The Search for “Phantom Town”

by on September 6, 2012  •  In Articles

HOLY SH*T, oh do the memories flow in. This movie, this movie I tell you, is the movie that has spawned my love for cult films. I’m actually surprised that my parents let me take this film from the video store. This movie had it all for me as a kid and probably still holds up today(If I ever get a chance to re-watch this you bet your boot-straps I will). I mean look at this trailer it has tentacles, giant eyeball things, slime, mutant-undead-alien-cowboys? There are two things I distinctly remember concerning this film.

#1 I had filmed my own really really terrible film with a Lego Studio camera while this movie was playing in the background, sometimes I would make asides referring to the movie in reaction to a certain scene. I even remember the title I gave my 10 minute train wreck of a movie, it was called “James Is Stupid”, I sh*t you not that is what I called it.

#2 I couldn’t remember the title of this film until just a few months ago. So for about 12 or so years not knowing the title of this movie haunted me. Even consulting other cult and horror film buffs I still got nothing. Now how did I find it? I remember distinctly that it had  an advertisement for puppet master action figures(which I really wanted although I didn’t even know that puppet master was a film at the time).

So when I remembered that I went on Wikipedia to search through all of the Full Moon and Charles Band movies ever made, still to no avail. After giving up and a few months later I picked my search back up remembering another thing that was on the VHS, it was a trailer for a movie called Murdercyle.

So, I then looked to see who the production company for that film was, assuming that a trailer for one film would be under the same company as the feature presentation. The company’s name was The Kushner-Locke Company, so logically I looked at all the films they released and then I finally found it!

So here it is my first obscure cult movie. It’s possibly not as good as I remembered it but damn this is so nostalgic to me.

On a side note I’d just like to say I really really miss video stores. It was a mystical experience for me every-time I went into one, looking across the giant walls of VHS’s and completely basing my selection on how bad-ass the cover art looked. The feeling of intrigue whenever I saw a movie that wasn’t there before. Now things are a way more convenient but far less interesting, I mean I like Netflix and all it’s super awesome to have a movie ready whenever you want, but there is no spirit of the hunt in it. The closest thing I have now as my source of finding cool old movies is to browse endlessly through related videos of 70′s and 80′s film trailers on YouTube and eventually I’ll eventually find something worthwhile to watch.

 

jameslouderback

James Louderback

James, like every normal man, likes to drink Drano and pee on dinosaurs, he is also a compulsive liar.
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