It's Official : The SB has moved to Chicago. She confirmed it on FB this morning, and again I should add that I would normally address all comments about The SB directly to The SB, just as I used to write the whole blog directly to her, except that I still am pretty sure she has not been reading for a while now. Maybe she has a different computer other than the Mac, I dunno. But that was my #1 indicator that she was "for sure" reading for all those years : the Mac always showed up on my stats, at almost the same time most nights.
Well anyhow SB, as I said last night, if you are still with me I will discover it. And if you are not with me you are not reading this anyway, so no worries. I know you have just made a big change in your life.
No news today, no hikes. Took Pearl to her eye doctor at 3pm, so no time for any afternoon stuff.
This eve I watched the original "Phantasm", the first one that came out in 1979, and it was every bit as creepy and weird as it was when my friends and I saw it in the theater almost 40 years ago. I could go on a tirade just about 1979 itself, and what a Weird Time it was, right after Punk Rock got going, in between the Disco and Smooth Rock of the late 70s and the Metal Revolution that was soon to come. 1977 to 1979 was an In Between Time in American Culture, and especially here in L.A. But it was something of a heyday for low-budget but well made horror pictures that were not formulaic, but made with imagination and ingenuity. Some of these pictures were ghastly and gross : "Don't Answer The Phone" and "Don't Go In The House". If a movie had "Don't" in the title, we always Did. But a lot of those late 70s horror pics were based on the serial killer phenomenon that was prevalent in Los Angeles at the time. We had a truckload of maniacs running around the canyons and hillsides in the late 70s, and movies like the aforementioned two, or another one like "The Toolbox Murders" were all based on actual cases. They were made for pure shock value and in that respect, they succeeded. They were plain Scary.
But "Phantasm" was a different kind of horror film, which made it stand out at the time. It was creepy and weird, about a dreamlike, horrific Mortician - the infamous "Tall Man" (played to the hilt by Angus Scrimm). A lot of the action takes place on cemetery grounds or in the white-and-black speckled marble hallways of the mortuary itself. The pacing is slow rather than action packed, as was the sequel which I reviewed the other night. That movie was fun, and well made, but because it was financed by a major studio rather than independent like the first one, it had more of a formula to it - mainly more action.
Which is why the first "Phantasm" is the best one : because it was made with no expectations in mind, save the director's own ideas of What Is Scary. And so he made the film his way, not to make money per se, but to be artful and To Scare. It came out really weird, as anything without a formula might do, and it was scary, and........it made a Ton Of Money, proving once again that Artists Must Always Stick To Their Guns.
"Phantasm" is not in the same league as Mega Realistic Art Horror like the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or the original "Hills Have Eyes". Those two tower above all modern fright pics in every possible respect, except of course "The Exorcist", which was a big budget movie that Went All The Way, which was why it was so great. But while "Phantasm" does not match the level of pure terror of those films, and it does not try to, it instead carves it's own niche as a film that spans the divide between the artful, raw horror of the 70s with the slick 80s horror that was to come, with it's Slashers and nightmarish Freddy Krugers. "Phantasm" succeeds entirely on being unique, not following a formula, and being very, very creepy. I saw it the first time when it came out, in 1979, and then the second time, tonight on dvd. After 38 years, it still holds up.
But yeah......The Late 70s. I am too tired to go on the Kind Of Tirade those years deserve, but it was a strange time in America, and in Pop Culture. We had become used to the early 70s, with it's feel good socially conscious comedy shows, and the winding down of the Vietnam War. Nixon was Toast by August 1974 (tonight may even be the anniversary). Suddenly we had Gerald Ford as President. Mr. Boring. Then we had Saturday Night Live at almost the same time.
The 1960s, and it's aftermath (the early 70s) were suddenly over, and all that Whirlwind and Upheaval of Cultural Change was over as well. The late 70s was Cruise Control. But it was weird because we also had all these psychos running around, like The Son Of Sam and The Hillside Stranglers.
I mean, when was the last time we had A Strangler around?
Don't get me wrong - I'm glad we don't. But for some reason those kinds of nutjobs were released from the woodwork in the late 70s.
As was Punk Rock, and weirdo art rock that wasn't very tuneful.
Stephen King was just getting big. And so was David Lynch.
Van Halen had already put out three albums. And Rush, Rainbow and Judas Priest were steady and stalwart influences.
I started my first Big Job in 1979, at MGM Labs, otherwise known as Metrocolor. That was in February of that year.
It literally seems like another lifetime. And yet, stuff from the earlier 70s, and even the 60s, seems closer.
Those few years from 1977 to 1979 are an Obscure Time.
Such is The Weirdness Of Life, the pockets that things get tucked into. /////
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