Phantasm: 31 of 31 Horror Movies I've Never Seen

This is a somewhat momentous occasion.  Here we are, Halloween of 2014, and rather than failing like I did last year I have completed my little challenge to watch 31 Horror Movies that I had not previously seen.  Some of them were really good and some of them were really bad and some of them still I'm not really sure what to make of.  In fact, this last one, which numerous people gasped and told me "You're Kidding?!" when I confessed to not having seen it, is one of those.  Don Coscarelli's debut, Phantasm.

Strange things are happening at the cemetery and youngster Mike (Michael Baldwin) is determined to discover the cause.  A Tall Man appears to be causing general havoc with some strange dwarf-like minions, who look remarkably like Jawas, killing people and stealing their souls to another dimension.  With the help of his blank faced brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) and the Ice Cream Man, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), Mike attempts to not only discover just what the hell is going on, but put a stop to it as well.

Made in the spirit of the original Night of the Living Dead, the film is a lo-budget late 70s picture that enlisted the help of Coscarelli's local town and aspiring actors.  While the film is somewhat disjointed, the passion to create is evident on every frame, in the attention given to the formal aspects of the craft.  The film has a somewhat slow pace to it and the inspiration from Italian Horror is evident in the camera movements and the music cues.  This influence is also very evident in the second half of the film when things start going absolutely bonkers visually.

In all honesty, I'm still not exactly sure what the hell the story is supposed to be telling me.  It has an unfortunately double cop out kind of ending that actually left me completely confused, which was probably intentional.  That doesn't mean that it's a bad film per se, just that I don't really get it.  I'm coming late into the game with Coscarelli, having only seen Bubba Ho-tep and John Dies At The End, but it appears the Phantasm spawned a cult fan base and numerous sequels, the fifth of which is in post production and is due out next year.

Most of the "acting" in this film is pretty damn bad, but Michael Baldwin actually carries the picture quite well compared to his older co-stars.  I swear, I don't know if anyone has as blank of an expression as Bill Thornbury in this movie and judging from his imdb page, this didn't quite help him into a future as an actor (most of his final credits are Phantasm Sequels.)  Luckily, Coscarelli is quite inventive visually which it makes up for it.  There's a particularly enjoyable FX gag involving a blood spewing silver orb with knife points.

3 out of 5 skulls.