Monday, March 16, 2009

Phantasmathon

How do I love Phantasm? Let me count the ways. The silver sphere... Morningside mortuary... the Tall Man... the Hemi Cuda... the dwarves... the eerie score... the black box... the missing fingers... the hearses... the tuning fork... the ice cream man...

Made on a shoestring budget 30 years ago by up and coming independent filmmaker Don Coscarelli, Phantasm has got a bit of everything in it - as if every incongruent nightmare image were poured into a cauldron and stirred about until it came to a boil.

It was successful enough that Universal backed a bigger budget sequel. It similarly adds to the overall mythos, but also left the audience wanting more. The third and fourth sequels (Lord of the Dead and Oblivion) saw the return of the original cast members, which was a welcome surprise. And while one can easily pick apart each film in the series, it makes for a fun roller coaster ride from start to finish, and I contend that the twists and turns on the journey are in fact the reward.

We hope you'll join us for this mini-marathon of all four films (don't worry - none of the films are that long). It starts this Saturday at 4pm. But even when it's over - it's never over. See you there.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I throw the occasional Phantasmathon myself, and am going to have one in the near future.
Can you think of any appropriate food or snacks?
All I've come up with so far is cupcakes covered with those little silver balls. :D