WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Phantasm 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:15.360 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This 0:00:15.440 --> 0:00:18.360 is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And as 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:21.880 we enter the Halloween season on Weird House Cinema, one 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:23.680 of our favorite times of the year. Why would I 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.480 even say one of clearly our favorite time of the year. 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:29.680 We are going to be doing a series of horror 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.040 movies on on Weird House this month. Uh, and we're 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:37.279 kicking it off today with Phantasm. I first saw this 0:00:37.360 --> 0:00:41.559 movie projected onto a wall when I was in college. 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:45.400 I had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever about it going in. 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.080 I just knew they're showing a horror movie projecting it 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.360 on a wall. I gotta go see it. And I 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:53.240 think it was about the time we got to Reggie 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:57.480 Banister in his ice cream Man outfit that I started 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.240 to really wonder what I had gotten myself in too. 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:04.320 By the end, I was totally amazed. I was, in 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.400 fact agg and I could not tell you if what 0:01:07.440 --> 0:01:09.560 I had just watched was a good movie or a 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:13.320 bad movie, but either way, I was transfixed. Yes, it 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:16.559 is a film that that transfixes one. It's a film 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:21.959 that that hypnotizes you, and yeah, I think I you know, 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:23.520 I have our time. Remember when I saw this one 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:25.800 for the first time, because I think I saw Phantasm 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:29.120 to first. I think I saw it on Joe Bob 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.920 Briggs Monster Vision on T and T back in the day. 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:34.600 I think they would they would show this film quite 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:36.280 a lot and at that but at that point I 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:38.840 was hooked. And then I started picking up these other 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:43.520 Phantasm films, renting them and so forth. But yeah, this 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.720 is N nine Phantasm. We're going to be discussing this. 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.720 This is definitely a film with a dreamlike quality to it. 0:01:51.720 --> 0:01:53.160 It's really it's one we've we've kind of had in 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:54.760 the back pocket for a while because it is a 0:01:54.840 --> 0:02:00.640 quintessential psychotronic film. Um, it just all the this check 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.000 off on this one. I would say that it is 0:02:03.080 --> 0:02:06.040 more than just a dream like quality. So you might 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:08.880 compare it to the films of Luccio Fulci years that, 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:13.920 you know, this Italian filmmaker who made strange, kind of 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:18.680 beautiful but gross horror films that often many scenes feel 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:21.520 like a dream because you're like, wait, why are we here, 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.400 how did we get here? Why is the person doing that? 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.680 There's a kind of dream logic connecting everything. Phantasm does 0:02:28.800 --> 0:02:30.720 have that, but I would say it goes a step 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:35.320 farther in that. Unlike full cheese films, Phantasm is literally 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.640 a recursive series of dreams as best I can tell, 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.040 I mean, who who knows? Like there are at least 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:44.360 four times in the movie where a character appears to 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.040 wake up from a dream. It is not clear when 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:50.480 the dreams started or when the dream ended. What's a 0:02:50.600 --> 0:02:53.880 dream and what's reality? Yeah, yeah, I think that's that's 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:56.160 a good way of putting it now. I want to 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:58.240 also note from from the get go here that this 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:00.640 is a film with a both a devoted following and 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.920 multiple sequels that build on its lore to varying degrees. 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.800 We're mostly just going to be focusing on the first 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.919 film on nine Phantasm. I'm going to bring up the 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.120 sequel a little bit, but for the most part, I 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.840 haven't seen the other Phantasm films in a long while, 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:19.560 and I and I haven't seen the final entry in 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:24.240 the series, sixteen Phantasm Ravager, at all. So yeah, we're 0:03:24.280 --> 0:03:27.520 mostly going to be discussing Phantasm from seventy nine on 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:30.080 its own terms. I have not seen any of the 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:33.120 sequels if this were years ago, I might try to 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:35.800 mount an attempt to watch them all, kind of like 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:38.160 I did when I was like, oh, this is the 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:41.200 year I watch all the hell Raiser movies. That was 0:03:41.240 --> 0:03:44.839 a good use of my time. Uh, But I don't 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:46.440 know if I'm going to make it now. I don't 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:48.640 know if I will get past P two. Yeah. P 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:50.720 two is a good stopping play in place, So I'll 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:53.920 discuss P two in a little bit. I think I 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:56.520 think that they're they're they're both very different films, and 0:03:56.520 --> 0:03:59.800 they're both very very fun and they're in different ways. 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:03.400 But coming back to seventy nine Phantasm, let's let's hit 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:06.840 the elevator pitch on this one. I'd like to paraphrase 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:10.120 the words of one Shack by saying, um, you can 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:14.960 summarize this one as flying balls, dwarves just weird. Phantasm 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.800 does not shy away from the otherworldly imagery, probably the 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.400 most iconic of which is the first thing you mentioned, 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:26.479 the flying ball. In a way, what Jason's hockey mask 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:30.560 is to the Friday Thirteenth series, I believe the ball 0:04:30.720 --> 0:04:33.520 is to the Phantasm series in that it is not 0:04:33.560 --> 0:04:36.960 really the human villain, but it is like the symbol 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.640 of the villain's power. Right. And also it is something 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.599 just in terms of like elements of the film that 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.400 cannot just be passively copied by another film. Like if 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.120 you have a character a killer, especially in another movie, 0:04:50.160 --> 0:04:52.919 put on a hockey mask, well, you just cross the line. 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:56.680 You're in Jason's territory now, uh, And not necessarily mean 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.920 that from a legal standpoint, but from just a crea 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:03.919 ative standpoint, like you are now clearly in the shadow 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:06.160 of Jason. You may have already been in the shadow, 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.800 but now you stepped entirely within the you know, the 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:13.120 Umbrell shade there. Likewise in with this film, Yeah, flying 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:15.400 silver balls of death. You can't just have a flying 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.000 silver ball of death in your film or your story 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:22.320 or what have you without clearly saying yes, I come 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.359 in the wake of phantasm. Before you even understand the 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.000 context of the ball, we should describe what the ball is. 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:31.880 It's a metal ball that flies through the air, flies 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:35.240 at your face. It attaches itself to your forehead via 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:38.000 a couple of little hooks I guess that get in 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.160 your head, and then it drills into your head and 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.120 then drains your body entirely of blood. In a jet 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.919 that shoots out the back of the ball. Yeah, and 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.120 they're so great because and I love I love just 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:53.080 thinking about what makes them great because there, and again 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:58.480 largely keeping things relegated to the original film, here, they 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:02.160 seem to be machine means, they are pieces of technology. 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.440 They're they're very good at what they do, but they 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:08.000 can be evaded, they can be to certain degrees outsmarted. 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:10.840 And then there's also something about the way they function 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:16.159 that feels not only alien in origin, but also maybe 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.720 alien in function. Like it makes me think of parasitic 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:23.640 infections where the parasite goes awry because it's not supposed 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:25.400 to be in a human body and it's not supposed 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.160 to wind up in the brain. Like you almost feel 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:30.520 like this is a machine that was made to interface 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:34.200 with a different biological form, and what we're seeing here 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:38.479 is it executing its purpose on a body that it 0:06:38.560 --> 0:06:41.560 wasn't designed for. That's a very good comparison. Yes, this 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:45.200 flying metal ball is sort of like the toxoplasma Gandhi 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.599 of the Red Planet that the aliens in this movie 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:51.000 come from. In fact, I was reading a bit of 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:57.160 trivia about this movie, and apparently the idea for Phantasm 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:01.640 traces back to a dream that the director Don Costcarelli 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:04.640 had when he was a teenager. He dreamed that he 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:10.600 was running down these endless corridors, marble corridors that never stopped, 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:12.920 and he just kept running and running because he was 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:17.880 being chased by a chrome sphere, a floating chrome ball 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:22.520 that wanted to penetrate his skull with a needle. And 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.880 that's a pretty scary image. I am surprised how well 0:07:25.920 --> 0:07:30.520 that worked on screen. Yeah, it did, It absolutely does. 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.120 All right, Well, let's go ahead and hear the trailer 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:54.600 for Phantasm. Phantasm. Is it a nightmare? Phantasm? Is it 0:07:54.680 --> 0:08:13.400 an illusion? Phantasm? Whatever it is. If this one doesn't 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:29.800 scare you, you're already dead Phantasm. All right. I love 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:33.480 this trailer, great trailer. I love the line if this 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.199 one doesn't scare you, you're already dead, because it makes 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.080 it sound like they should have another message at the 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:41.880 end of the movie that says like, are you alive, 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:46.160 then we're pleased to hear you enjoyed Phantasm. So we've 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:52.160 already compared Phantasm to some Italian horror movies, especially full 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:57.360 cheese movies, because of its dream equality and colorful lucid imagery. 0:08:58.040 --> 0:09:00.880 But another point of comparison I would like to raise 0:09:01.760 --> 0:09:04.920 is that Phantasm kind of reminds me of the films 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:10.480 of very low budget independent amateur filmmakers, or maybe not 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.960 necessarily amateur, but but low budget independent filmmakers, even going 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.559 back to the fifties, like Ed Wood and Roger Corman. 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:19.960 Of course, you know you're gonna have different levels of 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.319 ability to realize one's vision in there, but it has 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:28.319 that same scrappiness that it feels like an improvised production 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:31.880 of young people who didn't necessarily always know what they 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.960 were doing or have all the permits they needed, or 0:09:35.040 --> 0:09:38.000 have the money to to realize everything in the in 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.360 the glossiest possible way. And yet it does kind of 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.280 come together with an infectious enthusiasm and a kind of 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:49.520 irresistible energy, even though it kind of lacks a sense 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:54.239 of worldliness or experience. Yeah, absolutely, it does have that 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:57.400 that that scrappiness to it. So let's let's get into 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:01.480 the individuals behind this scrappiness, because yes, this is a 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:06.040 Don Cosarelli picture. Don Cosarelli was born in nineteen fifty four. 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:09.680 He is the director, the writer, the cinematographer, and the 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.160 film editor on this movie. He was I believe twenty 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.560 three years old when filming started, in twenty five years 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:18.880 old when it was released, and this was his third picture, 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:23.960 following Jim the World's Greatest in nineteen seventy six. Is 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:28.720 Kinny and Company. Phantasm makes so much more sense once 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.040 you shared this fact with me, that that Costcarelli was 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.559 twenty three when he started making it. It has such 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.520 early twenties energy, again coming back to that lack of 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.439 wisdom and worldliness, but at the same time a thing 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:44.600 that makes up for it, which is an absolutely like 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:49.120 it is a leaky vessel of the essence of fun. 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:53.040 It's just like kind of you feel the excitement about 0:10:53.200 --> 0:10:57.800 making a movie within this movie. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, it's 0:10:57.920 --> 0:11:00.840 um there's I think there's a lot to this film 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:03.920 that does line up perfectly, this idea of the twenty 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:08.319 three year old filmmaker, um of you know, early twenties 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:13.800 dreamer who's also exploring exploring some familiar topics. A lot 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:17.280 of horror films deal with sex and death, too. Many 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:21.040 horror films probably deal with the dichotomy of sex and death, 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:24.040 but this one does so in a I thought a 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:28.360 very uh fascinating way, Like you get the feeling of 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:32.120 the of of the youth standing you know, outside of 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:36.959 childhood but not within the adult world, confronted by the 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:41.720 mysteries of death, of of sex and uh and and 0:11:41.840 --> 0:11:44.320 just trying to figure out what these are and like 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:46.880 why and to what extent they are threats to him, 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.560 to what extent they are his destiny. We see all 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:53.120 of that wound up in the character of Mike. Uh. Yeah, 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:55.840 it's uh, it's it's it's really fascinating to to look 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:58.840 back on and really gaze long and deep into the 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.560 phantasm here. So you mentioned that Costcarelli had made a 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.560 couple of movies before Phantasm that were not horror movies. Uh, though, 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:08.040 there is a there's a story that I think comes 0:12:08.160 --> 0:12:11.760 from the audio commentary track that he recorded for the movie. 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.520 But anyway, wherever it comes from, the story is that 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.760 he got the idea to make a horror film because 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.040 when he was sitting in an audience that was watching 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.880 his earlier movie Kenny and Company, which I've never seen. 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:27.640 I don't know what to deal with it is Apparently 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:29.720 there's a jump scare moment in it, like a character 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:32.800 puts on a scary mask and jumps out, and he 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.520 watched the way the audience reacted to this jump scare moment, 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:39.559 and he was just he was so into it the 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.440 way that they like they literally jumped from their seats 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:44.760 and screamed, and he was like, I gotta make a 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.480 whole movie of this. I'm doing horror now. Yeah. I 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.760 do like that he came into this after having made 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:53.600 two non horror films that I think both reviven't seeen 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:55.120 either of than either, but I think they both revolved 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.240 largely around young people in the lives of young people. 0:12:58.520 --> 0:13:00.720 And then he moves on into horror. A lot of 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:03.600 people had jumped right into the horror, and so I 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.120 think that's another reason that Phantasm works so well, is 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:10.120 that it it's not just obsessed with like, let's get 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:11.920 some gore up there on the screen, Like there is 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:16.000 also this attention to, uh, this the central youth character 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.080 in the in the film, and what he's thinking and 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:23.040 what he now he's processing everything. Another way that Costcarrelli's 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:28.320 vision feels it is distinctly young to me is the 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:32.280 way the movie tries to pack in a lot of 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:37.280 elements that are not necessarily they don't necessarily like fit smoothly, 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:39.880 but he's just trying to get a lot of stuff 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:42.280 in there. And I think part of that is also 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.000 explained by another trivia fact I read about the movie, 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.800 which is that um he apparently at one point talked 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:52.640 about how he remembered when he was a kid, he 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:57.520 would see like ads and trailers for horror movies that 0:13:57.600 --> 0:13:59.720 would seem really exciting, but then when you would go, 0:13:59.800 --> 0:14:02.680 why the actual movie of just be people sitting around 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:05.240 talking for most of the movie. There were actually very 0:14:05.280 --> 0:14:08.360 few scares in them. The scares were already in the trailer, 0:14:08.720 --> 0:14:10.800 and he wanted to make a movie that had a 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:14.040 scary moment at least every five minutes. That is just 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.679 packed with with little scares and weird things. And it 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:19.640 kind of reminds me of the story of Roger Corman 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:22.040 telling Charles B. Griffith, Okay, when you write Attack of 0:14:22.080 --> 0:14:24.720 the Crab Monsters, the important thing is it has to 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.960 have action or horror on every page. Yeah. Phantasm doesn't 0:14:28.960 --> 0:14:31.040 really hold anything back, and it keeps you on your 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.720 toes that way it is, and I think also builds 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.640 into that dreamline quality. If things are making sense and 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:38.960 seeming normal, how long are they going to do that? 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.400 What can happen? And eventually you feel like anything can 0:14:42.440 --> 0:14:45.400 happen at any moment. Now, this film, like we said, 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:47.520 the scrappiness of it, it was made for. I think 0:14:47.560 --> 0:14:51.000 it's been estimated for around three hundred thousand. Though um, 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.120 I think the estimation there is kind of rough because 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:56.680 I don't think they were really keeping super you know, 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:01.640 accurate records. Uh ended up grossing millions though, Uh it 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:05.280 was a success with with with audiences and some critics. 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:07.240 I was looking back, I noticed that Ebert was not 0:15:07.320 --> 0:15:11.400 a big fan of Phantasm and like Phantasm to even less. 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:15.120 But Michael Weldon of the Psychotronic film Guides, Uh, he 0:15:15.280 --> 0:15:18.520 loved it. It's one of his favorites. He celebrated it 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:22.360 as quote a unique, confascinating horror hit with more satisfying 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.160 surprises than you could find in a dozen other recent offerings. 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.520 And that was written and I think eighty three. So this, 0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:33.640 this film really established Casarelli within the horror realm. He 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:38.280 followed this up with three's Beast Master, which I think 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:40.680 is also a pretty solid film in my opinion anyway, 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.160 and certainly one that is a chief cult status. You 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:46.480 got some stars for that one, right, Uh, who who's 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:49.520 in it? Ripped horn? Ripped horn? Is in it? Um 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:51.400 the beast Master. They got the beast Master for it, 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.640 which is ideal since it's about the beast Master. What 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:58.400 Mark Singer? Yeah, yeah, so yeah, we we We talked 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.040 about beast Master two on a past episode of Weird House. 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:02.720 So if you want more beast Master, actually go back 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:06.280 to that one. But again, I think eighty three beast 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:09.800 Master pretty solid. Uh. In In Coscarelli's defense, he did 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:14.440 not direct beast Master two. That was somebody else, right now. 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:18.640 Coscarelli did come back to direct and write Phantasm two 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:24.640 in Phantasm three Lord of the Dead in and Phantasm 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:31.160 four Oblivion in. His non Phantasm directional credits also include 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.000 Survival Quest in eighty eight Bubba Ho Tap in two 0:16:34.040 --> 0:16:36.840 thousand and two. He did a Masters of Horror episode 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.200 uh titled in Incident On and Off a Mountain Road 0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:42.920 from two thousand and five. Both that in Bubba Ho 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:46.240 Tap are based on Joe Landsdale stories. He did John 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.680 Dies at the End in twelve, and he also directed 0:16:49.840 --> 0:16:53.640 the Dio music video The Last in Line in four, 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:57.560 a Dio music video, I Gotta look that up after this. Yeah, 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:00.840 I'm not familiar with their their music video, so I've 0:17:00.880 --> 0:17:04.960 I read a few more Internet trivia anecdotes about about 0:17:05.000 --> 0:17:07.280 Don Coscarelli in the making of this movie, one of 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:11.880 which again contributing to the general idea of budgetary scrappiness. 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:15.880 Apparently they they really juiced every last drop they could 0:17:15.880 --> 0:17:19.680 get out of their camera and equipment rentals. So one 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.680 of the stories is that they would shoot on the weekends. 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:24.440 I think that took them like over a year to 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.439 shoot this movie because they were pretty much just shooting 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.200 on weekends and they would rent their camera equipment on 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:33.680 Fridays and return it on Mondays. So they're they're technically 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.520 only paying for one business day of rental, but then 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:40.320 they would use it all weekend. Another thing is some 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:42.800 of the stories about the production make it sound like 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:47.440 they were not practicing industry safety standards for for SAE 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.359 stunts and and kind of dangerous uh the achievement of 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.640 dangerous shots. So there were stories of the director like 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.439 personally doing camera work for like filming some of the 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:01.120 car chase sequences uh in and not the best way. 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.200 Like one thing they did is you know, usually when 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.480 you see characters inside a car and a movie talking. Uh, 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:08.679 the car is not actually moving. They'll have you know, 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.640 them sitting in a stationary car, and then they will 0:18:11.680 --> 0:18:14.679 somehow simulate the movement of the outside world around the car. 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:16.720 If it's at night, they might just like move lights 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.560 around where they might have a rear projection or something 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.320 like that. Uh. That that's often how they do it. 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:25.080 In this movie, they just they just actually had characters 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:27.400 driving the cars and they were acting at the same time. 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.760 That's not usually a great idea. But another story is 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:32.240 that there's a scene in the movie where there's like 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.720 a car chase where one of the characters, Jodi, is 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:39.280 shooting a gun at another car that's chasing them. And 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.520 I think they actually did film this with moving cars, 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:46.280 with the director sort of like sitting on the trunk 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.679 of a moving car filming. Uh you know, the actor 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.720 playing Jody popping up out of the window and shooting 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:56.040 at the car behind them with a shotgun. Right. I 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.520 think it had blanks, But even that can be dangerous that. 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:03.480 I love realistic effects too, but uh, movie production note. 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:05.880 You know, no movie is worth somebody actually getting hurt 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.640 or killed. You know, practice safety on sets. People now 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:13.680 This was very much a Costcarelli family labor of love 0:19:13.800 --> 0:19:18.320 here because the producer on this was Dat Coscarelli, who 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.840 was also dad investment counselor at the time, who helped 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.080 his son fund the film and later served as EP 0:19:24.600 --> 0:19:28.440 on Don's other films. And then mom was also involved. 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:36.120 Kate Cosarelli, who lived seven through nine. She did make up, production, design, wardrobe. 0:19:37.080 --> 0:19:40.919 She uh. She also this is super interesting. She was 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.520 already a novelist apparently, if I'm understanding this correctly, She 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.080 wrote books like Leading Lady, Fame and Fortune, but she 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.800 herself wrote the novelization of Phantasm based on her son's screenplay, 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.240 which I think is that's that's adorable. I love that 0:19:55.560 --> 0:20:00.240 she had to knife fight Alan Dean Foster for the rights. Yeah. 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:02.320 I don't know how how that went down, but it's yeah, 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:05.240 it's apparently I was looking around for any signs of 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:09.320 apparently a very sought after book, uh for a die 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:13.080 hard Phantasm fans, But I did run across a few 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.399 quotes here and there her talking about at adapting it 0:20:15.560 --> 0:20:17.919 and you know, picking up on little details in the 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.119 film and working those out, so uh, yeah, it was 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:31.600 it seemed like a labor of love for her. All right, 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.320 let's get into the cast we mentioned Mike. Mike is 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:38.960 the youth. Mike is the central character and Phantasm and 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:43.640 Mike was played by A. Michael Baldwin born nineteen sixty three, 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:47.240 apparently son of animator Gerald Baldwin, and Will worked on 0:20:47.240 --> 0:20:51.359 a number of older animated shows. Uh So. A. Michael 0:20:51.359 --> 0:20:54.080 Baldwin was a child actor who appeared as early as 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:56.960 nineteen seventy six and episodes of Star Ski and Hutch 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.320 and Eight Is Enough. Later on, he started as Ug 0:21:00.359 --> 0:21:03.520 and Kenny and Company from seventy six. That's Doun's one 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:07.359 of Don's previous films, and his post Phantasm acting career 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:10.880 is is pretty phantasm heavy, and I believe he went 0:21:10.880 --> 0:21:13.880 on to teach acting. Um, none of this matters though, 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.920 because he's I think he's absolutely perfect and phantasm. He's 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:21.360 this believably awkward and childlike but still you know, clearly, 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.439 you know, be beyond the limits of childhood. He's. But 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:28.840 he's also even though he's awkward, he's still charismatic enough 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.840 to serve as the hero of the film, and you know, 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:36.080 to be this action based character when it's right. Uh So, Yeah, 0:21:36.160 --> 0:21:39.240 I absolutely love a Michael Baldwin's performance here, and I 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:44.639 can understand why fans were disappointed that his role was 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:48.320 recast in Phantasm too. I'm gonna ask a question about Mike, 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:52.240 but this also applies to Jody and especially Reggie. How 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:55.840 old is anybody in this movie supposed to be? Yeah, 0:21:55.880 --> 0:22:00.679 it's a little a little foggy, right because Mike, for instance, I, 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.080 you know, I think it would be reasonable to think 0:22:04.119 --> 0:22:07.160 of him as like as as being a high school graduate. 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:08.800 We haven't, but we have no idea like where he 0:22:08.920 --> 0:22:11.800 is in terms of high school. I assume he's done. 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:14.199 Like we don't see we don't I don't think we 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:16.119 really see much in the way of friends. There are 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:17.640 a few people here and there. There's no I don't 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.560 think mentioned of school. I don't remember anything about like 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:23.960 his plans for the future. But in a way that's 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:26.600 kind of perfect, like that it's perfect for this this 0:22:26.680 --> 0:22:30.159 kind of character who is adrift in the very early 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:33.280 stages of adulthood, that has no concept of like what 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:36.600 the future means for him, and he's already a feeling 0:22:36.680 --> 0:22:41.639 himself detached or partially detached from the protective aura of childhood. 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:45.200 That's interesting, You read him as as a high school graduate. 0:22:45.320 --> 0:22:48.919 I don't know. So he drives a car that you 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.439 can't tell if he's supposed to be doing that legally, um, 0:22:52.560 --> 0:22:54.800 and he like knows how to fix cars and things 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:57.840 like that, and there are other things that would suggest 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:01.040 he's older. But sometimes also he actually his character is 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:04.159 supposed to be twelve, Yes, definitely, but how much of 0:23:04.160 --> 0:23:07.679 that is he like just kind of an immature, you know, 0:23:07.760 --> 0:23:11.359 young adult like, but it is very vague, and I 0:23:11.400 --> 0:23:13.439 think that's one of the things that works about it, 0:23:13.480 --> 0:23:16.960 Like he's he's a child, but he's he's a youth, 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:19.240 but he's he's not he's certainly I don't think we 0:23:19.280 --> 0:23:22.080 would say that he's fully you know, in the area 0:23:22.080 --> 0:23:24.959 of adulthood yet because on one level, I don't think 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:27.480