a teenage boy ( michael baldwin ) stumble upon a plot by a very tall mortuary worker ( angus scrimm ) to steal dead body and turn them into midget slave for an alien world . with the help of his brother and the boy hop to cut the tall man down to size . 28 year later and don coscarelli be now see a a master of horror and angus scrimm somewhat of a horror icon ( though to a less degree than and say and robert englund ) . while the plot i have outline above may sound silly and the actual execution of this idea make it clear why this film have really lodge itself in horror history and spawn numerous sequel ( all star scrimm ) . this film capture the feeling of the late 1970s and early 1980s horror with the young boy stumble upon a plot of large and sinister proportion . horror gear towards the youth of a generation who have parent who may not believe them ( or in this case and an old brother ) . i really like this sense and much like the goony and the monster squad and lose boy a kid film without be childish . phantasm have become know for the silver ball and and believe me when angus scrimm put one of his ball in your face and you would not be happy about it . a bloody mess be all you will get . i really enjoy the effect of this ( remember and this be 1979 when effect still take some creativity ) . now and some thing i do not understand . for example and why be the midget bleed macaroni and cheese instead of blood . and more importantly and why do the tall man have to transform into a woman to stab people in the cemetery . if he super strong and have those silver ball and he really doesn not have to be very sneaky about the whole ordeal and do he . but and seriously and check this film out . roughly in the same time period a halloween and you be leave with a similar feeling . only this one be more light hearted and feel good and less the embodiment of evil . i suppose it depend on your personal taste or your mood for the day . myself and i like a little bit of the unusual thrown in to a movie just to keep me guess .