Phantasm is a classic horror/scifi B-movie from the late 1970s whose surreal grossout scenes influenced a whole generation of moviemakers. In this clip, you can see why Phantasm is much more than just a standard schlocker, and it all has to do with visuals. We begin with possibly the most famous scene in the film, where director Don Coscarelli recreated a nightmare he'd had with about an alien death sphere which drills into your head. Fluids fly everywhere, and note that the death ends with a sickly puddle of urine spreading out from the dead body. This is followed by our young protagonist's first face-to-face meeting with the scary Tall Man, an alien masquerading as an undertaker. Note how long and creepily beautiful the shot is, with the eerie mausoleum framing the two characters as they advance towards each other in strange symmetry. You'd never have such a long, mood-building scene in a horror/scifi actioner today. This clip also shows Phantasm obeying the cardinal rule of B-movies, which is that you either have twenty insanely freakish, high-speed things happening on screen at once, or you have nothing going on at all. The staccato structure of the B-movie is what makes it both bad and sublime. Here, at least, the stillness after the freakshow is packed with dreamy details that reward the eye.

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