Phantasm:Tall Men, Jawas, and Dudes Who Save the Day

Phantasm is a film I saw as a teenager and it stuck with me. I had nightmares for days and troubles walking to and from school (I had to walk by a cemetery, which, if have not seen the film, I'll explain the relevance in a bit). As an adult, it still gives me the creeps, for some of the same and yet different reasons. But it also makes me think that's it a rather unique film if not for one particular aspect.

For some people, Phantasm is a film that is kind of a mess at points. The story is kind of all over the place, there things that happen plot wise that don't make sense, there are dream sequences that randomly happen, and steroid injected dwarfs that look like jawas from Star Wars.

If you can get past this, it's a very creepy and surreal film. The film constantly makes you guess what is really happening. If what the characters are experiencing are real, or just in their minds. Most of all the film is responsible for one of the more visually striking and scary boogeymen of all time, The Tall Man.

Is he human, an alien, a monster, you never know? In fact little is known about him, except that he extremely strong (he can pick up loaded caskets by himself), he controls an army dwarfs and killer flying spheres, and he somehow manages to show up in places unexpectedly. Oh, and he's a runner, he will chase you if you try and dash away (if you end up watching the sequels, there is a back story, but I find that it's more intriguing not knowing much about him).

The character is played by the actor Angus Scrimm who played it masterfully. His physical presence is terrifying. He's obviously tall, but his extremely scary facial expressions, movements, and sheer screen presence sends a cold wave through your body. When I see random pictures of him, I get a little freaked out, in fact if I met him in real life, I would probably run the opposite direction. There have been exactly five boogeymen that I have been afraid of in life, and The Tall Man is one of them (I am not revealing the other four, that is private).

The film itself is rather morbid. It centers around two brothers, Jody and Mike, that are alone due to their folks death. Jody, who is in his early 20's and a musician, has been charged with taking care of his brother, but longs to get away and get back out on the road. Mike, who is 15, is scared his brother is going to randomly leave him (probably due to their parents death) and constantly follows Jody wherever he goes.

A band-mate of Jody's dies in the beginning of the film, Mike follows Jody to the funeral. From there Mike see's The Tall Man, and beings to witness strange things around town. Eventually we find that The Tall Man is taking the recently deceased, and other residents of Morning Side Funeral Home, and somehow turning them into jawas, er, I mean, dwarfs, that he intends to ship off to...another dimension, planet, world (that part, is unclear). Mike, Jody, and their friend Reggie the Ice Cream Man, take it upon themselves to stop the evil Tall Man.

The movie ends with one of the greatest cliff-hangers in horror film history, and honestly left the viewer with tons of questions. But these questions do have answers, the sequel was released in 1989 and two more films came after that, however, they never needed to be made, they could have left the viewer guessing what they had just scene.

The thing I find unique about the film, and this something that does not happen even if today's horror films, is that the protagonists are completely male dominated. That was one of the things I found scary as a kid, I was watching a kid basically a year or two older than myself battle and run from an evil being hell bent on murdering him and his friends. That's pretty heavy to think about, if you are 14 or 15 and being thrust into a situation where you have no parents, your only ally is your older brother and friend, and someone is trying to kill you, it's pretty fucking frightening.

But this is also one of the most awesome things about Phantasm. It's such a rarity in a horror film to have the protagonists be a male, let alone a trio of males. Lot's of people like to claim that in horror films the idea behind the heroine is that the filmmaker is empowering the woman. The female protagonists has been watching her friends, her lifelines in a sense, get hacked up one by one, in the end she find a power deep within her to fight through her fears and defeat evil.

Most males in horror films usually have “dead dude” written all over their face. They are typically fueled by hormones which impairs their better judgment and end up easy targets for psycho's. But this paints a detrimental effect on males, and filmmaker might not be realizing it. On one hand it's great that getting in touch with their feminine side, girl power and all that. On the other they make men out to be completely imbeciles in the face of danger and emasculate them.

In Friday the 13^th every male character dies, doesn't even put up much of a fight, and the main character was a killer. In Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge, the main dude Jesse, was a complete wimp, who opted to run away and cry for help, rather than stand up for himself. Strength from a male is rarely displayed in horror films. They make irrational decisions and display selfish immaturity in the face of danger. Now, part of this could be that most male's in horror films are usually between the ages of 17-21, which, albeit, is the standard age bracket for male immaturity. But is this an accurate reflection of the male species? Do we cringe and hand the reigns over in the face of supernatural danger? I would like to think in real life, we don't, but Hollywood would have us believing differently. Now, don't misunderstand me, I am not basing female empowerment whatsoever, but I find it refreshing when once in a while, some dudes are able to band together and take down the forces of evil, (it honestly makes me feel, cos if this shit happened in real life, based on horror films and my gender, I am pretty much a goner).

But Phantasm displays three young men who don't back down or run away. In fact they face danger head on, granted some of their decision making is still poor at some points. But the point is, Mike, Jody, and Reggie are a rare breed in horror films. Male heroes, that guys can look up to.

Most people that watch horror are of the male persuasion (sorry gals, that's just kind of how it is). From a role model standpoint, we don't have many dudes to look up to. Sure Bill was a nice guy in Friday the 13^th, he seemed like a real sweat-heart, but he ends up attached to a shed door by bows and arrows (Bows and Arrows is a tremendous record by the Walkmen if you ever get a chance to listen).

It's a assuring to males to watch their own kind save the day and live, as opposed to watching every guy in the film end up dead. It shows that men are not afraid and that we can fight evil and protect the ones we love.