DVD Release
Fantasm Comes Again (1977)
R0 / NTSC DVD
Synapse Films / 2004
Director: Eric Ram (Colin Eggleston)
Writer: Richard Derriere (Ross Dimsey)
Cast: Uschi Digart, Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith, Serena & Angela Menzies-Wills
Review by James Garfield
Libby (perpetually smirking Angela Menzies-Wills) comes to a newspaper office to take over for the departing Harry (Clive Hearne) as writer of the “Dear Collette” sexual advice column. Harry sticks around for the night to train her; together they go over ten letters relating a variety of sexual fantasies. The first one visualized for us involves sex in a library. The second anecdote concerns an encounter between coach and gymnast in a gymnasium. Next we get a rape fantasy, as a woman at the drive-in gets yanked into a van while on the way back from the concession stand. Then we move on to a tale of a man stuck in an elevator with two women. We’ve all been waiting for a lesbian scene, so next we get one with two women having a literal “roll in the hay”. After that, all those who have ever fantasized about an office party turning into an orgy will see that dream visualized. The next vignette features three poolside women seducing a lifeguard. Coming up, it’s incest time as a teenage girl is invited to join her uncle and stepmother in bed, as her puppy doll looks on (!). Then we watch a man driving a car swerve all over the road as his girlfriend blows him. We finish up with a woman in church confessing to a priest her desires for the janitor, who is actually on the other side of the confessional screen posing as the priest. And with that, Libby has successfully completed her first session as “Dear Collette”.
This sequel to Fantasm (1976) has an identical omnibus format, with some of the anecdotes being similar in content (Uschi Digart does the lesbian scene; Serena does the “religious” fantasy.) The rape sequence even has the rape fantasy from the original Fantasm playing on the drive-in screen in the background! Again, the humor is as sophomoric as one expects from sexploitation (although I thought having the stuffed puppy actually move of its own accord to watch the sex was quite a unique touch), and the political incorrectness will make some of today’s audiences squirm.
With things not being quite so fresh this time around, the main point of the film is stargazing, and cult fans will be pleased by the appearances by the likes of Digart and Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith. For those who are already devoted to 70s sexploitation.
