Balls of Chaos

When you delve into the slasher genre you come across the expected big franchises that everyone “should” watch: Nightmare on Elm StreetThe brain-child of director Wes Craven, A Nightmare on Elm Street was his answer to the glut of Slasher films that were populating the multiplex. His movie featured an immortal character, Freedy, with a powerset like none other, reshaping the expectations for Slasher movies to come., Friday the 13thOne of the most famous Slasher film franchises, the Friday the 13th series saw multiple twists and turn before finally settling on the formula everyone knows and loves: Jason Voorhees killing campers 'round Camp Crystal Lake., HalloweenThe franchise that both set the standard for Slasher horror and, at the same time, defied every convention it created, Halloween has seen multiple time lines and reboots in its history, but one thing has remained: Michael Myers, the Shape that stalks Haddonfield., HellraiserBorn from a short story by Clive Barker, this series introduced a new kind of killer to the burgeoning 1980s Slasher scene, a demon from Hell with the promise of pleasures for those who opened a puzle box. Those pleasures, specifically, were: gore, screams, gore, terror, and gore.. There are also any number of smaller titles and minor series that have built up their own followings but don’t have nearly the reputation of the big boys. A casual fan, for example, will take one look at LeprechaunThis film series, starring Warwick Davis, tells of the many murderous adventures of an evil leprechaun always out to get his gold. and then never revisit that film series, and they absolutely won’t dive in deep enough to try and sit through the likes of Sweet Sixteen or Final Exam.

But in and among the big hits and tiny productions is another film series, Phantasm, that for various reasons managed to slide under the radar of most horror fans. Started in 1979, this series, you’d think, could have risen to be another major franchise, like Hellraiser or A Nightmare on Elm Street. Certainly it has some key visuals that will stick in the mind of any horror fan. However, likely due to its limited budget and strange, surreal story, the film debuted strongly before fading to obscurity. Meanwhile, its various sequels fed off the cult status of the first movie, finding success in small runs in theaters before reaching better sales on home video.

Now, to be fair, the first film isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. It’s a very low budget production that feels like it was put on by a director and his friends (which isn’t really far off from the truth). It had a strong, “let’s put on a show” vibe to its filming, and there are times where the production, editing, and special effects are all a little amateurish (one particular sequence with a nasty, flying insect looks more like the characters pretend-fighting with a stuffed animal). Still, there are charms to the film that help it overcome its low budget struggles, and there are key moments that cement this movie as a horror classic.

After one of his friends, Tommy (Bill Cone), is killed in a cemetery, with the murder made up to look like a suicide, Jody Pearson (Bill Thornbury) rolls back into town. A traveling musician by trade, Jody is the older brother to Mike Pearson (A. Michael Baldwin) and Mike’s only living relative. He’s supposed to take care of Mike but, as he tells his pal Reggie (Reggie Bannister), he really can’t handle the thought of taking care of his kid brother (this despite the fact that Mike worships the ground Jody walks on). After the funeral for Tommy, Jody really wants to just get out of town.

And he would, were it not for the strange things going on at the cemetery. Although Jody barred Mike from going to Tommy’s funeral, Mike ignored him and snuck over anyway. After, he spotted the weird funeral home worker (known in the film only as The Tall Man, played by Angus Scrimm) lifting the full casket on his own, secreting it away to do who knows what. Mike starts investigating, searching around the funeral home, looking for clues. What he finds, and brings back to Jody, is absolutely chilling, and it leads the two of them to realize they have to stop The Tall Man and whatever he’s doing before more people die and, just maybe, the world comes to an end.

If nothing else, you can’t fault the film for having ambitions. Phantasm is a very strange movie that starts out simply enough: a murder, a curious kid, a strange figure. But as the film rolls on, it starts introducing more and more weird stuff at the funeral home. There’s the seeming undead, as well as strange, cloaked dwarves, and lots of looted graves. By the time you reach the murderous, flying, steel balls you’re only halfway into the film with one of its most iconic moments, but the strange twists don’t stop coming. Phantasm, for any faults you might want to ascribe to it, certainly doesn’t feel any need for restraint.

I’ll be honest, the silver ball sequence is a highlight of the film. I knew of the silver balls, in passing, because they appear on the posters and covers for many of the films in this series. They truly are iconic. But I wasn’t really sure what, exactly, they did. Seeing the film, though, and watching them in action, they are absolutely fantastic. Despite this being a film from 1979 I really don’t want to spoil too much about this sequence because it really does make or break the film for viewers, and you have to see it free of prior knowledge to appreciate it best. What I will say is it leads to an absolutely amazing, and hilariously over-the-top kill.

I think where the film struggles the most is in its finale. Again, without spoiling anything, the film introduces a lot of concepts that feel ripped out of fantasy and sci-fi stories. It’s a weird hook to the left that the film takes, seemingly out of nowhere, and it almost derails the film. What does, then, derail the film is a confusing ending that seems to countermand a lot of what we just saw, going for a surrealistic and strange final sequence that feels oddly out of place with the film. After the credits rolled I kept asking myself if that was really the ending. I ended up going online to see what the sequel was about and, yes, the ending of this film is canon and there’s no mistaking its big twist. It’s just weird.

Does it ruin the film, though? I’m not so sure about that. Phantasm is a film about the journey more than the journey than the destination. It has a strange, wild ride it wants to take you on, and it never leaves you entirely sure about where it’s going or what you just saw. For an early effort from this production team, headed up by Don Coscarelli (who also directed The Beastmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep, and John Dies at the End), the film really does work. It’s not perfect, by any means, but it has heart to it that helps to paper over many of its shortcomings.

Plus, again, it has those silver balls. It’s strange and surreal and quite unlike a number of other horror films of the 1970s and 1980s. I’d most liken it to Hellraiser, except it totally swerves in a different direction early on. Phantasm really does defy any easy kind of comparison. The best way I can think to describe it is as a full-length Heavy Metal story, but done in live action, not animation, and also having nothing to do with Heavy Metal. Confused? Well, that’s Phantasm for you.

This is a weird, interesting horror film and I’m glad I watched it. It even left me quite curious about the sequels, even if it was just so I could see what the hell it was I just watched and how the story evolved from there. Apparently they’re even more strange and surreal, which, frankly, feels appropriate. This isn’t a film series that’s going to let its audiences off with an easy ending. It’s got its own vibe it's going for, and if you’re in for the ride then you totally get it. Many won’t, and that’s fine. I do think Phantasm is worth giving that chance, though.