anybody is planning on watching the third and fourth movies later rather than sooner, it's on Netflix Instant Watch until July 1.

Watched this again a few days ago. You summed up what works and what works despite itself well, Josh, but you're a tad harsh. The movie isn't "a complete disaster" on a technical level. Granted, it's far from perfect and it dilutes the powerful "anti-logic explains all" motif by turning it into a narrative bail-out. The early scene prior to Tommy's funeral where Jody and Reggie shovel exposition around in the middle of the grounds, where no one would decide to have a supremely forced conversation by walking up to one another from opposite sides, typifies a lot of the problems of this film (there's even more of this when Jody talks to the guy outside his house later.) What it lacks in script finesse though, it makes up for with the kind of atmosphere and menace a lot of horror films now can only dream of.

That's the main thing that comes away from a repeat viewing and it goes a long way to making things like the terror box (fear is, indeed, the mind killer) work. Reggie's also more realized than you gave both Bannister and Coscarelli credit for. He may not be the action hero of II, but he's still Reggie, whether he's enjoying an impromptu jam with Jody (nice chops, Reg!) or flipping the bird in death's general direction.

Ripe for a remake.