The Phantasm movies thread!

Cafe Society
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Any old school horror movie fans here?

I am one, and I am excited, EXCITED, about the new Phantasm movie!

Phantasm: Ravager, the 5th and final movie in the 37 year old franchise, is due to be released on 7 October!

I was an adolescent when the first one came out and was not allowed to see it in the theater, but thanks to the magic of cable television, I saw it anyway. This movie freaked me right out! It was weird and creepy and weird and you couldn’t trust that anything you saw or heard was real, until one of those Sentinel Spheres comes flying and stabs you in the head!

Phantasm is about a boy, Mike, who discovers that an undertaker (the Tall Man) is robbing graves of the recently deceased in order to turn the corpses into dwarf zombies as part of his plan to take over our world. They are really from another dimension and planet with much higher gravity than our own. Mike has a hard time convincing anyone that he hasn’t lost his marbles and at times isn’t sure himself what is real and what isn’t (this is a major theme of all the films).

The second one came out 9 years later and was equally weird and disturbing. Best of all, it didn’t really answer any questions left after the first movie ended; it just gave us more questions and more “what the fucking fuck” moments.

The 3rd and 4th aren’t nearly as good but do have a bunch of redeeming moments that make them worth watching, and they do further the story quite a bit.

And now the 5th and final film is headed our way!

The original cast is all back, including Angus Scrimm, who passed away earlier this year (the film was actually completed in 2014). And although this is the first time that Don Coscarelli isn’t directing, he is still producing and co-wrote the script.

Also, the original film just underwent a 4K remastering that was paid for by JJ Abrams; he is a huge fan of the original film and offered to pay for the remastering when Mr. Coscarelli told him that the negative was in pretty bad shape. This will be shown at SXSW next week, btw.

If you haven’t seen any of these (and the gross each suggests that the majority of y’all have not), maybe check out the trailer for Ravager.

Any other fans of the series here?

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Here is the list of places that the new film will be shown 7 October; this is the distributors website.

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I liked the first two, not sure I remember any after those.

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Man, I remember seeing the 1st one back in college. It periodically bubbles up in my subconscious as one of the weirdest damn things I ever saw. Weren’t the dwarves stored in an ice cream truck? And wasn’t there a scene wrestling a finger-turned-beast in the kitchen sink? Vague, recurring memories of Phantasm and Devil’s Rain make me wonder about the substances I was ingesting back then…

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When you said all the original cast is back - I’m glad you meant the Hemicuda as well !!

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Definitely weird and fun at the same time.

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Aye; that was one of my favorite moments in the trailer!

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Nitpick: it’s a 340. Just plain ol’ 'cuda.

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Portland, Hollywood Theater Oct. 7th.
Got my tickets.

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Sweet! I’m jealous, Czarcasm! It’s not opening in Las Vegas so I’m gonna have to drive to Phoenix or LA if I wanna see it in the theatre (and I do wanna).

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For those who haven’t seen it (I hadn’t), John Dies at the End is by Coscarelli and hilariously awesome in the same wry, silly, mind-bendy way as the Phantasms.

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Aye; that was a fun flick. The story is by David Wong, a popular Cracked.com writer. It’s on Netflix, too.

Coscarelli also gave us the awesome Bubba Ho-Tep with Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis! A classic! “I’m thinking with sand here!”

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Question…the old Simpsons episode where Bart ran away just before a commercial break and Homer said “Run, BOY, run! BOYYYYYYY…”

Was that a Phantasm reference? Or did I read too much into it?

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The first movie is what made me fall in love with the 3rd generation 'Cudas! :slight_smile: Now, I may have to subject the wife to a Phantasm movie marathon. :smiley:

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BOOOYYYYYYY!!!

I’m a big fan; have been waiting for this for two years. Angus Scrimm is also great in a small part in John Dies at the End.

PS - you can’t spell Coscarelli without scare!

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Weird question. Those flying ball things in the first movie reminded me of another horror movie I’d seen long ago. Any ideas?

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Possibly the Lament Configuration from the Hellraiser series? I have one on my desk. It’s a cube, not a sphere, but has similar functions.

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The main thing I remember about the third one is that they brought back the original actor that they’d replaced in the 2nd movie.

I barely remember much about the series at all, but I remember not thinking it was a waste of time to watch them. Not sure if I ever saw 4. Wish they were up on the 'flix.

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The scene where they fly across the room, stick into the victim and draw out their blood gave me a feeling of Deja vu.

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Love these movies. A friend and I actually developed an RPG based around them when we were in junior high school.