A trio of teens (Cheryl Hendricks, Norman Siopis, Gabriel Bronsztein)
get killed off in an allegedly haunted house by a masked maniac (Jon
Hammer) and his family (Jo Milroy, Nora Maher), but somehow the murders
are all covered up by Able (John Gigante), the normal family member
as it seems, who even manages to keep the teens' friend Jill (Mary Beth
Pelshaw) from going to the police - instead he starts dating her. Able
is a poor kid, you know, as after the death of his parents, he spent some
time in an asylum, and since his release he has bercome a foster child of the
Hickmans (Ben DiGregorio, Dallas Monroe, Peter Is, Vinny Grillo), a gang
of greedy hillbillies who are after Able's family fortune that's supposed to
be hidden in the haunted house - the very haunted house where Able tries
to keep his thought-dead family in check - which is of course a bit of a
problem, since Able's relatives kill everyone who comes to the house, and
for some reason, the house has an amazing number of visitors ... Eventually,
Dr Van Dam (Patrick Molloy) from the asylum Able was at decides to check
up on him - and upon arriving at the haunted house, he finds the remains
of the Hickmans, who have just decided to search the house on their own.
But he also finds Able, whom he now convinces that he alone is responsible
for all the killings, with his thought-dead but living family members
being just a figment of his imagination. However, Doc Van Dam is not
really interested in bringing Able back to the asylum or curing him, he
just wants to get his hands on the family
treasure ... which amounts to no more than a Dollar, 14 Cents, since Able
has spent everything else on expenses that had to do with his killings,
including plastic bags for the corpses, cleaning supplies, new clothes and
shoes - the last thing a killer wants is a blood-stained outfit, right? -
and the like. Able and the Doc get into a fight, in which Able is able to
kill the Doc ... however, it seems Dr Van Dam has cured him after all,
since his visions of his dead family members have vanished. Now being on
the sane side again, it would be a perfect time to take his relationship
with Jill to the next level (meaning sex) - however, it is now that she
turns out to be his murderous long-lost sister ... ouch. Upon
viewing Phantom Brother, one can't help but notice that the film
was made on the very cheap, shot on camcorder most probably with amateur
actors whose enthusiasm not always matches their acting talents (though
none of the actors is really awful). Also, the film is seriously lacking
any decent production values, and some of the typical 1980's fashion
choices are bordering the criminal from today's point of view. That all
said, Phantom Brother is based on a wonderful script, it's probably
one of the best-written horror comedies of the 1980's: All the
jokes and puns in the script really work (and most of them are pretty
original too), the poignant dialogues are extremely well-written, and despite being
full of jokes, the whole plot is totally coherent. Add to this a
directorial effort that understands comical timing and tries to squeeze
some atmosphere out of the limited resources, and you've got a very
promising film. Not the landmark horror comedy it could/should have been
on a bigger budget, but a film that really shows promise. Too bad none of
those involved in the making of Phantom Brother really followed up
on it ...
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