Night 10: ‘Phantasm’ (1979)

Some movies are deliciously confusing, but others are merely baffling. Even summarizing it is a challenging task, since so little of it makes sense. All you need to know is this: there’s someone robbing graves and creating an odd army of mindless creatures, and two brothers take it upon themselves to put a stop to it.

It’s a straightforward plot that becomes increasingly more hilarious as time passes. Not only does it make no sense at all, but the film keeps adding more and more perplexing elements that are simply too absurd.

Between the terribly flawed editing that cuts scenes too abruptly, mostly terrible performances devoid of any emotion, unlikeable characters and uninteresting villains, it’s mystifying why it has received so much praise amongst horror lovers.

If the plot is read from the perspective of a fantasy concocted by the younger brother to deal with his family’s deaths, it becomes a little more interesting, or at least, passable. However, the film destroys the illusion with a ‘Nightmare On Elm Street’-like ending that comes out of nowhere and ends up shattering its only slightly good feature.

This will be a very short review indeed because I couldn’t find anything in ‘Phantasm’ that truly impressed me or made it feel like it was worth the time.

Still, I’ll give credits to the writers for going all in with an outlandish plot. And it wouldn’t be fair not to recognize that the music is actually quite good!

Grade: 5/10. The spookiest part is how terrible it is.

Scare Factor: little.

Gore/violence: some.

Nudity/sexual situations: nothing too graphic.

Next: ‘House on Haunted Hill’ (1959)