ROX-TV welcomes the coming fall with some marijuana and the Wednesday-Night-Movie, the immortal “PHANTASM”. It’s time to fog out. Part 1 of 2.
Welcome back to the ROX-TV website. As we always do before we get going, a big “thank you” goes out to the returning readers. Well, it’s been a minute since the Fall has rolled into town and I couldn’t be happier with the coming chill. This is my favorite season-turn out of them all and we do get a nice mix up in Michigan each year. There never seems to be enough rain, but besides that…we get a little of everything and as much as it can suck in the winter (driving on iced out roads), over the years I’ve come to enjoy the changes, as David Bowie would say.
In the coming weeks I’m looking to revive the ROX-TV Ben Cooper “Hour” (although it’s really just an article series). In each new article, I will be highlighting one or two classic Halloween costumes from my own personal collection, up until Halloween Night. So, keep coming back. Well… to the point at hand. Tonight is “Movie-Night-Wednesday” and we are going to be reviewing “Phantasm” and the marijuana will be from one of the finest gardens in Southwest Detroit.
Enter the smoke
I just fired up the first joint of what we will refer to as C.S.W. (Chicano Southwest) and hit the chair. The smoke was smooth and went down nicely. I was immediately relaxed after smoking and my eye lids became slightly lowered a click or two. My feet felt numb and there was fuzz in my brain. Not bad. I waited a full six minutes just to be sure that I would be proper for the film. Once I found the right setting, it was time to watch the movie. And so, it went.
Enter Phantasm:
As the smoke floated around my brain, I decided to make some serious judgements about the movie while enlightened. Before I knew it, I think two of those boring film company logos passed by. Nothing stood out besides the fact that they were perfectly colored generic for a late 1970’s “B” movie. If you looked up “ghost like” 1970’s graphics that pass off as company logos, this would be the greatest example on earth (Smoke). So, a short time later the word “Phantasm” graces the screen in dead red. And of course, the most unsettling music for maximum affect ever. Only rivalled by the intro to the “The Shining” or the singing in the “Children of the Corn” classic.
In my high mind, because ‘The Shining” and “Children of the Corn” were both written by Stephen King, I somehow wanted a connection to complete the triangle of Stephen King’s work, but it just wasn’t there. As any decent fan of horror movies would know, “Phantasm” was made by Don Coscarelli in the twilight of the 1970’s… seventy-nine to be exact (Smoke check in: Very Nice). Don did everything on this project, besides holding the lighting. He was the writer, the director, and the editing. Oh yeah, he was also in charge of photographs. That’s pretty impressive in my opinion considering the end result.
Did I mention the opening sounds were creepy. Heavy shit. Any way the movie gets going with a classic “sex scene” in the graveyard. Just a typical, boring place to bang someone…right. The woman then stabs the poor bastard and there is a creepy flash screen of the Tall Man, who strangely looks like the woman in an odd sort of way. Then it’s off to Morningside, which makes me think of Project Born for obvious reasons. Normally I wouldn’t introduce each character during the article, but because the core group is so small, we shall proceed. First up is the lonely-hearts rock and roller older brother “Jody” (played by Bill Thornbury) and his trusty ice cream salesman sidekick Reggie (Reggie Bannister).
Neither of these guys are known for much after this flick and I say that as no disrespect, I merely use Phantasm as the high-water benchmark. They sold the hell out of this movie and played their parts to perfect expectations. I mean shit, we are still watching and talking about it some forty-three years later. Back to the action though…in the opening scene Jody and Reggie are reminiscing over their dead homie “Tommy”. The guy that got shanked in the heart. Well, as it turns out, the official cause of death was ruled a suicide. The old “stab myself with a handle knife in the chest routine”. Makes you wonder what kind of police enforcement the town had. I mean damn, even the medical examiner who signed off on the cause of death should be looked at over “Tommy’s” case. I guess you get to call murder…a suicide, if you can’t solve it.
Other than the glaring fact that Reggie should probably have just shaved his pony tail off. To be that far gone on the top and still rock a foot long ponytail is hard core. Talk about keeping the feeling alive well past death. But I guess “Reggie” wouldn’t be “Reggie” without being “Reggie”, so I guess I wouldn’t want it any other way. Keep it. It really makes the dude’s character more believable. Jody says some weird shit during this time as well.
Reggie: Jody…
Jody: Hi Reg
Reggie: How’s it going?
Jody: (Look of slight disgust on his face) No answer.
Reggie: Tommy’s gone…
Jody: Hell of a way to end a trio?
Reggie: It’s hard to believe, killed himself
Jody: Hey I, I’m going to go visit somebody, I’ll catch you inside…
Reggie: Yeah… (strong head nod)
(Mandella Effect Warning: For some reason I have a distinct recollection of Jody saying “Man, I just don’t get off on funerals” but it never showed up. I haven’t seen this one in a long time but still, in my mind it should be in that dialogue somewhere. Perhaps a director’s cut or something modern? I can’t think of any other way to square it at the moment)
Jody hits a very believable and sterile mausoleum in the funeral home. You can almost feel the cold air in this scene, like places like that tend to be. The rooms strike me as big, but the ones I have been in, tended to be big as well, so there is no cause for alarm. Except…as Jody calmly and reflectively walks around, he hears a low pitch monster type noise from a shadowy hallway. I say run for it. Jody does not. Instead, he saunters into the main hallway like he is cruising down Broadway. He cracks me up.
There is brief moment at the “graves” of his parents, Jody Sr. and Ann, both struck down in 1977, together I’m assuming, or it was a bad year for the family. Then rocketing out of nowhere across the main property of the Morningside Funeral home, is the boy wonder “Mike”. Apparently, he decides to take a mid-morning burn across the cemetery and funeral home property. Maybe he thought it was a pretty normal thing to do. Mike, what the fuck? There is a brief splash of body double stunt work, and the guy riding the motorbike in the opening scene is definitely not “Mike”.
The bike stalls out and Mike hears an odd noise in the distance…there is a possible sighting for one of the Tall Man’s goblin like monsters in the headstones and in that moment. This movie captures a perfect “sun sinking” type of lighting. It’s like it means, it’s almost time to start heading for home in a weird way. This movie is brilliant at hitting the viewer with images that invoke feelings and memories.
Meanwhile, Jody is wandering around the halls of the mausoleum, seemingly investigating the odd noise without a care in the world.
Enter The Tall Man
The music picks up on the thriller vibe, before the hand of Angus Scrimm comes down firmly on Jody’s shoulder. “The Funeral is about to begin, sir” The caretaker says with a crazy look in his face. In this take, the caretaker seems to be like nine foot tall and Jody appears to be three sizes too small. It’s a weird. The Church scene is pretty believable for sights and sounds. I have been to family funerals over the years that would match up perfectly with those frames, so there is another “A” for believability.
Reggie: It was a good idea not to let your little brother come to the funeral and see Tommy like this…
Jody: Yeah, after Mom and Dad’s funeral, he had nightmares for weeks…
(Author’s Note: Where I come from, you always go if you can. It sounds like at the age of 11, he got the worst news a kid could get. So, he’s already seen death, and I assume Tommy wasn’t as close to Mike as Mike was to his parents. Couldn’t be any worse than previous experiences. Mike was driving circles around the funeral home on his motor bike so I’m assuming funeral homes didn’t bother him anyway. Nightmares? Well, that’s a different story, but I wouldn’t know what “Mike” considered a nightmare anyway. Hard to gauge…sorry a bit of dipping off into the sunset on this one. The C.S.W. is running nice today.
The funeral procession marches out from the long car and what do we see. Mike, who’s is deathly afraid of funerals, can’t seem to stay away from them. Spying from some headstones a short distance away, Mike still relies on binoculars for a better view. Like, if you wanted to go kid, you should have just went. The organ pipe work in these takes are very effective. (smoke)
It’s over and the boys are walking out. Reggie wears an odd look of contemplation, while Jody takes another long look.
Jody: Hey I don’t like this place…
Reggie: Well, say goodbye to Tommy…
Jody: Let’s just get the hell out of here…
At this point, Mike is still eye balling the caretaker. Long after everyone has left this guy refuses to walk away. He either wants to work at the Funeral Home or finds a sudden urge to investigate what exactly is going on. I mean have weird things happened at the graveyard? Sure, his bike stalled out and he even though he seen something by a headstone, was it enough to launch a full-time surveillance operation? Whatever…Mike sees the Tall Man lifting up a pretty flimsy looking casket back into the long car, with no help.
The Turn
Down at the end of a lonely looking rural street, Mike shuffles down to the local Mystic reading house. Again, it’s at dusk, which is about the same time as his other trouble in the graveyard stall out happened. The music is classic and iconic. I love that sound. It gives me a feeling like Halloween, as the night is winding down. Maybe 10:30 or 11:00pm, a slight wind, deserted streets, and a feel that might not necessarily be good. No trouble yet, but something is brewing.
After knocking on the door, the mystic’s granddaughter opens the door. She greets him by name, like he’s been there before. He knows what to ask for, and he is invited in. Has he been there once or twice? I think so. He is led to a pretty spooky looking room. Heavy on darkness, heavy on the candles. The granddaughter wheels out the grandmother who possesses the second sight. If I was Mike, I would have bailed out of there by then, the lady looks like a porcelain gypsy doll, with dark glasses on. Mike isn’t afraid of funerals, the aftermath, old mystics that could pass for Chucky’s grandmother, or dabbling with the future. Why his brother thought he was afraid of funerals is beyond me?
Jody: Toby…
Toby: Hey…
Jody: So what brings you back?
Toby: Tommy (smiles)
Jody: Yes, yeah, yew…boy I just don’t get off on funerals man they give me the creeps
Toby: I just want to tell you I heard about your folks and I’m really sorry (two years earlier and he’s just now saying that he is sorry).
Jody: Well, thank you man…two years I guess you can just about get over anything
Toby: So, I heard you been out on the road? (this guy doesn’t stop in for condolences needed two years, but is still keeping a daily tab on Jody’s whereabouts. That’s strange to me)
Jody: Yeah
Toby: How come you’re hanging around this dump?
Jody: Well, I’m taking care of the kid ya know…
Toby: Shew, I’d think after all that action this town would drive you nuts?
Jody: You’re damn right…Now the kid’s 13, I’m thinking of sending him off to live with his aunt. I tell you, he sure ain’t going to like it. As it is he follows me everywhere, it’s like he knows I’m going to leave, he’s a tough little kid, I love him, I’m going to miss him…
(Mandella Effect Warning cancelled)
End of Part 1 (Keep watch out for coming Part 2’s this fall for several conclusions)
kidvicious810
ROX-TV Head Writer
