Scores of Scores : Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagraves’ ‘Phantasm’

One of the most memorable horror movie moments for me was watching Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm with my dad. I was probably 6 or 7-years old, and I woke up late at night. My dad had gotten home from work as he was working 2nd shift and would get home after midnight. It must not have been a school night because he didn’t tell me to go back to bed. He had the TV on and landed on WSJV Channel 28 out of South Bend, IN. They had ‘The Late Movie’, and while not specifically a ‘creature feature’ type of show they would often play b and c-movie fare because I imagine they were cheap for the station to buy.

That night my dad landed on Phantasm. I had no idea what it was, and I’m not sure that my dad did either. I was too little in 1979 and the movie trailers that played before and during my favorite shows(although I do have a very specific memory of a trailer for It’s Alive that scared me.) By this point in my life I’d seen Food of the Gods at the drive-in with my parents(had nightmares for a week), and I’m pretty sure I’d seen both The Fog and Halloween as they had edited versions they’d play on network television. But something as bizarre as Phantasm? No way…unless you count Sid and Marty Krofft on cold meds.

Even to this day watching Phantasm with the lights off in my parents early 80s living room gives me mild psychedelic feelings. Like some waking dream, it almost felt like I dreamt watching this movie and itself was a figment of my imagination. As if I never got up and was still covered under my Star Wars comforter fast asleep.

If you aren’t familiar with it, let me give you a quick synopsis in my own words:

A teen kid and his older brother live together somewhere in California. Their parents are dead. The older brother hangs around a hippie ice cream man that drives his ice cream truck around, while also smoking weed and playing guitar. One of the older brother’s friends is killed and the little brother sees the funeral home director picking up the friend’s coffin and carrying it away from the cemetery.

There’s flying silver orbs with weapons in them, there’s a worm hole that leads to another dimension, dead people are being compressed into dwarves and wear brown cloaks which make them look like tiny monks or Jawas from Tatooine. There’s severed fingers bleeding yellow that can fly and a man called “The Tall Man” that could be an interdimensional being stealing corpses and turning them into dwarf slaves.

There’s also plenty of 70s flair, decent acting, genuinely creepy and unsettling vibes throughout. It was independently financed by Coscarelli in his early 20s, along with his dad and a couple investors for next to nothing. As far as weird 70s horror cinema goes, it’s a classic.

Sure, there are much better horror movies from the 70s. Ones that were more well made, with better acting, effects, cinematography and overall more memorable. But you know what? Who cares? None of them, and I do mean NONE of them, were as original or bizarre as Phantasm. It’s a quintessential 70s late night flick.

The score by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave is its secret weapon. At the time these two guys were veteran Hollywood film composers and into their 50s, so the oddball synth noises and overall electronic score is quite surprising for two guys coming from the traditional world of orchestral scores.

To my ears, it sounds like they took some cues from the Italian film composers like Goblin, Fabio Frizzi and Walter Rizatti who were all at the forefront of Italian Giallo/horror film scoring at the time. There’s plenty of weird ambient moments with this soundtrack, but also the main title theme to my ears is as iconic as Bernstein’s Nightmare and Harry Manfredini’s Friday scores. There’s plenty of eerie moments and even a disco-ish number that plays in a bar scene, but the overall vibe is more melancholy; maudlin even. I guess that tracks given that the film revolves around a creepy funeral home that seems to go on forever once you’re inside. The granite walls, Gothic decor, and of course slow motion shots of Angus Scrimm’s “The Tall Man” walking the sterile halls with his trusty murder orbs.

Along with Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, Phantasm is a yearly watch for me. And the score is what I would call iconic. Phantasm went from this quirky, weird, “far out” 70s low budget horror film to cult status over the years. It prompted a handful of sequels, always staying oddly true to the spirit of the original. Maybe because Coscarelli was involved with them all, giving them a continuity. But nothing makes me feel like I’ve gotten into a time machine and traveled back to the late 70s/early 80s quite like this film. And the score is top notch. One of my all time favorite horror film scores.

If you haven’t watched Phantasm and you have Shudder, make that priority number one this weekend. Plus, they have the remastered 4K version and it looks totally groovy and far out.