The "Phantasm" - "Dune" connection?

[Flick James]

There is a scene in the original Phantasm (1977) where the young character Mike is told by some fortuneteller to put his hand in a box that grips his hand and causes pain. The only way he can get his hand out of the box is to control his fear. Once he overcomes his fear, the force in the box relaxes its grip and he can remove his hand.

The novel Dune was released in the 1960's. I have never read it, but I did of course see David Lynch's adaptation made in 1984. In the film, there is a scene where the central character is forced to put his hand in a box that causes intense pain, and in a similar way he has to control his fear and pain threshold to pass a test. I am only assuming that the scene comes from the book. All I remember is that when I was young and seeing the film adaptation for the first time, I found myself reminded of the Phantasm scene.

I've always wondered if Don Coscarelli had read the novel before making Phantasm and was borrowing from it a bit, because the two scenes are thematically similar.

Just thought I'd share that thought.

[Pilgermann]

Yeah, that bit is in the book.  When I watched Phantasm for the first time a while back I had a feeling that the idea came from Dune.

[Skull]

That would make sense... the Tall Man is srinking people and transporting them into a desert world so they could mine spice... :)

[Flick James]

That would make sense... the Tall Man is srinking people and transporting them into a desert world so they could mine spice... :)

Good call. There's also a bit of Tatooine in there because they all wear hoods.

[Skull]

That would make sense... the Tall Man is srinking people and transporting them into a desert world so they could mine spice... :)

Good call. There's also a bit of Tatooine in there because they all wear hoods.

The intent seemed like a rip off to Star Wars but I never read any of the DUNE stories but thinking about the DUNE movie I actually think Don Coscarelli might of used DUNE as his "secret" background world... :)

[Flick James]

Actually, I withdraw my Star Wars comparison, because they were released in the same year.

[AndyC]

No doubt in my mind that scene was directly inspired by Dune. The two are so similar.