Phantasm
Don Coscarelli
(1979)
A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons.
Phantasm (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Cast
Crew
Hook
Something out there is not from here, and it is hungry. Phantasm commits fully to practical menace β no slow reveals, no ambiguity. The threat is real, physical, and impossible to reason with.
Identity
Over the decades it has developed a devoted cult following and is now recognized as one of the most distinctive and genuinely original American horror films of its era, valued precisely for its refusal to operate according to familiar genre conventions and for the dreamlike menace of Scrimm's Tall Man as one of horror cinema's most singular creations.
Collector Focus
The Tall Man, the flying silver sphere, and Coscarelli's dream-logic created something genuinely original in late-70s horror. The sphere's shining chrome and its lethal mechanisms are among horror's most inventive prop designs, and the Tall Man's gravelly presence has sustained a franchise across four sequels.
Context
Directed and written by Don Coscarelli, Phantasm was made on a budget of approximately $300,000 and shot over an extended period in locations around Los Angeles, with the mortuary sequences filmed at a genuine funeral home. Phantasm was a solid commercial success on its release in 1979, performing well particularly in drive-in and genre markets, and received appreciative reviews from critics who responded to its originality and the idiosyncratic boldness of its vision, even when its narrative logic resisted conventional analysis. Over the decades it has developed a devoted cult following and is now recognized as one of the most distinctive and genuinely original American horror films of its era, valued precisely for its refusal to operate according to familiar genre conventions and for the dreamlike menace of Scrimm's Tall Man as one of horror cinema's most singular creations.
