Phantasm had a lot of potential. The premise is scary: two kids fighting a wicked mortician and his evil drones. Unfortunately this low-budget horror outing (that spawned, incredibly, two more sequels) is way too confusing to be frightening. I watched as characters disappeared for long stretches before reappearing for no good reason. People die then are miraculously alive again in the next scene. Some characters are evil, then good, then evil again. Not to mention it's all directed so that the action zooms along at a brisk pace, not bothering to explain anything. All in all the movie inspires more headaches than fear.
The film focuses on two (uninteresting) kids who investigate weird goings on at the local mortuary, where their deceased friend was just buried. They come upon the Tall Man, an evil fellow who kills people with flying silver spheres and turns corpses into his zombie minions. Most of the film has the Tall Man chasing the younger boy around after the kid learns of his secrets.
As low-budget horror movies go, I've seen far worse. Phantasm is imaginative, if nothing else, and has some memorable scenes (the first appearance of the flying orb is great), but in order to scare people you must have coherency. Phantasm plays like the filmmakers know everything that's going on, but they feel like keeping the viewer in the dark.
The film focuses on two (uninteresting) kids who investigate weird goings on at the local mortuary, where their deceased friend was just buried. They come upon the Tall Man, an evil fellow who kills people with flying silver spheres and turns corpses into his zombie minions. Most of the film has the Tall Man chasing the younger boy around after the kid learns of his secrets.
As low-budget horror movies go, I've seen far worse. Phantasm is imaginative, if nothing else, and has some memorable scenes (the first appearance of the flying orb is great), but in order to scare people you must have coherency. Phantasm plays like the filmmakers know everything that's going on, but they feel like keeping the viewer in the dark.