Phantasm AKA Never Dead (1972) Review
May 12th 2010 21:40
The 70's and 80's saw a wave of new and interesting horror films.
In the past, Horror films were cautionary tales with mad scientists, mysteries and scary castles. They were classy, high society kind of affairs where men wore suits and sipped fine whiskey while regaling each other with arcane tales of the macabre. In the 70's horror films stopped being classy, they started being lowbrow gross out pictures with raunchy sex scenes and blood and guts scares. One of the Pioneers of these changes, is 1972's “Phantasm” a cult classic horror film that will make your skin crawl. Many have heard of it, few have seen it.
The Film tells the story of two brothers, who lost their parents before the film started. During the funeral of a murdered friend, Mike (the younger brother) sees the massive undertaker steal the casket after the funeral, putting the 600-pound casket into the hearse single handed. Weird to be sure, but form this point on the movie steadily increases in eeriness as it goes on. Starting fairly normally, and ending up at the point where you can't tell if what your seeing is a dream or reality.
The film received little backing from studios, and was made for remarkably little. Every penny was pinched during the production, the crew rented film equipment on weekends so they'd get it for an extra day, and instead of using Little people performers for the “Evil Dwarfs” (who are union, and therefore, expensive) the producers used children in heavy robes. However, watching the movie you can never tell it was made on a shoestring budget. the special effects are spooky because they're not typical special effect, but unusual things you may not have seen before. The 6-5 Angus Shrimm plays the real star of the movie, the infinitely creepy and seemingly invulnerable “Tall Man” who mercilessly torments the main characters, and presides over all the ensuing weirdness. One of the more memorable evil creatures in the
movie is the infamous "Ball" that flies under it's own power, and kills you by hooking itself into your skull and drilling into it, pulling your brains out though a tiny hole. One of the more frightening and original movie bad guys ever.
“Phantasm” (Or “Never Dead” for you Aussies) certainly helped change the direction of Horror film, but as soon as it did it was quickly overshadowed by the likes of the horror legends ”Friday the 13th” and “A Nightmare on Elm street”. This is not to take anything away from it, indeed “Phantasm” is an amazingly creepy movie that never got the press it deserved. It rests firmly at the center of the cult classic market, and up until it's recent re-release was fairly hard to find on the home video market. With it's three sequels we can agree that “Phantasm” deserves a place among the horror legends, even though it's one of the more overlooked.
THe promotonal art had to be paid for by the studio, since the production was broke when release time came around.
The film received little backing from studios, and was made for remarkably little. Every penny was pinched during the production, the crew rented film equipment on weekends so they'd get it for an extra day, and instead of using Little people performers for the “Evil Dwarfs” (who are union, and therefore, expensive) the producers used children in heavy robes. However, watching the movie you can never tell it was made on a shoestring budget. the special effects are spooky because they're not typical special effect, but unusual things you may not have seen before. The 6-5 Angus Shrimm plays the real star of the movie, the infinitely creepy and seemingly invulnerable “Tall Man” who mercilessly torments the main characters, and presides over all the ensuing weirdness. One of the more memorable evil creatures in the
I've had migraines that felt something like that
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