The year 1979 was a momentous one for horror. It marked the launch of Fangoria magazine and a slew of important horror releases, many of which would spawn long-running franchises of their own. But no horror film released that year, or any, achieved quite the same level of enduring success and came from such humble beginnings quite like Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm. A standout in the genre for its blending of sci-fi and horror, its central themes of death, pure originality, and its use of dream logic, Phantasm is a true DIY indie that refused to hand hold and provide answers. Released on March 28, 1979, Phantasm still resonates due to its powerful themes of loss and abandonment, and terrifies because of its indescribable evil that refuses to adhere to rules and logic. Forty years later, there’s still nothing like it.
At its most basic level, the premise is about a teen boy, Mike Pearson (A. Michael Baldwin), witnessing strange happenings at a mortuary involving a sinister undertaker, known simply as the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). The Tall Man steals bodies to turn them into slaves, and the boy pulls in his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) and family friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) to help stop him. But this story never plays out in a traditional way, often spiraling off in strange, unexpected directions, and attempting to elaborate further on what happens tends to get a bit complicated. It doesn’t help that characters and story beats come and go at whim.
Flying metallic spheres with blades, hooded minions, other dimensions, drums of re-animated dead, severed fingers that turn into flying insects, and a shape-shifting Tall Man that seduces via a Lady in Lavender guise, you’d be forgiven for not having a clue what’s happening. For all of the weirdness, though, it’s grounded by emotional truth. Jody has assumed the caretaker role of younger brother Mike after the sudden death of their parents, a recent event prior to the film’s story. The loss of Jody’s friend Tommy in the opening scenes means that death continues to loom large in the lives of the core trio of protagonists. Mike clings even harder to his brother out of fear that he too will abandon him; his journey in Phantasm is as much about trying to prevent Death from taking anything more from him as it is about understanding it. The Tall Man is death personified, not something that’s easily understood or controlled. Phantasm is weird because death is weird. It’s an unstoppable force that can’t be controlled in any logical sense.
Angus Scrimm, who’d previously worked with Coscarelli on the 1976 film Jim the World’s Greatest, made the Tall Man his own. At 6’4”, his smaller sized suits and platform shoes made him appear even taller. With only a handful of lines the entire movie, his terse delivery was instantly memorable, and the haunting character quickly became a horror icon. As terrifying as the Tall Man is on screen, behind the scenes Scrimm (born Lawrence Rory Guy) was pure warmth. Before he became an actor, he was a notable journalist and wrote liner notes for records- he won a Grammy award in 1974 for his liner note work. Phantasm kickstarted a steady and lengthy acting career for Scrimm in TV and film.
Production of Phantasm meant anything went due to inexperience and lack of funding. The $35k that Coscarelli borrowed from his father to fund his passion project quickly went over budget. The cast and crew were a tight-knit bunch often flying by the seat of their pants – Coscarelli even caught on fire thanks to a shotgun blank being fired at close range during a car stunt. Oh yeah, there were no stunt coordinators or doubles for this film. The crew was pulling double duty there, as well.
Coscarelli was only 22 at the time, and 25 when Phantasm released in theaters, imbuing his project with a fearlessness that perhaps only youth can. His work in progress eventually caught the notice of studios, including distributor AVCO Embassy Pictures, and the rest became horror history. Phantasm spawned four more sequels, inspired young filmmakers like J.J. Abrams, who went on to release a restored version of the film in 2016 and inserted a Phantasm inspired character in Star Wars: Episode VII the Force Awakens, and became the focal point of Joe Bob Brigg’s holiday-themed marathon on Shudder.
Phantasm is such a unique entry in horror. Its themes of death remain timeless, as does the effortless camaraderie between Reggie, Jody, and Mike. The icy strangeness of the Tall Man brought a totally different type of horror villain unlike anything before or since. The fevered dream style means that it’s the type of film that won’t be for everyone, but fans of the film are a stalwart bunch willing to ride that Plymouth Cuda alongside Reggie into oblivion and beyond.
