(Very sorry readers. I meant to have this out for Halloween, but I caught a nasty cold with a side of sinus infection. Halloween meant a great deal to Ray Bradbury; forgive me sir.)
In 1977 amateur movie maker, Don Coscarelli was approached by his friend, Reggie Bannister, to make a horror movie. They wanted to make Ray Bradbury’s, Something Wicked This Way Comes, but, according to legend, the rights had been sold that very week to Disney (meaning the cost was likely WAY over their heads anyway).
Instead, they made Phantasm, which is really just a Bradburian romp with all the 70’s stuff like hot chicks and muscle cars and explosions. And denim. Coscarelli made the thing over a year paid for on the lay-away plan and it was a singular achievement in its time.
Bear in mind this was made BEFORE the Halloween and Friday the 13th franchises. Phantasm was also quite different than its b-grade predecessors very few of which are revered. The film is a blend of horror, science fiction and 70’s coming of age after-school special angst (with gore, cuss-words and boobs).
Like much of Bradbury’s material, Phantasm is out to scare pubescent boys and remind older boys what they used to afraid of and still should be. Immediately the film strikes iron: the boyhood interest and fear of sex: will curiosity kill me? Is she who she says she is? Will she enslave me? All that mixed and tossed around in the fears of the era: the mind control, cults, serial killers.
The protagonist, whose mother and father have been killed in an auto accident, is faced with losing his only brother, who now plans to move away leaving him by himself. The boy sees unusual things at the local mortuary, investigates and learns of a horrific alien plot. The most famous scene of the movie happens during one visit; the appearance of the cruel, brain-drilling flying orbs. I will not post the video in case you want to see the movie, but you can see from the poster below what they look like. I remember laughing with teen horror the first time I saw it (on betamax!). I was a sick kid.
Coscarelli knew enough to keep the Bradburian elements in his script. The boy knows there is “something” going on but will anyone believe him? What is the purpose of the evil? Is it all real?
I will not elaborate further except to say that the film is short on redemption.
In contrast, the 1983 imperfect Disney attempt at Something Wicked This Way Comes, was a high-budget attempt at getting Bradbury right. Even with Bradbury heavily involved, the film falls short of the novel’s adolescent fun and moral lessons. The film was botched from the start and Disney, belatedly listening to Bradbury, fired the original director and allowed Bradbury another year to fix the mess.
Sadly, Something Wicked falls short on scares. But actors are all superb. Entertaining, but not ground breaking. The film went toe-to-to with another adolescent boy movie in 1983, Christmas Story, and we all remember that one. That said, Bradbury’s movie ended with love, with faith and with redemption, thus it is the superior film compared to Phantasm. But then, Don Coscarelli was just an amateur in 1978.
However, in keeping with my theme of merging dendritic power in our culture, I recommend you see both movies because it is fun to see how much Bradbury influenced Coscarelli and others. ET is a Bradburian film after all, as is The Goonies and even Home Alone.
Salve!