PHANTASM has long been a fascinating entry into the horror genre. I first stumbled upon the series courtesy of Joe Bob Briggs Saturday night in Tucson, Arizona. The images of the Tall Man, his silver spheres and the other worldly red planet made a rather large impression on my eleven year old mind. A couple years later, when I finally started braving movies like THE EVIL DEAD and TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, the original PHANTASM shot to the top of my ‘must watch’ list. has long been a fascinating entry into the horror genre. I first stumbled upon the series courtesy of Joe Bob Briggs MONSTER VISION on TNT one balmynight in Tucson, Arizona. The images of the Tall Man, his silver spheres and the other worldly red planet made a rather large impression on my eleven year old mind. A couple years later, when I finally started braving movies likeand, the originalshot to the top of my ‘must watch’ list.

I’d long wondered about what it all meant. It was a unique vision, on what didn’t seem like that small of a budget to me from a very, very young Don Coscarelli. From the opening scene where a hefty dude with a handlebar mustache looking like a roadie for ‘YES’ settles into the graveyard to bed the gorgeous Lady In Lavender (who soon transforms into the Tall Man and murders him), I knew this was not your typical horror movie.

What followed was another unique idea — centering the movie around Jody and Mike Pearson two brothers whom recently lost their parents and their ice cream truck-owning pal Reggie. It’s quite odd to see a horror movie with three males at the helm as most of the classics tend to favor a female protagonist; everything about the movie captivated me. I was obsessed.

In fact, a few years down the road when I finally started dating, I forced my first girlfriend to watch it on our first date to pass the sniff test if we could be a couple. She loved the movie and naturally, I fell for her.

There’s something quite pervasive about PHANTASM ’s narrative, mythology, iconography and the magic pairing of actors in the right place at the right time. Every thing is used pitch perfectly and Coscarelli’s taut direction and writing is hard to top. The idea he was in his early twenties when he made this blows my mind. He had the skills of someone twice his age with all the energy needed to pull off a dimension-hopping, supernatural-skewing graveyard tale about three guys going up against what might be an un-killable alien.