#21 - Phantasm (1979)
(dir. Don Coscarelli)
What a great and weird movie. I've seen this one before, but I wanted to revisit it as a new remastered/restored version was recently made available online. It looks and sounds pretty fantastic, so if you are already a fan of the film I highly recommend checking out the new version. I rented it on iTunes but I believe it's also on Amazon steaming as well.
Anyway, a simple plot synopsis doesn't really do this movie justice. Basically, a teenage boy and his older brother go to a funeral home/cemetery to investigate a strange tall man who appears to be stealing corpses. The things they find are stranger than they could've imagined, including evil dwarfs, killer spheres, giant bugs, and portals to other worlds. Everything about this movie is just super creative and weird, and it has a dreamlike/nightmarish quality to it that it pulls off really well. I don't think it is particularly scary, but it has a lot of great creepy moments, and Angus Scrimm as the "Tall Man" is appropriately menacing.
In my opinion this film is right up there with the best horror movies of the late 70's/early 80's. It has aged really well, too - it is so unique that it still feels fresh almost 30 years after it's initial release. Highly recommended to fans of classic horror.
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