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[[File:phantasm.jpg|frame| ''"Boooooooyyyyyyyy!!!"'']]
'''''Phantasm''''' is a series of horror films written and directed by Don Coscarelli (''[[
An evil supernatural being known as the Tall Man travels from [[Small Towns|small town]] to small town, leaving devastation in his wake. Posing as an undertaker, he steals dead bodies and transforms them into [[Our Zombies Are Different|dwarf-like]] [[Zombie Mooks|zombie slaves]], nicknamed 'lurkers'. Pursuing him are the only ones who might stop him: a troubled young man named Mike, an aging, balding ice cream vendor named Reggie, and the few allies they find along the way.
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It is fair to say that the rules of [[Rule of Cool|cool]] and [[Rule of Scary|scary]] are the guiding principles of the series. [[Bellisario's Maxim]] probably applies. While a coherent plot would have been nice, the films are entertaining enough and brimming with such memorable horrors - the [[Was Once a Man|ex-human]] lurkers, the brain-drilling flying spheres, Angus Scrimm playing the magnificently frightening Tall Man himself - that it hardly matters.
{{tropelist}}
* [[Action Girl]]: Rocky in the third film.
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* [[Actionized Sequel]]: ''Phantasm II''
* [[Adam Westing]]: Scrimm's role as a [[Crusty Caretaker]] in the low-budget horror spoof ''Transylvania Twist'' sends up the Tall Man persona with which he is indelibly identified something rotten, including a flying sphere attack that turns into a baseball game.
* [[Alien Blood]]: Both the Tall Man and his minions bleed yellow. {{Spoiler| Mike later bleeds that blood when he finds out he's become a Tall Man like entity.}}
* [[All Just a Dream]]: [[Or Was It a Dream?|"No, it's not!"]]
* [[And I Must Scream]]: "You think that when you die, you go to Heaven. You come to us!"
* [[Asshole Victim]]: The looters in the third movie.
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* [[Badass Normal]]: Reggie in particular has this in spades.
* [[Bald of Awesome]]: Reggie is either awesome in spite of being bald, ugly and middle aged, or doubly awesome because of it.
* [[Bifurcated Weapon]]: Reggie's ''quadruple'' barreled [[Sawed
* [[Blatant Lies]]: In the fourth ''Phantasm'', in a dream, the Tall Man is caught by a noose and he begs the protagonist, Michael to cut him down.
{{quote|The Tall Man: "Cut me down!"
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* [[Body Horror]]: {{spoiler|The Liz Creature}} from the second film and the {{spoiler|living, twisted body in the trunk}} from the fourth film.
* [[Bond One-Liner]]: Reggie: "Wow, some cops can be real assholes!" He also has some delightfully cheesy [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner]]s.
* [[Brick Joke]]: The entire series has one big one regarding Reggie and whether or not he believes the Tall Man exists. In the first movie, he believes Jody and Mike and even decides then and there to kill him. Then later on when Mike wakes up, the events of the movie are dismissed as a bad dream. In the second movie, which picks up where the first movie leaves off, Reggie believes again at first, only to dismiss the events as yet another bad dream and delusions from Mike. When Tall Man kills his family, Reggie is no longer a skeptic and this lasts well into the third and fourth movie. The fifth movie brings it full circle by hinting that all the events are the result of of an older Reggie's dementia. Making it darkly funny that after all the movies spent on Reggie going back and forth on his skepticism, now he's the one trying to tell Mike the Tall Man is real.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Booooooyyyyyyyy!!!"
* [[Chainsaw Good]]: In the second film, Reggie has a chainsaw duel with a [[Gas Mask Mooks|Gas Mask Mook]].
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** The death of one of the assistant morticians in the second film. {{spoiler|The Gold Sphere hits him right in the back and proceeds to drill right into his body, the mortician writing in agony, until it tries to leaves through his mouth but gets jammed in his jaws.}}
* [[The Danza]]: A. Michael Baldwin as Mike and Reggie Bannister as Reggie.
* [[Destructo-Nookie]]: Reggie and Alchemy have a more subdued one in Phantasm 2. During the sex it's clear that she's stronger than him and with some discomfort, Reg was enjoying every second of it. {{Spoiler|Her strength was the first clue that she was not only a corpse come to life, but one of the Tall Man's forms in disguise.}}
* [[Death
* [[Diabolus Ex Machina]]: The ending of the first three movies.
* [[Dirty Old Man]]: Reggie.
* [[Do
* [[Dropped a Bridge
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The true form of the Tall Man is implicated as being some kind of [[Cosmic Horror]] that is anchored in another dimension.
** In Phantasm 4, sweet old man Jebediah Morningside walks into his prototype Dimensional Gate... and something ''else'' wearing his skin comes back. This dialogue best illustrates it:
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* [[Elite Mook]]: The Gold Spheres.
** Probably more important than a mook {{spoiler|seeing as how both the Tall Man and Mike are gold spheres}}.
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]] / [[The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You]]: The Tall Man, has no qualms robbing graves, killing people and using their bodies for various evil experiments. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|Yet he draws the line at piracy of his own movies]]. Every End Credit Sequence in the series always ends with "This motion picture is protected under the laws of the United States and Other Countries. Unauthorized duplication, distribution, or exhibition may result in Civil Liability, Criminal Prosecution and [[Major Misdemeanor|the wrath of The Tall Man]].
* [[Every Car Is a Pinto]]: It is even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the fourth film, with the implication that [[Reality Is Unrealistic]].
{{quote|'''Reggie:''' We better move away from the car before the gasoline blows.
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* [[Go Into the Light]]: Mike is somewhat discouraged from doing so in the third film when he sees the Tall Man waiting for him there.
* [[Groin Attack]]: With a ''chainsaw'' in ''Phantasm II''.
* [[Hand in
* [[Heavyworlder]]: The lurkers.
* [[Humanoid Abomination]]: The Tall Man.
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** Reggie's quadruple-barreled shotgun counts as this. It consists of two double-barreled shotguns connected together via their mechanisms to create a four barreled masterpiece.
* [[Infant Immortality]]: Averted. Though little Mike is nearly killed by the Tall Man in the first movie, {{spoiler|''Phantasm II'' has Reggie's family, including his young daughter, killed after the Tall Man blows up their house, and ''Phantasm III'' has Tim taken and likely killed by one of Tall Man's Lurkers.}}
* [[Kill It
* [[Mind Screw]]: How much of it is deliberate and how much is Coscarelli making it up as he goes along is unclear.
* [[Mirror Scare]]: The first film contains a classic example.
* [[Mugging the Monster]] A rare human example. In ''Phantasm Ravager'', Reggie loses the Cuda and tries to hitchhike his way back to the nearest town. A Cuda conveniently comes across him and picks him up. Reggie doesn't notice it at first, due to being weary from the walk, but realizes that it's Jody's Cuda and the man driving it stole it while he was looking for Mike. He makes small talk about owning a Cuda like this. Only his has a handgun in the console. The thief takes the bait and opens the console in an attempt to kill Reggie and keep the car. However he finds nothing. Only for Reggie to reveal that he lied and that the gun was in the glove box. Which he promptly opens, points at the thief and tells him to get out.
* [[New Powers As the Plot Demands]]: The Tall Man. Though, to be fair, the extent of his powers is never made clear.▼
{{Quote|'''Reggie:''' Oh, that's right. It was in the glove box. GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY CAR!!}}
▲* [[New Powers
** The "Sentinel Spheres" (silver spheres) seem to do this on occasion. It's unknown exactly if different spheres have different weapons and other equipment (such as the "eye stalk sphere"), or if they're all flying Swiss army knives of death.
*** Most noticeably, the Jody Sphere is able to shift into Jody's form, while the other spheres have to be embedded in a body to pass as human.
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* [[Wham! Line]]: At the end of the first film... {{spoiler|Mike is in his room - he closes the closet door to reveal the [[Not Quite Dead]] Tall Man standing behind him.}}
{{quote|'''The Tall Man''': '''BOOOOOOYYYYYY!!!'''}}
** At the end of the second film too, courtesy of the
{{quote|'''Mike''': [[All Just a Dream|Listen to me, none of this is real. We'll wake up!]] [[Madness Mantra|It's just a dream, it's just a dream-]]
** The Tall Man is good at these. From {{spoiler|the end of the third film:}}
{{quote|'''Reggie''': ''(to Tim)'' Run kid, get out of here! It's over!
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