PHANTASM (Coscarelli, 1979)

I think what I liked most about this one was the sense of wonder and almost childlike nature of what happened. Despite some horrific things occuring, there is the sense of it being a fairy tale, something like a modern fable. After all, the Grimm tales were rather grisly, no? And of course I realize that post-LADY IN THE WATER it's pretty damaging to refer to a horror flick as a "modern fairy tale" but PHANTASM never devolves into cheesy platitudes or easily-digested "life lessons". Rather, PHANTASM seems to indicate that the world is a scary, fascinating place where things are never what they seem, and are usually worse off than you think.

PHANTASM doesn't shirk away from death or sex (or, its horror film representatives, Gore and Tits), rather presenting them as natural parts of life. And especially adolescence. That horrible, horrible time when zits erupt, embarassing erections present themselves in geometry, and you're forced to cope with it in whatever way you can, is presented in vivid, detailed color in PHANTASM. It's really a coming-of-age tale, about a boy dealing with the death of friends and family, which, when coupled with the usual, general malaise of one's teens, would most likely be unbearable.

When the gore comes, it is unexpected and bright, goopy stuff that doesn't look real, but works in spite of it, due to the dreamlike nature of the entire film. The ending is logical and the twist never seems to detract from what came before; rather, it is natural and right. M. Night Shamawhatever could learn a lot from Coscerelli.

Brief again, and I apologize. It's been a long day. Never did see the new TEXAS CHAINSAW prequel, but next, it's SHAUN OF THE DEAD. Best horror film of the 00s? Maybe...