Phantasm: The Anchor Bay Collection
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If you are a horror fan then I’m sure you already have this movie in your collection. Thanks for stopping by and reading the review. Have a great day.

What?!? Some of you out there don’t have this? Some others of you only have this on Beta? Well, in that case it is time to break into that piggy bank and grab this version. Now to help those 2 people out there that have not seen the movie, I’ll go into the story.

Orphans Jody and his younger brother Mike are living life the best they can in a small town. When one of his friends dies, Jody heads to the funeral to pay his respects. Mike, acting like the mischievous kid he is, watches the funeral through some bushes with binoculars. As all the mourners leave he sees the mortician lift the casket and put it in the hearse by himself. Odd. From here Mike is convinced that something weird is going on. When Jody meets an attractive, slutty girl at the bar they head to the cemetery for some disrespect the dead ass grab on the tombs. Mike of course follows. While again peaking in from the bushes while his brother starts to get some breast action (what’s with this kid?) Mike gets attacked by something resembling a Jawa from Star Wars. Seeing Mike running from his hiding spot, Jody catches up with him to see what’s wrong. Of course Mike tells him what he saw and Jody thinks that he has one hell of an imagination. It isn’t until Mike heads back to the mortuary, cuts the mortician’s fingers off in a scuffle, puts one in a box as evidence and shows it to him does Jody finally believe that something isn’t quite right.

Together with the help of their friend Reggie, the brothers try to figure out the truth of the “Tall Man” and what’s going on in the town.

Phantasm is a trippy little film that, even with its failures, is still a classic. Director, writer and editor Don Coscarelli does one hell of a job. Nothing is ever what it seems in the film, and while much could be considered low budget (it was) it still holds up pretty well today and is at times impressive. Some, like myself, might be thrown off by the ending. Frankly it fell into that whole dream-like haze thing that some love about the movie (not me) and there are moments of slow pacing. At the same time you have the “Tall Man”. Angus Scrimm kicked so much ass in this role that this little movie alone propelled him to stardom. In fact he didn’t use the made up name Angus Scrimm until this movie filmed and people now know Lawrence Guy as only Angus Scrimm. That has got to say something about this role. Did I mention flying spheres that drill into a persons head?

I mentioned that this edition is worth a double dip, didn’t I? Well, it is. Even though it is not the bad ass Sphere edition box set that those blokes over in the UK get, this one is still packed to the brim with extras. We get a 30 minute documentary (Phantasmagoria) which was a blast to watch, deleted scenes, interviews, commercials, etc. I’ll stop there because my fingers are hurting from typing, but I assure you that this disk is a buy.

Taking into account the flaws that the film has always had, this is still a strong buy of 4 ½. Even though I am not running out to get a sphere tattoo because of this film and have my vocal complaints about some parts, I couldn’t call myself a true horror fan without having this movie in my collection. Buy it already.

Added:  Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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