The Tall Man returns with his shiny silver balls – What!!?? Actually you’ll better understand that statement if you’ve seen the movie before. So is it worth upgrading to this version from Anchor Bay or should you keep your old edition. Booooooooyy!
What the back of the box says:
A horror icon is born
More than 25 years later, it remains unlike any fright film that you’ve ever seen. Reggie Bannister co-stars in the heart-stopping classic from writer/director Don Coscarelli that launched the most uniquely chilling series in horror history and is still hailed as one of the scariest movies of all time. Experience Phantasm again, now featuring frightening extras never before seen in America!”
Phantasm, simply put, is a horror classic. Don Coscarelli had just come off of a family friendly film called Kenny and Company. He was so impressed by how a Halloween sequence in that film scared the audience that he decided to make a horror film. He decided to cast an actor from one of his other family films, Jim the World’s Greatest, named Rory Guy.
Thinking that his name wouldn’t sound appropriate for the horror fare he used the pseudonym Angus Scrimm, a name made for horror films if there ever was one, and the rest is horror history. Both Michael Baldwin and Bill Thornbury play the brothers well and you feel that there’s a connection between them. If Scrimm was the breakout villain, Reggie Bannister is the other actor that is associated with the films and would make a career of chasing the iconic Tall Man and his dwarves.
The film has a strange, dream-like quality and a fantastic score. The film has been released to DVD before by MGM as well as appearing on laserdisc, most of the special features come from these releases with one exception. The MGM disc was not enhanced for 16x9 televisions but this release from Anchor Bay (now called Starz Entertainment) remedies that.
Phantasm is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features include a commentary from writer/director Don Coscarelli, and actors Angus Scrimm, Michael Baldwin, and Bill Thornbury. This is from the original laserdisc release.
Anchor Bay released a set of all four of the Phantasm films in 2005, but only in the UK and included a 97 minute documentary called Phantasmagoria that covered all 4 of the Phantasm films. Unfortunately, this has been edited down to 35 minutes to focus on the first film (the rights to Phantasm II are at Universal methinks. I keep hearing that Coscarelli is trying to buy back the rights). It’s nice to see it, but I would’ve preferred the full 97 minutes.
You'll get a killer headache if you mess with the Tall Man's balls
Phantasmagoria has interviews with co-producer Paul Pepperman, director Don Coscarelli, Angus Scrimm, producer D. A. Coscarelli (and Don’s dad), Kathy Lester (“The Lady in Lavender”), Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Bill Thornbury, and special sound effects guy Christopher L. Stone. The rest of the special features come from the MGM DVD. Next is the 19 minute “Phantasm: Behind the Scenes” which consists of home video footage narrated by Coscarelli and Bannister.
The 4 minute “Phantasm: Actors having a Ball” which features Lester, Baldwin, Thornbury, and Pepperman from the Phantasmagoria documentary telling some tales from the set. There are also 8 minutes of deleted scenes. There is a 27 minute 1979 interview with Coscarelli and Scrimm appearing on what appears to be a cable access show.
Next is the 47 second television commercial that Scrimm did for Fangoria magazine. Scrimm also makes a 9 minute appearance at a horror convention and slips into his well-known character. Finally there’s the Phantasm trailer, Phantasm III trailer (also available from Anchor Bay), 3 TV spots, and trailers for other Anchor Bay DVDs.
Phantasm fans without region-free DVD players will finally get to see the Phantasmagoria documentary but unfortunately it’s been cut down. I guess that something is better than nothing but you’ll still be salivating to see the rest. Annoyingly they leave the “Thanks to” section on the cut documentary so you can see who all they interviewed in the full documentary. It also gets enhanced for 16x9 televisions so if you’ve got the compatible television they you’ll also want to upgrade.
If you don’t have any of the previous releases then you’ll definitely want to add this to your collection. If you fall into that last category then the extras are great and well worth having. You’ll have to decide which option suits you best. I’m going to rate this one rather highly, even though the extras come from previous releases, because the movie is so iconic.
Jody, Reggie, and Mike find many secrets in the funeral home
Phantasm is now available at Amazon . As of yet, this version of the DVD is not available in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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