Phantasm OblIVion

I was never able to get into the first Phantasm film, and only today did I finally realize why: Phantasm is supposed to be an American horror film, but in actuality, it's a French art film. Interdimensional portals, flying killer orbs and mutated dwarves dressed in Jawa garb are balanced by a surreal, nonlinear plot and cinematography fraught with odd camera angles and a bizarre color palette. Tall Man and tuning forks coalesce with an abstract series of events and dream sequences that will probably throw the average Freddy vs. Jason fan for several loops. As a thinking man, I always appreciated Don Coscarelli's efforts to go beyond the merely visceral type of horror that's so common. But ultimately, Phantasm just confused me. I came out of Coscarelli's most recent Phantasm work, OblIVion, feeling much the same as I did about the original.

That's not necessarily a bad thing for fans of the Phantasm series. The original followed a kid, his older brother, and an ice cream man who, with the use of a tuning fork, try to stop the local undertaker from enslaving the world. Two sequels followed the same set of characters. When OblIVion starts, the Tall Man has taken over many American towns. Michael, the kid from the first movie, drives a hearse through the dark night, as the Tall Man strolls down a long, cathedral-like hall. Coscarelli intercuts these two artsy shots with a French flair. As the Tall Man walks into camera range, he announces to the audience and Reggie that the final game has begun. Michael is on his way to an interdimensional showdown with his arch nemesis, with the state of the world in the balance. Put plainly, Phantasm OblIVion is a weird movie. It's not a conventional horror flick that relies on a guy in a mask bluntly killing people with a knife. Yes, breaking it down, it's still good vs. evil, with three normal guys fighting a monster. But the execution takes it to a whole other realm. This is high concept, not the kind of flick you turn on so you can shut your brain off.

Is that a good thing? Yes and no. I suspect that avid followers of the Tall Man and his three foes will eat this film up. Coscarelli knows what fans of the franchise want, and he squarely delivers. This is a solid entry that follows through on the tone and conceptual elements he set up back in the original. But with this, there comes a price. For those who could never quite wrap their brain around the original, this entry won't win them over. Even with a Master's degree in English, I find this movie hard to follow. Let's face it: Phantasm is an acquired taste. But I don't think Coscarelli intended this film for me anyway.

Interestingly, the audio commentary reveals that Phantasm OblIVion uses old footage filmed for the original. The front end is loaded with flashbacks to the much younger stars, and a showdown between a boyish Michael and a not-so-ancient Tall Man pops in as well. Though this may seem like padding, in a film that barely makes the 90 minute mark, it actually enhances the bizarre plot and adds some nuances to the character relationships. There's also new footage that attempts to flesh out the Tall Man's past, but I liked it better when I knew less about him. There's also a really warped scene where a well endowed woman's breasts turn out to be the dreaded orbs; that was outright disturbing.

I greatly appreciated the use of practical special effects instead of CG for the most part; this is old school filmmaking, even if it's high concept. Even better was Mr. Old School himself, Angus Scrimm. Though it was a major letdown when I came across him in a hotel bathroom at a convention, and discovered he's not nearly as tall as the IMDB claims he is, he's one creepy figure throughout this series. Looking as if he walked straight out of the Salem witch trials, he's a quality villain.

Anchor Bay has always been generous with providing extras to the fans, and this release is no exception. Billed as a promo, the trailer runs about a minute and a half, and reveals a bit too much. It also boasts the cool line, "Sci-fi horror... with balls." Unfortunately, the "behind-the-scenes" is the worst of its type: it's just outtake footage of scenes being filmed. No interviews, no neat backstage stuff, no voiceover; just watching scenes from behind the camera, instead of in front of it. What a disappointment. A commentary with Coscarelli, Scrimm and Reggie Bannister, however, delivers. These three have a great familiarity with each other, which makes this a smooth chat. Mainly they discuss the myriad problems of low budget filmmaking; they also delve into such topics as KNB's effects work on the project, and location shooting. Fortunately, they don't engage in much happy talk or back patting. But they also don't address many of the high concept elements that confused me so. Ultimately, if you're a fan of the film, the commentary makes it worth watching a second time.

One last thing. I hate Roman Numerals. I don't live in Rome, and every time I look at them, I want to buy a vowel. But I must commend Coscarelli for going with the nifty OblIVion over his original title, Phantasm Phorever.

Phantasm just isn't my cup of tea. But objectively, I can strongly recommend this film for fans of the franchise. For those who love nonlinear plots about men both Tall and Ice Cream, you'll eat this up. And if you happen to be a big fan of Jules and Jim or other French experimental masterpieces, give this one a whirl. And then explain to me exactly what happened. --Phil Fasso

Posted by fasso at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Earth vs. the Spider/War of the Colossal Beast

What's in a name? Or, more specifically a set of initials? In Bert I. Gordon's case, everything. His parents might not have known it when they named him, but Bert would one day become synonymous with BIG things. GIANT SPIDERS. COLOSSAL MEN. HUMONGOUS ANTS. GARGANTUAN LIZARDS. My God, even CHICKENS THE SIZE OF SKYSCRAPERS!!! With this in mind, I recently sat down to view two movies from Mr. B.I.G. himself, Earth vs. the Spider and War of the Colossal Beast.

Earth vs. the Spider is the first movie on the disc. After a neat opening credit sequence shot over a spider web, the movie starts off with Jack Flynn driving home through the desert with a present for his daughter. On the highway he meets a violent demise. When he doesn't arrive home the next day, his daughter Carol cajoles her boyfriend Mike to borrow a friend's car so they can investigate. When they come across his destroyed truck in the desert, they head into a cave, where they find a giant web, and then its giant resident. Escaping, they involve their science teacher and the police in a hunt for the gargantuan arachnid. Thinking they killed it, the townsfolk drag it back to the high school auditorium for examination. That turns out to be a bad move.

Though not really scary by today's standards, Earth vs. the Spider does a lot of things right. The music establishes the ominous tone right from the opening credits. The acting is decent for this sort of movie, with Carol delivering some actual pathos as the distraught daughter, and Mike as the frustrated boyfriend. The plot moves along swiftly, from beginning to end. And it's quite a bit gorier than I had expected. Most important, though, are the effective scenes with the giant spider. Though a real spider was filmed and then projected over footage of the actors, it's better than one might expect. It sells well enough, especially when a bunch of reporters look over the huge beast in the auditorium, where it lays dormant on its back; and when the spider rampages through the town. The movie also provides a cool inside joke; Mike works at his dad's theatre, which is showing a revue of Bert I. Gordon films. Overall the film would make for a great date movie back in its heyday. For throwaway entertainment, it's a cut above.

I do have one quibble with the film, however. It seems AIP pictures almost always have a music scene. In this one, a bunch of swinging cats choose to play a song in the auditorium where the dreaded beast rests. The drama class joins them, and cuts a rug as they play. Not only is the song terrible, but there's no way this would ever happen in a room occupied by a giant, sleeping spider. AIP should really have thought twice before forcing all these musical numbers on the audience; though I know they were aimed at the target crowd of teens likely to go to a Friday drive-in, they stop the movies dead. And they're just plain silly.

One more thing I'd be remiss if I didn't mention. Though it doesn't detract from the film itself, a little research brought me to an interesting fact: tarantulas don't spin webs. The movie hinges on the spider, and as people associate spiders with webs, I forgave this small inaccuracy.

Earth vs. the Spider was a lot of fun. War of the Colossal Beast, however, was a colossal bore. After a driver crashes a truck in a large puddle, the truck's owner talks to a policeman. They then talk over the catatonic body of the driver. They talk near the site of the truck's disappearance. The colossal man's sister talks to the truck owner and a colonel. More talk ensues. Followed by talk. And then people talk. At about the 26 minute mark, the colossal man appears. Surprisingly, he doesn't talk. Instead, he groans and attacks a bread truck, loaded with drugged loaves! (I can't make this stuff up.) The military flies him off to California, so they can strap him down and talk over his groggy body.

In case one doesn't get the drift, not much happens in this flick. A lot of conversation makes for an interminable 69 minutes of movie. The only real action occurs more than a half hour into the movie, and those scenes are flashbacks to The Amazing Colossal Man, this movie's prequel. The other scene that qualifies for monster drama of any real sort takes place in the last 30 seconds of the film, when the colossal man holds up a bus full of children and stands there, listless. Perhaps he was confused that these last seconds turn from black-and-white into color for no good reason. Or perhaps he'd watched the dailies from the rest of the film and was bored.

Mr. B.I.G. got extremely lazy with this one, and it shows throughout this dull production. The performances never rise above what one would expect from a programmer. The dialogue is preposterous, even for a film of this sort (at one point, upon examining the requisite giant footprint, a doctor mentions it must be the imprint of a 60 foot man; to which the sister conveniently replies, "Glen was 60 feet tall!") Even when the colossal man finally does appear, he's just a tall bald guy with a loincloth and a really bad makeup job that's supposed to portray a missing eye. Whereas the giant spider succeeded in playing up scares, there's nothing frightening about the colossal man at all. This flick was an utter disappointment.

B.I.G. movies. Small extras. Except for a screen that offers you a choice between flicks, Lions Gate has released this set without a single add-on. As Bert I. Gordon is still alive (in fact, I met him recently at a convention), it's a travesty that there's no oversized commentary or documentary.

Bert I. Gordon's flicks are pretty much all the same. Very large beasts maraud across the screen, and very average sized humans try to combat them. Because of the titular aracnid, this simple formula works with Earth vs. the Spiders. But the very talk War of the Colossal Beast fails because of its inaction. If you're a fan of all things large, give this one a look, but only for the spider. --Phil Fasso

Posted by fasso at 05:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)