a a successful director of kid film and don coscarelli felt like move into horror . but he be out of idea so he shut himself in a mountain cabin for a few week and dream up phantasm . god only know what he be smoke or drinking in order to conjure up a story like this . i have be watch it for over six year and try to get my head around it . but like the most complex of david lynch film and there be still some part of the puzzle that be too warped to fit . mike and jody pearson be two brother live in small town california . their parent have recently die and leave twenty something jody in charge of 13 year old mike . but jody be restless and can not stay cooped up in such a small town for long . mike dread that jody will dump him with an aunt or uncle and disappear beyond the horizon . but that the least of his worry for the moment . jody friend have mysteriously commit suicide and after his funeral mike and hiding in the bush and see the undertaker and a sinister tall man and heave the coffin out of the ground all by himself and dump it back in the hearse . know something ain not quite right about all this and mike investigate the funeral home and be attack by hooded dwarf and fly killer chrome sphere ( inspire by one of coscarelli nightmare ) and be chase by the tall man . he get away but lose a shoe and hack off some of the tall man finger for proof . it not an ordinary finger and it ooze some kind of yellow pus ( embalm fluid perhaps ) and still poke around on it own . convince of supernatural interference and the brother team up with their ice cream vendor pal reggie to kick the tall man head in . it ain not that easy i be afraid and the film turn from weirdo horror into positively strange sci fi a the trio discover more and more inexplicable activity go on at morningside cemetery . the film doesn not have many fault . but it be quite frustrating see the character do no more than go to the cemetery and go home and then go to the cemetery and go home for and more or less and the entire running time . don coscarelli shot about 3 hour worth of footage and only end up use half that . there be load of fun scene leave out that and while not essential to the film plot and could have keep thing more balanced . the total 70 feel be a major plus though . man and i wish i be a kid back then . the big hair and the flare and the cool car and the loose woman and the funky music be all part of this film . the hip 70 score be also incredibly funky and spooky at the same time . once you start hum it there no stop . it also very different from the typical 70 horror formula . there be no masked killer and no woman be chase through the wood and no slasher fodder character . mike and jody and reggie be bold and decisive and choose to fight instead of run and hiding . the setting of rural california be also a refresh change from medieval castle and hick village or haunt house . angus scrimm and who play the tall man and be no doubt the film best asset . he hardly say a word but he own every scene he in . his physical presence and menace make him a damn cool horror villain and he ought to be as iconic a freddy or jason . no matter what way you look at it and phantasm never make complete sense . you can turn it upside down and inside out and back to front and you might be able to work most of it out and but there will always be one thing that stick out . don coscarelli claim he want it to be open end and ambiguous a a way of not have to make any sequel . that tactic do not work .