Phantasm - Lisa's Review

Where do I start?  Well at this point, anyone who is reading has probably a better idea than me.  I had watched Phantasm many years ago (probably as a child) and all I remembered from it is that it had killer silver balls.  Having given it a second viewing tonight, I'm surprised I retained that much information.

The first thing to be aware about with this movie is that it is very surreal and is full of dream-like sequences.  Scenes are suggested as being dreams, but which ones are and which ones are not?   Anyone who knows my kind of movies will know I hate surrealism and dream sequences.  This made it very difficult for me to enjoy this movie.

I did enjoy the soundtrack as it brought me right back to my childhood and could have been lifted off so many other horror movies.  I even liked the characters in the movie, but I just couldn't empathise at all.

There are some gory bits, nothing too shocking, but a couple of decent effects for the time.   The flying, silver, killing balls are probably one of the few things worth remembering about the movie in my opinion.  The problem is that it is full of dream-like scenes and is very surreal.  These are 2 things I really hate.  That wasn't the best start for the movie obviously.

I'm not going to give a blow by blow account of what happens, as to be honest I would have to sit and rewind this over and over and keep waking myself up to get an accurate representation of what was going on.  Then if you're not trying hard enough to keep up to date with the happenings through the movie, it ends in a manner which has you wondering why you bothered trying to fathom what was happening.

I know this is a popular movie.  A cult one I suppose, but I'm afraid I have very little positive to say about it. There is nothing entertaining about it for me.  In fact I'm pretty pissed I spent an hour and a half of my first night in alone in maybe a year watching it!

So, for an accurate plot and a more positive viewpoint of the movie, refer to Wills review.  I'm afraid, I've given as much as I can about this one.  AVOID!