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Dom Robinson reviews

Phantasm:
Special Collector's Box Set

Distributed by
Digital Entertainment

Cert:
Cat.no: DEDB 6026
Running time: 263 (85/92/86) minutes
Year: 1979/88/94
Pressing: 2000
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 33 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)
Languages: English
Subtitles: None
Fullscreen: 4:3
16:9-enhanced: No
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: 3 * DVD 5
Price: £39.99
Extras : Scene index, Introduction by Angus Scrimm: The Tall Man, Trailers, Photo Libraries, US TV Spots, Behind the scenes Footage, Deleted Scenes, Fangoria TV Spot with Angus Scrimm, Booklet

Director:

Don Coscarelli

The Beastmaster, Phantasm 1-4, Survival Quest

Producer:

Don Coscarelli

Phantasm 1 & 3

Roberto A. Quezada

Screenplay:

Don Coscarelli

Music:

Fred Myrow & Malcolm Seagrave

Fred Myrow & Christopher L. Stone

Cast (covering all three films):

The Tall Man: Angus Scrimm
Mike: Michael Baldwin
Jody: Bill Thornbury
Reggie: Reggie Bannister
Lady in Lavender: Kathy Lester
Mike: James LeGros
Liz: Paula Irvine
Father Meyers: Kenneth Tigar
Alchemy: Samantha Phillips
Rocky: Gloria Lynne Henry
Tim: Kevin Connors

Phantasm was the first in a series of films in which The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) came to earth in order to obtain dead bodies and take them back to his own world to use as slaves - one can't help thinking that's a policy dreamt up by New Labour. You don't have to pay them much so it would stop people bleating on at Tony Blair to raise the minimum wage and I bet a dead person's Union is pretty shitty.

All of the first three films in the series are here, available in one box-set for £39.99, or separately for £14.99 apiece. In the case of each of them there's plenty of cheesy acting, a deadly ball flying around and not the greatest production values employed.

film pic

The Tall Man does his best 'Bryan Ferry'.

In the first film, two brothers uncover the startling secret of the living dead following the murder of their friend. Cue endless nightmares that are really real, lots of chasing and that frightening mortician, The Tall Man.

For the sequel, subtitled, The Ball is Back, The Tall Man is out for revenge. Having thought he'd killed his last victim nine years ago, he returns with his band of merry deadly flying silver spheres.

Another thirteen years on and film three reunites Mike and Reggie with the spirit of Mike's dead brother. They are then pursued by the Tall Man through warped dimensions of space and time, as you do.

film pic

Ooh, that's gotta hurt!

Each film is presented in 4:3 fullscreen. They're open-matte so can be zoomed in to fill a widescreen TV with no loss of important picture, but it's a shame we weren't treated to anamorphic widescreen in every case. None of the films have any artifacts on view and the gore sure looks great, but the picture is a bit soft, there are some drop-outs in the print and overall it doesn't look particularly outstanding.

The sound is Dolby Surround (Dolby Digital 2.0) for each film - the first one featuring a remastered surround soundtrack. There are some nice directional effects which are effective, especially when the balls whizz about.

film pic

"Doctor, Doctor, I've got backache!"

Extras :

Chapters :

There are 10 chapters apiece for the first two films, with 13 for the last one. Not really enough.

Languages & Subtitles :

English dialogue only in vanilla surround sound, with no subtitles on any of the trilogy.

And there's more... :

The first disc contains a two-minute Introduction by Angus Scrimm: The Tall Man, the Theatrical Trailer, two TV adverts, a two-minute Deleted Scene, a short Photo Library, a classy Booklet providing plenty of info about the film and a 20-minute Behind the scenes featurette.

Disc two contains another Photo Gallery, Theatrical Trailer, three US TV adverts and a 10-minute slot, firstly of a Fangoria Convention 1989 TV Spot with Angus Scrimm. The quality of this isn't up to much as the camcorder keeps going out of focus, but it's a must for completists. The disc also labels an interview with the man, but there's no such thing here.

The final disc contains just a Theatrical Trailer which appears to be in Dolby Digital 2.1 (ie. with use of the subwoofer), a Photo Gallery and a Deleted Scene that's actually a clip from the first film (!)

Phantasm

Phantasm 2

Phantasm 3

The individual DVD covers

Menu :

All of the main menus are animated with sound, playing the theme tune while clips from the films appear inside the ball of death.

film pic

What the best-dressed men are wearing
at the Manchester Mardi Gras Festival 2000

Phantasm 4 - Not available in this box-set

Overall, forty quid for three films each with some extras isn't bad and it's a classy-looking box-set, but it could have been improved in a number of ways - anamorphic widescreen prints, Dolby Digital 5.1 remasterd sound, plus all the extras from the original film's Laserdisc Signature Edition, which was signed by both director Don Coscarelli and "The Tall Man" Angus Scrimm and contained an audio commentary by Don Coscarelli, Angus Scrimm and stars Bill Thornbury and Michael Baldwin and a 24kt gold CD of the film soundtrack. However, that special edition did retail for $100 in April 1996!

One oddity is that the end of films one and two are only played out at the beginning of their respective sequels. I don't know if the same goes with Phantasm IV: Oblivion, as the rights for that film are in the hands of Mosaic Movies who have already released it on a fullscreen DVD so it's not included in this box-set and I presume that with a 15-certificate it's not as gory as the first three, especially since the violence in the third film is immensely toned down - its 18-certificate probably only due to the appearance of nunchukas since most of the gore has the camera turned away unlike the first two.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.

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