It’s a difficult movie to compartmentalise, but it remains one of the most bizarrely enjoyable independent horror films of all time.
Don Coscarelli’s PHANTASM is a tale of two brothers and one Tall Man, who lingers around Morningside Cemetery, luring one to his death whilst posing as a very attractive young woman.
There are some weird mini-hooded beings laying around, plus some deadly flying spheres that don’t waste anytime hitting people in the face if need be.
OK, so that is all you really need to know about PHANTASM, except to say that if you are keen to explore the horror films of the period, post-HALLOWEEN and beyond, you will find several films that exist outside the standard stalk-and-slash mode – and this film is one of them.
It spawned several sequels (PHANTASM II and III are pretty entertaining, albeit a little ridiculous, but the Tall Man, as personified by the late, great Angus Scrimm, is one of the all-time great horror villains, up there with Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers.