Phantasm

Don Coscarelli was twenty-four when he wrote and directed this, and he spread the shoot across a year, working mostly at weekends and during school breaks. The money came from himself, his father and local investors, with a budget of around three hundred thousand dollars. Friends and family filled most of the roles in front of and behind the camera. The result was unexpected: it grossed twenty-two million dollars worldwide. The story starts with a boy who has lost his brother and sees something at the cemetery. A tall mortuary attendant known as the Tall Man is stealing corpses, turning them into dwarf zombies and using them as slave labour on another planet. Angus Scrimm's Tall Man became recognisable on almost no dialogue. The film's second icon is the chrome sphere that lodges in a victim's forehead and drills. Who it is for: viewers who like horror with loose logic, strong atmosphere and dream rules. Who it is not for: anyone after a consistent plot. The film breaks its own rules constantly and never attempts an explanation.