Phantasm

                                                                

 

       'You play a good game boy, but the game is finished, now you die.'

 

Following the death of their parents, 22 year old musician Jody Pearson (Bill Thornbury) raises his 11 year old brother Mike (Michael Baldwin). Jody is in a successful three-piece blues band with his friends Reggie and Tommy. Reggie supplements his income as an ice cream vendor. Jody drives a black 1971 Plymouth Barracuda coupe. Two years later, Tommy is murdered in Morningside cemetery by a mysterious lady in lavender (Kathy Lester). When Jody and Reggie attend the funeral of their friend, Mike secretly tags along on his motorcycle. He hears strange noises in the cemetery and then sees the funeral director (the Tall Man) single-handedly lift Tommy's coffin into the back of a hearse. As he rides away, he is thrown from his bike.

Jody goes to a bar and meets the lady in lavender. He takes her to the cemetery and Mike follows. Mike is chased by something “brown and low to the ground” and interrupts his brother’s activity, unwittingly saving his life. Jody is unconvinced by Mike’s explanation. Mike has a nightmare where the Tall Man looms over him and then hands grab him from either side. He later sees the Tall Man walking down the street. When Reggie opens his ice cream van, the Tall Man comes to a standstill, clearly affected by the cold. While working under Jody’s ‘Cuda, Mike hears the familiar sounds of the thing that chased him the other night. The car shakes and falls from its jack, pinning him to the ground. He sees a pair of feet and, from beneath the car, strikes out with a hammer. It’s Jody’s foot that he strikes and he’s still not buying Mike’s claim that something’s trying to get him.

Arming himself with a hunting knife, Mike breaks into Morningside mortuary through a basement window. When the caretaker (Ken Jones) investigates, he hides in a casket. As Mike continues to search, the caretaker seizes him. Then a flying sphere appears and hurtles towards them. Mike struggles free and the sphere impales the caretaker, drilling into his head and killing him. The Tall Man appears and gives chase. With a hooded dwarf at his heels, Mike escapes the building with the twitching finger as proof of the Tall Man’s unearthliness.

Jody finds Mike at home asleep, clutching a shotgun. When he sees the finger, still twitching, Jody finally believes Mike, who tells him the whole story. He decides to go to the sheriff with it and tells Mike to fetch the box containing the evidence. However, when Mike opens the box, the finger has transformed into a huge fly. The pair struggle with the creature and eventually manage to destroy it in the waste disposal grinder, just as Reggie arrives to witness the act.

Jody goes to Morningside alone and enters through the broken basement window. He is immediately attacked by a dwarf which he shoots and manages to escape. He is pursued by a white hearse but Mike arrives in the ‘Cuda and they drive off. The hearse gives chase and comes alongside. No one appears to be driving. Jody fires a shotgun at it and it crashes into a tree. The dwarf driving has been impaled by a branch. It’s Jody’s dead friend Tommy. They stow Tommy in the freezer compartment of Reggie’s truck and return home. Jody cannot understand why Tommy’s body has been crushed down to half size. Mike worries that their parents may have suffered the same fate. Reggie wants to capture the Tall Man and brutally interrogate him...however the tall man has other plans.

A dramatic chase ensues.....but who is chasing who....and whilst I wont spoil too much Mike awakes at one point and Reggie tells him it has all been a dream....but Mike is sure that it wasn’t....and upon looking in the mirror he sees.......the Tall man!!

 

            

 

 

 

 

 

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Directed by Don Coscarelli
Produced by D.A. Coscarelli
Written by Don Coscarelli
Starring Michael Baldwin
Bill Thornbury
Reggie Bannister
Angus Scrimm
Music by Fred Myrow
Malcolm Seagrave
Distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures
Release date(s) March 28, 1979
Running time 88 min.
Language English
Budget $300,000 (estimated)

 

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