Review of Phantasm (1979) by Joey M — 26 Oct 2007

This movie is bad...and that is why I love. And I mean it's fucking bad. To start with the story makes no fucking sense whatsoever. It's just kind of disjointed and a lot of the things in the plot are just fucking confusing. I guess they did this to make it seem more dreamlike or nightmarish. They did a good job. I'm confused to shit. The acting isn't anything spectacular except for Angus Scrimm, who plays the main antagonist: The Tall Man. He is pretty scary. The rest of the characters are alright but have nothing interesting about them, except for the Jawas. Yes, there are Jawas in this movie. I guess they really didn't think it would be worth it to write a decent script with understandable dialog. Something else that really pisses me off about this are the many stupid things that happen. For example: a thirteen year old driving getting shoved through windshield as if it were a regular window. They also don't promote safe use of weapons. One part of the movie shows one of the characters shooting a Jawa that is on his back. To do this he is practically pointing the gun at his head. It just shows some bad stuff that kids shouldn't see because they may imitate it. Lastly, the sets and locations in this movie just sceam "1970's." It's so fucking ugly.

So what is good about this movie? Well, the bad guy for one. The Tall Man is fucking creepy. The music is eerie and the photography isn't half bad. I like a lot of the camera movements, not to mention it has one of my favorite gore moments ever.

Honestly, this movie is a piece of shit. It makes no fucking sense, seems to be running on three different tracks, and is just fucking terrible. But you get a certain feeling of satisfaction when you watch it. It just seems really cool. In short, it's a horror classic. Just because a movie is shitty doesn't mean it's shitty. And this movie is really shitty, which is why I like it.