Harry J. Knowles' Phantasm 1999 Script Review.

There is absolutely NO ONE but Don Coscarelli who can produce a genre project on, or under, the budget he designates for a film project. As for the financial viance and durability of a StarWay International project... I give you "Beastmaster" (1982) which can be seen on network TV this coming week. Along with "Survival Quest" (1989), "Jim the World's Greatest" (1976) and "Kenny & Company" (1976)regularly seen on cable. All financially sound and timeless, as are the Phantasms, and a testiment to Coscarelli's ability of "giving the People what they want."
 

The secret behind the Phantasm Phranchise is that the entire team of cast and crew (handpicked by Coscarelli) CARE about putting the "scare" into a horror film. Phantasm is the fantasy and innocence lost and forgotten in our adulthood. It's the monster under our bed. It's the shadow upon the wall in our darkend room as we huddle beneath our sheets. In a world where "Freddies," "Jasons," and "Michael Meyers," actually make the news and are in our papers, neighborhoods, homes, and streets in reality, "Phantasm" allows us the luxury to retreat into our age of naiveté and reclaim the fun of being frightened out of our wits... all the while knowing we can leave the Tall Man safely behind in the darkened theater.
 

Phantasm is haunted houses, spooky places, other worlds unexplored, other rhelms pondered, little kids, bug guns, gorgeous chicks, fast cars, heros and villains. (Who HASN'T played "Zombies" or "army" as a kid?) For 90 minutes, we can be Huckleberry Finn... and emerge unharmed and, perhaps, a little more alive. A funny concept for a film addressing the empowerment to conquer one of most folks' greatest fears... death and dying.
 

In a world like ours, we need all the heros we can get and even more Phantasms. I am reminded how eternal the word "Phantasm" is by its context used by Mary Shelley as her inspiration of her story, "Frankenstein:" "I saw the pale student of the unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out..." (excerpt from "The Essential Frankenstein" by Robert Jameson)
 

Who best to bring us a safe, classic "BOO!" than two of the biggest Huck Finns in the genre: Don Coscarelli and Roger Avary? How best to develop merchandise long sought by Phantasm phans than by (creative) major studio backing? Who best to make the "suits" listen... than Phans? As one big "Phan," I say... "Give me Phantasm 1999!"  ---Vampi 12/28/98