Review for Fantasm

I don't quite know where to start with 'Fantasm'. Part of me wants to pigeon-hole it comfortably into a genre by way of explanation but I'm struggling to decide whether it's 'soft-core porn' or 'hard-core'. (Does a flaccid penis and blurry sexual act underwater push this into the XXX end of the market?). And is it comedy? And if so - why isn't it funny? And if it's erotica - why does it fail to excite? So many questions and so few answers!


The truth is that for all of the above, 'Fantasm' is a wonderful time capsule, dated in every regard, and offering up a veritable cavalcade of the most popular US porn-stars of the day. Its format is pure 'Kentucky Fried Movie' - one short vignette after another, loosely joined by a wafer thin excuse of a psychology lecture about women's fantasies, but generally failing to raise a smile, or much else for that matter.


This comes from the same period and sensibility as the singularly unfunny 'Flesh Gordon' in the USA and 'Rosie Dixon Night Nurse' and its ilk this side of the Atlantic.


The curious thing about 'Fantasm' is that it was produced by and for the Australian market. However, rather than use the local yokels and Sheilas, the producers of 'Fantasm' figured that they would film it in the then porn capital of the world - Hollywood. That way they could count on hard-core performers like Candy Samples, Uschi Digart and John Holmes to do a days' work on the film's behalf.





The film centers around a Dr. Jurgen Notafreud , a supposed expert on female sexuality. He is able to (at last) let all those red-blooded males know what really turns the Sheila's on. And surprise surprise, we soon learn that what they really want is to be subject to men's most base fantasies, however unpalatable. And yes - that appears to include rape.  


However, this film is only a reflection of its time, and its format is simple enough to follow. Ten fantasies illustrated by ten 'shorts'. The titles of each kind of give the game away. "Beauty Parlor", "Card Game:, "Wearing the Pants", "Nightmare Alley", "The Girls", "Fruit Salad", "Mother's Darling", "Black Venus", "After School" and "Blood Orgy".


It's all relatively tame by today's hard core standards though it has more than its fair share of Russ Meyer style oddities. (Guess what's getting shaved at the hair-dresser for example). There are very occasional glimpses of full frontal nudity, uncommon for cinema releases of the day. There is also little doubt about some of the action. This is a thoroughly rude movie and a notch or two above just 'saucy'. So you've been warned.

Director Richard Franklin (Road Games, Psycho II) produced a generally professional looking film, apparently mastered on 16mm and pushed up to 35mm, which looks a little washed out here as a consequence. Add to the liking of soft lenses (very seventies) and the result is a pleasing if dated contrast to the cruelly literal high definition meat marketing that passes for pornography today. The transfer is OK-ish with occasional wear and tear. If you have a previously issued DVD edition, I suspect you won't find any improvements here.

Surprisingly, this edition does come with a host of extra features which go some way towards developing an understanding of the film, its market and the thinking behind it. The audio commentary features producer Anthony Ginnane who is a veritable minefield of information. The film (well, the sexy bits anyway) were shot over 11 days - meaning that each vignette was shot in a single day. That means less than two weeks filming on 16mm in the USA, with the Doctor sequences being mopped up in a single day back in Australia. Even taking account of appearance fees, crew costs and so on, this means that this really was an extraordinarily low budget movie which has probably grossed huge multiples in its lifetime.


You also get a twenty minute featurette (produced by Australian distribution company Umbrella for their release of this film on DVD in 2004) entitled 'Fantasm Penetrated'. Director Richard Franklin makes an appearance, but it's a silhoutted criminal approach by someone who is not altogether comfortable talking about the film or his involvement in it. Then there's more of Giannane who seems very happy to discuss every detail of the production.

You also get the obligatory trailer - as well as trailers for other 'saucy' titles from Nucleus.


You'll know already if 'Fantasm' is a movie that appeals or not. You'll either be buying it as an effort to recapture its potency when released (if you saw it then) in a blast of adolescent nostalgia, or because you like seventies porn, or you're merely curious about what the movie represents. The whole drive-in, grind-core, sleaze and sexploitation market seems to be booming on DVD against all the odds. Companies like 'Something Weird' have made a science out of discovering almost forgotten gems, stag loops and films like this. Maybe we should be grateful that other organizations (like Nucleus) are prepared to take a punt too.