A few years ago a friend and I rented Phantasm during our annual Halloween Horror movie night. By the end of the film both of us were quite confused by the movie. Due to our experience with the first movie we didn't bother renting any of the sequels. Now, years later, I rented Phantasm II and really enjoyed it, and having viewed that film I had a better understanding of the original. I decided to view Phantasm again so I bought it on DVD and I'm glad that I did. This is a very good independent horror movie. At times the acting is a bit thin (but not terrible) and the story still has some holes in it (ie questions that could use answering) but what it does have going for it is a creepy atmosphere and a director that knows how to use suspense.<br /><br />Too many horror movies today, especially low budget ones, rely heavily on gore. Gore is good for shock value but it is rarely scary, just gross. Don Coscarelli provides one of the few times that gore is also scary with his flying silver orbs. But most of the time he relies on suspense to create his scares. This fact has quickly placed Phantasm I and II near the top on my favourite horror movies list.<br /><br />If you have seen Phantasm and didn't like it I recommend watching Phantasm II then giving the original another try (mind you if you didn't like the first one you probably aren't reading this review). Phantasm I and II are fun, creepy, scary movies, I now hope that parts 3 to 5 are just as good. I give Phantasm a strong 7 out of 10.