Phantasm | 1979 | USA | Don Coscarelli

Now considered to be a classic in the same pantheon as Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th, this imaginative supernatural nightmare has now led to an entire franchise beloved by fans today. Brothers Jody and Mike become embroiled in a sinister plot involving a local mortuary after a series of killings. While snooping, the boys irk the strange mortician, the Tall Man and incur his wrath of supernatural weapons including flying spheres with fatal drills, insect-like fingers, and a dwarven army of enslaved aliens. A precursor to some of the surreal energy of Freddy Krueger, the performance by Angus Scrimm is one of the most enthusiastic of the genre and a real credit to the film. The DPP’s fear of imitable ‘tool’ violence in the wake of Driller Killer and The Toolbox Murders convinced him to categorise Phantasm in the same grouping for its flying drill orbs.