The Friday Night Horror Movie: Phantasm (1979)

Phantasm 1979

The great Reggie Bannister passed away this week, so I wanted to revisit this classic horror film that he is most associated with. They say writer/director Don Coscarelli wrote a rough screenplay for this film based on a nightmare he had as a teenager. That makes sense, as this film certainly plays out like a dream. The plot doesn’t always make sense; characters come in and out of scenes without explanation, and numerous moments just seem to exist on their own, outside of reality, or even this film.

In my review of the DVD boxed set and in my Letterboxd thoughts on my second viewing, I note that the plot doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But that’s not entirely true. There is a certain logic to the story; it just isn’t spelled out for you.

An alien, taking the form of a Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), pretending to be a mortician, is enslaving the dead, shrinking them down to size and sending them to his home planet. When he realizes that a young boy named Mike Pearson (A. Michael Baldwin) has seen him at work, he aims to kill him, his brother, Jody (Bill Thornbury), and their pal Reggie, the ice cream man (Reggie Bannister).

That’s basically the plot, more or less. And maybe it’s not exactly correct. The film isn’t big on explanations. And this doesn’t in any real way explain what makes this film so much fun to watch.

There are some wonderful visuals in this film. There is a scene where the ice cream truck crashes, and it is backlit at night, and it looks like a million-dollar movie. There is a moment when Mike is lying in bed, but then it turns into a grave with the Tall Man standing behind him, and these corpses come out of the grave and grab him. That turns out to be just a dream, but it is still effective.

At one point, our heroes go into this room filled with these strange little barrels, and two metal rods stick out of the floor. It is a simple set, but the way it is built and the way the scene is set, combined with the music, makes it utterly creepy.

Angus Scrimm is wonderful as the Tall Man. He has just a few lines, but the way he looks and stands and actually says those lines is iconic. Then there are these little people dressed in robes that make them look like Jawas from Star Wars.

I haven’t even mentioned the silver balls. Those freaking silver balls are the thing that everyone remembers from these movies. They fly through the sky with two blades sticking out. When they get you, they stab you in the head, drill into your skull, and blood sucks right out.

All of this is so strange and original; I just love it. None of it really gels together. It does feel like Coscarelli took these disconnected dream images and tied them all together. There are little oddities as well. Like, why is Reggie an ice cream man? He drives around in an old-school ice cream truck and even wears a cute little uniform. There is one moment where he pulls up to the Pearson house and starts jamming on acoustic guitar with another guy. I swear Coscarellit must have just known some dude with an old ice cream truck, and Bannister must have wanted to show off his guitar chops.

It is that kind of film. One where a guy had this idea for a film and really wanted to make it. So he gathered up the money himself, got some friends to work with him, and just went for it.

Somehow it works.

Five Cool Things and The Debut

Hush Hush by Laura Lippman

I try to keep up with posting here everything I write over at Cinema Sentries, but sometimesI’m really bad at it. There are also tons of stuff I wrote ages ago that I’ve never gotten around to posting here.

Basically, for several years I wrote stuff for Cinema Sentries and didn’t bother posting it here because this was a music-only site for a while. Then, when this became more of a movie site, I started posting the things I was writing for Cinema Sentries here. But there was a backlog. Sometimes I’ll go way back to the beginning and post all the really old stuff, but then there is constantly new stuff to post. And sometimes I don’t post the new stuff because I get busy or bored, or I just forget.

Then I’ll start back up with the new stuff, but I don’t always get caught up with what I missed. This creates little holes of posts that I’ve written for CS but not added here.

Someday I’ll get really organized with it and systematically go through all my writings over at Cinema Sentires and make sure they are all posted here.

Anyway, this is a Five Cool Things I wrote back in June. It features a novel by Laura Lippman, the Grateful Dead, a fun French film, a wonderful Samurai movie, a fantastic 1970s James Brolin film, and a trailer for The Debut. You can read more by clicking here.

MacArthur (1977)

Mac Arthur UHD

It is hot here in Oklahoma. Too darn hot. It has been over 100 degrees every day for the past week or two. That completely zaps all my energy. Today it didn’t help that I did a bunch of cleanup at a house we are building. Which meant blowing out a bunch of cabinets that filled the house with dust. Covered my face with dust and filled my lungs is more like it.

I am knackered. I’ve been staring at this screen for ten minutes, trying to think of something clever to say about MacArthur. I got nothing. But I didn’t write the review today; I wrote it yesterday (or was it the day before.) Whenever it was, I was pretty tired then, too. I’m always tired, it seems.

It’s just too darn hot.

Anyway, you can read my review over at Cinema Sentries (spoiler: I didn’t like the film very much.)

The Island (1980)

The Island 1980 UHD

The Island is so close to being a good movie. Or at least an interesting one. Michael Caine stars as a reporter investigating some disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, only to be captured by a gang of pirates. It is as silly as that sounds, but not quite as silly as it should have been. Or fun. There are several things they could have done to push it into “good” territory, but they never quite get there. It is worth a watch if you are bored, but there are plenty of other Michael Caine films that are more worth your time. You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

The Boxer (1977)

The Boxer 1977 Blu

Radiance Films has become one of my favorite Boutique Blu-ray companies. They typically put out films that I’ve never heard of, but when I watch them, I discover that they are actually quite good.

Usually. Of late, I’ve found their movies to be a bit disappointing. The Boxer is a Japanese take on Rocky, but more dour and a whole lot less fun. It isn’t bad, and definitely not as bad as the reviews on Letterboxd would have you believe, but it isn’t good either. I don’t know if that makes you want to read my review of it, but if it does, you can find it over at Cinema Sentries.

Project Hail Mary is the Pick of the Week

Project Hail Mary UHD

Hey, it is Monday, and that means I’m talking about this week’s new Blu-ray releases (except of course, I keep not writing about them when I’m not doing this post for Cinema Sentries – I should probably remedy that.)

This week’s big release is Project Hail Mary, the excellent sci-fi adventure story starring Ryan Gosling and an alien rock. But there are also several good horror flicks getting nice releases, an Elvis Presley documentary, and Martin Scorsese’s strangest film. Click here to read all about it.

The Mastermind (2025)

The Mastermind Blu ray

This heist film from director Kelly Reichardt is a delight. Josh O’Connor stars as a bored middle-class white dude who decides to become an art thief. He’s not good at it. He’s not good at anything really. Which makes the film a lot of fun. It is a very low-key affair, but I liked it a lot. You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

The Friday Night Horror Movie: The Exorcist (1973)

the exorcist MV5BNTEy Y2Yw Yj It ZDNm Zi00MGI4LTli ZDgt Nz E3YWJk ZDQ1MWZi Xk Ey Xk Fqc Gc V1 FMjpg

I’m shocked I’ve never written about this movie before. I did review the sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic, for Cinema Sentries. I would have sworn I reviewed Exorcist III, but I can’t find it anywhere. The Exorcist is often considered to be the greatest horror movie of all time. I’m not quite in that category, but it is certainly a great horror movie, filled with some incredible set pieces, practical effects, and performances. It is truly a terrifying film. I’ve watched it several times, but it has been a good eight years or so since my last viewing. I always forget how slow it is for much of the movie. How it takes its time getting to the absolute terror. I remember it begins in Iraq, where an excavation digs up some old weird relic. But then in my mind, after a brief introduction of our main characters, things get dicey quick.

I remember the projectile vomiting, masturbating with a crucifix, and “The Power of Christ compels you!, and that incredible image of the priest standing before the house bathed in shadow and light,” all coming fairly quickly in the film.

But that isn’t how things play out. The film takes its time getting to the possession. We are introduced to Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), a famous actress working on a film in Georgetown, and her young daughter Reagan (Linda Blair.) We spend a little time on the film set, and at home with the servants. Mother and daughter have a very nice rapport. Burstyn is wonderful in these scenes, very natural and warm toward her daughter. Blair is terrific too, just beaming, which makes her transition into something so evil even more frightening.

But we also spend a lot of time with Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller), a priest who is also a trained psychologist. He’s grown tired of his job, and is no longer sure of his calling. His mother is also very ill, and she’ll die before things really get going. There is also Lee J. Cobb as a cop investigating the death of one of the characters who seems to have been thrown out of Regan’s window. I wish they’d done more with him, actually.

There is an assuredness to director William Friedkin’s filmmaking in these scenes. He takes his time here, letting us get to know these characters, knowing we’ll wait for the horror to begin.

But he does tease us a little. Chris discovers a Ouija board and asks Reagan about it. She admits she’s been playing with it by herself and often talks to a spirit called Captain Howdy. We’ll see it move on its own. During a dinner party, Reagan will come downstairs in her nightgown, point to one of the guests, tell him he’s going to die, and then urinate on the carpet. One night Reagan’s bed starts shaking violently, and she takes on an angry, vulgar personality.

Chris takes her to a series of doctors, and they run a series of tests, but cannot find anything wrong with her. Again, Ellen Burkin is so good in this film. That playful, kind woman fades into a mother who is desperate and angry, filled with concern for her child. Psychiatrists are brought in, but they are no help. Eventually, someone recommends an exorcism. They don’t believe in that stuff, but if Regan thinks she is possessed, then maybe it will help.

Father Karras is brought in, and he brings Father Lankester Merrin (Max Von Sydow), an older priest who has previously done an exorcism. This is the last half hour or so. Things get intense.

By building things slowly, by letting us have numerous character moments, we really care about the actual exorcism and how it turns out. It is a wild final act to the movie. In the previous scenes, Friedkin’s camera is carefully placed. He creates some wonderful images and moves his camera fluidly. For the exorcism, things get chaotic and crazy.

One of the things I noticed this viewing is that all the scenes in that bedroom throughout the film, when Reagan is dealing with the possession, always cut before things are resolved. She’ll shake and curse, telekinetically throw things around the room, and blaspheme. But then it will do a fast cut to something else. Something more relaxed. We rarely see Reagan calmed down or anything resolved until the end. That keeps us on edge.

This is a very good movie. I especially love the practical effects. I have no idea how they did some of the things they put Reagan through (poor Linda Blair; this must have been a nightmare shoot for a 14-year-old girl). But they look amazing.

I do love this film, but never quite as much as I want to. Critically, I can appreciate the slow build, but ultimately I’m kind of ready for things to get going a bit before they really do. I think I’ve probably seen it too many times to truly be shocked by it anymore. But really, this is a terrific horror film.

Dark: Season One

MV5BOWJj MGVi Y2Ut NTAz NS00ZGFj LWFk NTMt MDBi MDMy ZTM1NTY3Xk Ey Xk Fqc Gc V1 FMjpg UX1000

Several years ago, I’m gonna guess around 2018, my wife and I started watching Dark, a German science fiction series that was picked up by Netflix. We liked it very much. I can’t remember how many episodes we watched; probably just three or four, and then we got distracted. Somewhere around that time, my sister and her husband came in from China for a visit. They were also watching Dark, but were several episodes ahead of us. We had a good time talking about the show, but didn’t watch it together. I’m pretty sure they went home and completed all three seasons of the series. We moved on to other things. Now and again I’d think of it and say to myself that we should pick it up again, but at some point it felt like we’d have to start it all over, and that just made me put it off indefinitely.

We haven’t subscribed to Netflix in a long while. There are just too many other streaming services with better stuff, but my daughter wanted to watch some anime that is only on Netflix, so we recently picked it up again. Dark started calling to me again. Initially, I figured I should watch it with my wife since that’s how we originally started it. But the thing is, we already have a long list of shows we are watching together; to start another one would be trouble. We have a hard enough time keeping up with our other shows. And a series like Dark is pretty tense; that means she won’t want to binge-watch it. Besides, it had been so long since we were watching it that she won’t mind me going ahead without her. Right?

I watched the entire first season in three days.

It is a complicated show to discuss without getting bogged down in the details. There are a lot of characters, and the show takes place during at least two different time periods – 2020 and 1987 – though as the series progresses, more time periods will enter into the picture. It more or less follows the same characters over these various periods, but different actors portray them in the different periods. That gets a little confusing. I’ve come to realize I have a slight case of facial blindness. I recognize people I’m close to – my family, friends, etc. – but people I only know casually disappear from my memory banks. I have a terrible time remembering actors in a series and character names. I spent a lot of this series unsure of who was who. I suspect I’m not alone in this, for as I say, there are a lot of characters, and they are played by different actors depending on the time period.

But I’m starting on a negative. Despite having difficulties knowing who was who and who had done what, this is still a brilliantly crafted show. It takes place in a small German town, one with the country’s first nuclear power plant. A young boy goes missing, sending the town into a tailspin. Especially distraught is his father, whose own brother went missing when they were boys some 33 years ago. More children go missing. More ties are found to that 33-year time gap.

I don’t think it is really a spoiler to say that this show involves time travel and a mysterious cave. That is definitely my jam. What I really love is how the series connects the timelines and these characters. It reminds me quite a bit of Stephen King’s It in the way the timelines echo into one another. Everybody has a dark secret, and they start bubbling to the surface. It also reminded me quite a bit of the first season of Stranger Things, which no doubt influenced this series since it came out just a few years later.

I’m really not sure how to talk about this show without digging a little too deep into the plot. And I don’t want to do that. Not now, anyhow. It starts a little bit slow. This is definitely a character-driven series, not one overly reliant on big reveals or twists. There aren’t any monsters exactly, but strangers are lurking about.

I thoroughly enjoyed it and am truly looking forward to Season Two.