From the Vaults: Blogorium Review - Phantasm

editors' note: The Cap'n originally wrote this during a period decrying the persistent remakes of horror films, well known and obscure, which should provide some context for the opening paragraph.

To step off of the high horse soap box I constructed and spend most of my time on, there is one film in that realm of "remakes" that I have to say I wouldn't be angry if it was slotted for a redo. Don Coscarelli (he of Bubba Ho Tep and Beastmaster fame) mused aloud last year that he was thinking about remaking his breakthrough film Phantasm, and using it as a
springboard for more Phantasm films.

Here's where you'd expect me to get all tangent-y about how that's a terrible idea and blah blah blah, except that in the case of Phantasm, that's not such a bad decision. Phantasm is a neat little horror movie with some really good ideas, and as a slice of late seventies cheapie movies, it's pretty good.

The problem with Phantasm is that frequently its imagination outweighs its budget. The effects range from pretty cool (the sphere, the glimpse of another dimension) to pretty embarassing (the bug thing, the funeral parlor near the end) and it's clear that Coscarelli had a lot of trouble shooting and editing the film. There are sections where he relies on characters talking while the next scene begins in order to convey what's going on, or to literally explain what's happening in certain sequences. There are all kinds of strange logic and temporal leaps where characters are there one minute, and then we jump to the same place several minutes later and they're gone (I'm thinking specifically of when Reggie comes over and fights the bug and then vanishes) that really hamper what could be a hell of a movie. This isn't unique to the first Phantasm, but the other three seem to develop more smoothly as Coscarelli gets more comfortable behind the camera.

I really do believe that if he were able to go back and take the things that work about Phantasm without the constraints he had the first time around Don Coscarelli could really make the movie a cult classic. All the pieces are in place, they just need a little finesse. The news, however, is that a remake is less likely than the prospect of a fifth Phantasm, which is also cool, since in the wake of Bubba Ho Tep (and the forthcoming Bubba Nosferatu*) it sounds like Bruce Campbell would be part of any future installments of the Tall Man horror franchise.

*make that the still forthcoming Bubba Nosferatu, which also doesn't have Bruce Campbell, narrowing the possibility of a Campbell / Phantasm crossover...