What else happened this year? Iran-Contra, Iran hostage situation, something with Iran? I need to read more history. [Turns out that Iran-Contra DID happen in 1979, though I'll stay very quiet if you ask me too many details about it].
What is the plot - in one sentence? A guy and his much younger brother try to work out the mysteries of a seemingly haunted funeral home.
I don't have time, just spoil it for me? They kind of do, and work to destroy some MacGubbin or other to stop bad things happening there. Despite the older brother dying, all seems well, but then the kid gets sucked into a mirror and seemingly killed.
What is the meaning of the title? I have no idea what a 'Phantasm' is: Phantom / orgasm? Let's say yes. Probably it refers to that high-gravity world with a portal into it.
Anything that's not aged well? Does a woman get slapped around? Eh, it's VERY of its time, but I don't remember any women getting slapped around.
Any thoughts? This is a very dream-like horror movie. A lot of stuff is merely suggested, and there's a lot of shadow and darkness. Hardly anyone is visible in the movie, despite it being in a town. It's almost Brechtian how few people are in the movie. When investigating a scary situation in pairs, one goes ahead, and the other says 'stay here', at least three times in the movie. Each time, something horrible happens to the person that said the other should stay behind, but you follow it because that's how this movie is.
The main bad guy is 'The Tall Man,' an unsettling looking undertaker who it turns out is from another dimension. He's immensely strong, commands an army of zombie dwarves, and has some violent and magical weaponry. He's also shown lifting a coffin on his own at least a couple of times. He's a great villain, and very spooky, despite being tricked into falling into a perfectly square hole, in a convoluted plan at the movie's end. As this is the first of, oh, 5 movies in the Phantasm series, it's lucky that it'll take more than a mere mineshaft tumble to stop the Tall man.
The two brothers have a few allies in the town. A couple of women (who end up dead) and a guy with a ponytail. He apparently sells ice cream to kids. My stomach says that he shouldn't be anywhere near kids. He's also very touchy feely with the boy. Let's just say that alarm bells were ringing, not just the ice cream type.
This same fellow later works out the entire plot from very little information. The kid puts his head into a portal, and explains that there are dwarves visible there. From that ponytail man extrapolates that the Tall man is harvesting human dead to another planet which has very high gravity, making the zombies into dwarf zombies. The plot is insane, and him understanding it so quickly is a sign that he's insane too.
Oh, and at the beginning, we meet a soothsayer woman, who warns the main kid (who I thought was a girl till quite late on), that he was in danger. I was sure that she'd turn up again at the end.
She didn't.
Would you recommend this? I would, but with a solid asterisk. It was much better than I thought it would be, and it was genuinely unsettling, despite the 'it was all a dream' logic. There are lots of spooky and creepy bits, and it's enigmatic enough to be fascinating. I can see why this is a cult classic, and it's a reminder that you need neither, logic, nor budget, to to make a scary movie.
Final thoughts? The Tall man is able to turn into a pretty lady, and use that form to seduce someone before killing them. We're shown the very horror movie juxtaposition of the tall man's face with some boobs. I could have done without that. Anyway, this was a cool, nightmarish movie which I will watch this again on a bigger screen and while less sober.
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