Phantasm series
 

I caught alittle bit of #1 on television and was VERY intrigued. I would like to own all 4 on DVD, but 2 and 3 aren't out yet. I saw 1 and 4 at the store awhile back. So why in the hell would you release 4 on DVD and not 2 and 3? Don't they know that 4 won't sell worth a shit because people want to see 2 and 3 first?

Anyways, #1 was a great movie. I wish I could follow the amazing original series but I don't feel like buying VHS tapes :(

Hopefully #5 comes out soon.

Got the boxset bargain at only £9.00
http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page...=57&g=72&pa=sr

do it immediately ... before your next meal.

Region 2 - Will only play on European Region 2 or multi-region DVD players.


is that gonna fuck me over? and I live in the US and it doesnt look like they ship overseas

I get my region 1 & 2 dvds from these people i would have thought it goes both ways or just find another importer, make sure your player is multi region before parting with any cash.

or get someone else to :p


and a pal compatible tv

someone richer than me :D

I just got "Phantasm III" on VHS, there was a store blowing out their tapes just up the street for $2.99 (I've seen tapes go for 30-40 bucks on Ebay!). I gave my other copy away thinking it was going to be released on R1 DVD, and it still isn't available in that form, to my knowledge.......so...yippee!

I liked that one a lot, not a perfect movie, but the characteristic Phantasm quirkiness is full-on...my favorite aspect of the Phantasm series is the humorous high-octane weirdness.

didn't see phantasm yet but I saw a picture of the phantasm bug? looks like an oversized fly whose face has been smashed against a wall several times , well in 1979 they probably could think of a better creature that looked like a monster.

like the movie or hate it ... you cant judge it by 2 seconds of a 'bug'

no, lol, I was going to watch it some day, but they don't rent it where I live.

i can see people not liking it now .. it's a bit dated .. was fairly low budget ..but extremely atmospheric ..
one of those movies filled with cool images that will stay with you long after you see it..

and I guess that sphere thingy is one of them

absolutely ...

that thing was the shit back in the day.

interesting to listen to the commentary to hear how they did everything .. a lot of imagination and entheusiasm

I remember--I know I keep bringing laserdiscs up, but I have to, because they are cool--

I remember when Phantasm got rereleased on Laserdisc (1994? 95?) in the restored version we have now, and the sound was in stereo for the first time--augmented, with some new sound effects added for the sphere thingie--and the transfer was soooooo clear, and the damn movie sounded great. It was like the best thing that ever happened!

The soundtrack to the original film is pretty amazing too. Very inventive score.

the box set i have is one of my favorites ... it's numbered and has the hand autographed pictures of Coscorelli (sp ?) and Angus Scrim on the cover ..

probably my favorite laser

Back to what Urge was saying about the sphere thingie being the shit back in the day...............this is a really long comment but I think it is important to put "Phantasm" in its historical context, at least in more detail...

Urge is quite correct about the sphere being the shit... and, probably because he was trying not to seem too audacious (he prefers to be understated), he put it in a very subtle way. Here's a few memories from way back when...or at least, this is how it was in my neck of the woods...

Try to imagine it being 1978; we had seen "Star Wars" but horror had not really had a modern face-lift, so monsters were not very interesting, and things were generally low-budget and kinda crude....and we had not seen any off-the-wall "killing MACHINES" ...or at least not many to speak of. "Dawn of the Dead" and the makeup effects "gore" trend were on the horizon, but those excesses were still more than a year away. Really outrageous scenes of violence in movies were few and far between.....

And the voiceover on the TV spots said, "If this one doesn't scare you...YOU'RE ALREADY DEAD." And the "Phantasm" TV spots featured a moment or so of the sphere scene (but not the gory stuff, just an image of it flying) so you were thinking, "Hmm, wow, wonder what THAT'S all about."

So you're ten or eleven years old and you snuck into the theatre or your older sibling or friend bought you a ticket...and there's about half an hour of build-up...you're eating your popcorn...the film is fairly scary and really weird and you're thinking. "Hmm, I wonder what's gonna happen?" But you figure you can handle it...the mortuary where weird things are happening is creepy, the kid goes to investigate because he thinks something evil is living there..........

And suddenly this scene comes along with a flying metal ball that deploys these evil-looking spikes and plants itself in the forehead of anyone who happens to be in its way...and then a DRILL comes out of it and bores right through the character's skull (WTF??????????!!!!), and starts pumping the blood right out of his head while he stands there struggling and screaming, and then he falls down dead and urinating on himself......while the character that was lucky enough to avoid this horrible death looks on in total shock.

You have to understand, this was the freakiest, most insanely horrifying scene most people had ever come across...it made people drop their popcorn, scream, look away, cover their eyes...a lot of people almost ran out of the theatre because it was THAT scary and THAT bizarre.

As a friend of mine has said, "That scene IS the film. You only have to do something like that ONCE (in a film); once you do that, the audience will jump at any little thing you throw at them." And, indeed, "Phantasm" follows that wisdom...everything that follows the sphere scene is by comparison smaller. After the sphere scene, the really crazy excesses were not needed because the audience is too busy worrying about what the film MIGHT do...

Back when it came out, "Phantasm" was so wild that kids DARED other kids to go and see it...it was a test of how tough you were. Ah, those were the days!

good point about the tv trailer, Phantasm & The Shining trailers scared the crap out of me as a kid

Oh yeah....I remember now....the trailers for "The Shining" were really creepy, I so did not want to see the film because I was too scared.

Same thing with "Dawn of the Dead"..........when I saw the TV spots for that, I was like, "Holy crap....no way. That looks like something I have no interest in seeing. No freakin' way."

I like the way they sold horror films back then...the approach was, "Don't see it. You really don't wanna know." And it pulled people in.

I eventually did see "Dawn of the Dead" and it STILL disturbs me...

The only reason why I'm gonna buy this movie is 'cause I love its music. :p