Phantasm 1-5
Dir Don Coscarelli/David Hartman, US 1979-2016 Arrow Video, £69.99 (Blu-ray)
Don Coscarelli’s gloriously offkilter Phantasm series comes to Blu-ray in a new spherical set.
The big selling points of this release are the 4K restoration of Phantasm and the UK debut of the latest (and final?) film in the series, Phantasm: Ravager.
Phantasm is an odd beast, but a compelling one. The film could be a meditation on love and loss, fear of death and growing old… or it could just be a mad little tale of space dwarves. Coscarelli wanted it to be oddball and scary, and it succeeds admirably at both. What is interesting in retrospect is that Angus Scrimm’s superlatively terrifying monster mortician, the Tall Man, and his flying silver balls of death really don’t feature that heavily.
The first film made unlikely heroes of ice cream man Reggie (Reggie Bannister) and Mike Pearson (A Michael Baldwin). Phantasm II (with James Le Gros taking over as Mike for one film) has a bigger budget, allowing for some fun explosive thrills, but loses the homemade charm of the original. In trying to impose a linear narrative, it takes away from the nightmarish atmosphere. That said, this is still an accomplished shocker, and the idea of the Tall Man blighting the towns he passes through is both delicious and well-realised.
Arguably, the series goes off the rails a little in the third instalment, Lord of the Dead. Coscarelli’s directing is still strong, but a few too many characters are thrown into the mix (though Gloria Lynne Henry and Kevin Connors do excellent work with the pretty stereotypical roles they are given). There is still a lot to love, and it’s good to have Mike’s older brother Jodi (Bill Thornbury) back in the mix. Plus there’s one heck of a cliff-hanger.
The fourth film, Oblivion, has a much lower budget than the previous two sequels, and makes use of extensive unused footage from the first film to pad out the running time. While this might seem a little cheap, at best these scenes are integrated in a genuinely effective and affecting way. Angus Scrimm also gets more to do than usual, which is definitely a good thing, and we’re almost back to the dream-like atmosphere of the first film. The downbeat ending leaves things very open, though, and this was not the conclusion fans were looking for.
Which brings us to Ravager. For the first time it isn’t Coscarelli directing, though David Hartman does a pretty decent job. The ambition far outstrips the budget, but it’s nice that they try and give us the sort of epic conclusion we were promised back in the 90s that never materialised (look up Roger Avary’s proposed final chapter). There are a few seriously fan-pleasing cameos and some likeable new characters, but the focus is still on Mike and Reggie. Scenes of Reggie in a hospital, apparently suffering from early onset dementia, echo Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep and are just as touching. It might not be a perfect conclusion, but it is a very commendable effort.