Synopsis
A teenage boy and his friends face off against a mysterious grave robber, known only as the Tall Man, who employs a lethal arsenal of unearthly weapons.
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Cast
- Angus ScrimmThe Tall Man
- A. Michael BaldwinMichael 'Mike' Pearson
- Bill ThornburyJody Pearson
- Reggie BannisterReggie
- Kathy LesterLady in Lavender
- Terrie KalbusFortuneteller's Granddaughter
- Kenneth V. JonesCaretaker
- Susan HarperGirlfriend
- Lynn Eastman-RossiSally
- David ArntzenToby
Recommendations
- 100
Slant Magazine
What makes Phantasm special is the way it captures a boy's life in 1978. [Remastered] - 80
Time Out London
Over the course of three wild sequels, Coscarelli expanded his bizarre universe in a variety of imaginative and deliriously entertaining ways – but the original set the standard. [Remastered] - 80
Empire
It deliberately makes no sense, but it has more bizarro gimmicks to the minute than any other horror picture of 1979. - 80
Newsweek
Lurid, illogical and utterly off-the-wall, this funny-scary exercise in low-budget schlock is a marvelous orgy of cheap thrills, including a supernaturally sinister mortuary, a hideously wriggling severed finger, one furry flying creature, dwarfs from the Undead, and the goriest - indeed the only - blood-sucking flying steel ball in movie history. [16 April 1979, p.86] - 75
TV Guide Magazine
A wonderfully creative, bizarre, delightfully terrifying horror film that never fails to surprise. - 70
The New York Times
It's thoroughly silly and endearing. - 70
Variety
Strong point of the feature is that it’s played for both horror and laughs. - 63
Washington Post
Phantasm will not be remembered as a masterpiece of the horror genre, but it sustains a gauche, hokey, desperately improvisational charm.... It entertains through a half-facetious juvenile gusto.
