Phantasm is an American horror film series that consists of five films, novels, comic books, and merchandise. It is mainly about the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), a supernatural and malevolent undertaker and the main antagonist who turns the dead into dwarf zombies to do his bidding and take over the world. He is opposed by a young boy, Mike (A. Michael Baldwin), who tries to convince his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) and family friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) of the threat. The first film was released in 1979, received generally positive reviews and has garnered a cult following.
Tommy (Bill Cone) and the Lady In Lavender (Kathy Lester) have sex in Morningside Cemetery, after which the woman kills Tommy with a knife. Later, Tommy's friends, including 24-year-old musician Jody Pearson and family man Reggie, attend Tommy's funeral at Morningside, believing he committed suicide. Jody explains that he didn't bring his 13-year-old brother, Mike, because their parents died recently and he felt Mike would be traumatised by another funeral. However, Mike has been secretly observing the funeral from the bushes; after the mourners leave, Mike witnesses a tall man in a suit who seems to be the Morningside mortician lift Tommy's 500-pound casket with superhuman strength and load it into his hearse instead of completing the burial. He also seems to telekinetically knock Mike off his motorbike as he flees the cemetery.
The film introduces Liz Reynolds, a young woman whose psychic bond to Mike and the Tall Man manifests in the form of prophetic nightmares. Liz pleads for Mike to find her, as she fears that when her grandfather dies, the Tall Man will take him. The scene then transitions where the Phantasm (film) left off, the Tall Man (Phantasm) and his minions attempt to kidnap Mike, but Reggie (Phantasm) manages to save him by blowing up the house.
Immediately after his apparent demise at the end of ''Phantasm II'', a new Tall Man (Phantasm) emerges from a dimensional portal. At the same time, the hearse that carries Liz and Mike explodes. Reggie finds Liz dead but saves Mike from the Tall Man by threatening to kill them all with a grenade. The Tall Man retreats with Liz's head and threatens to return for Mike when he's well again. After Mike spends two years comatose in the hospital, he has a near death experience in which his dead brother Jody and the Tall Man appear. As he wakes from his coma, he is attacked by a demonic nurse but quickly subdues her. Reggie arrives as she dies, her scalp bursting open to reveal a sphere which takes off through the window after it approaches Mike. Back at home, the Tall Man arrives via dimensional fork, fights off Reggie, transforms Jody into a charred sphere, and draws Mike through the gate with him.
Reggie is wandering through the desert seeking out his friend Mike and the evil The Tall Man. Along his journey, he is hunted down by the dangerous spheres and stumbles upon the gorgeous Dawn. Out of the blue, he finds himself in an institution with Mike explaining that he has dementia and then in another dimension. Where is Mike?
