PHANTASM (THE NEVER DEAD)
US, 1979, 88 minutes, Colour.
Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury.
Directed by Don Coscarelli.
An out-and-out attempt to scare audiences with direct and exaggerated horror. Small budget, very ordinary screenplay and acting, the film relies on the popularity of the more blatant approach to horror and scares and on this level the film works rather well.
1. The tone of the title, The American title was 'Phantasm', significance, tone?
2. The popularity of cheap and direct horror films and their style? The underground horror film from America? Stock situations? drawn out to blatant levels? The uglier side of horror and gore, brutality? The use of conventions and playing with them for the effect on the audience? The ludicrous and exaggerated aspects of horror? Presuppositions about audience interest in, response to and involvement in horror conventions? The psychological response and the gearing of screenplay to elicit maximum from these responses?
3. The quality of this film? its use of its small budget, the quality of its actors and their acting, the strengths and weaknesses of the screenplay?
4. The importance of the special effects to scare the audiences? The importance of the editing and juxtapositions for scares? The use of light, the importance of sound and eerie noises, of movements? Visual horror and shocks, atmosphere? The use of day and night, light and darkness, the eerie mansion, the cemetery and the graves? The special effects and gore especially the flying ball? The hand, the finger, the yellow blood? The corpses? The fantasy of the dwarfs going to another planet? The interplay of fantasy and contrived realism?
5. The structure of the film and its of dream and reality? Mike and the real events, dreams and fears? Jody within the dreams having his dreams? Is the consistency of the plot important - or are these contrivances meant to involve the audience more?
6. The prologue with Morning Side as the eerie mansion, the dark, the cemetery, the sex scone and the sudden murder? The transition to the funeral and the tall man taking the coffin (and Mike looking through the field glasses at him?), the noises in the interiors of Morning Side? Audience curiosity and fear aroused?
7. Jody as hero, his presence among the graves, his sexual entanglement with the girl and his eluding death? His bond with Mike and their fears together, his entering into Morning Side at night and his being rescued by Mike in the car? The confrontation with the tall man? His curiosity? The irony that he was dead?
8. Reggie with his ice-cream van, constant help, his being presumed dead so often, his coming to the rescue, the ugliness of his death?
9. The girl friends and their presence - for being scared? The blonde girl in the cemetery luring the men to be killed to be made dwarfs?
10. Why was the tall man so ominous? His appearance, his sudden presence, the sounds and the music associated with him, his walking and the fear for Mike? His continued chasing? The few words but their threatening tone? His hand, his death? His horrifying reappearance at the end?
11. Mike as hero? Young boy, watching the funeral, seeing the tall man? His going inside and seeing the flying ball and its killing the man and draining him of blood? The fight with the tall man and the chopping of the finger? His working with Jody? Going back to the graves, being chased, in the swamp, the care and the crash? His being drawn into the tunnel and seeing the dwarves being taken away? His waking up from the dream and trying to assess reality - and his suddenly being taken by the tall man?
12. Was the plot credible at all? Did this matter? The effect of a horror experience? The watching of this film and the forming of verdicts on the impact of horror films?
