Phantasm Ravager

Hey folks we are back. Man, I remember Hellraiser scarier than that. Must have been Hellbound that creeped my shit. Moving right along, I couldn't help but notice the idea of further Phantasm didn't seem to interest some of you. Shame! Shame! It had been 18 years since Oblivion so surely we can look in on Mike and Reggie. Jody might even still be a sphere. With a new director at the helm, the waters could get choppy. This is Phantasm V: Ravager.

Tall Man and his fabulous dance team!

With a children's TV director and Art Department guru David Hartman (My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Super Duper Super Sleuths, Transformers Prime, and Transformers: Robots in Disguise) taking the lead and co-wrote the story I was a bit skeptical. Don Coscarelli has been handling this franchise since 1979 so sharing those ideas, characters and world seemed odd.

When last we saw Reggie (Reggie Bannister of Kenny & Company, Phantasm, Survival Quest, The Demolitionist, Wishmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep, Satan Hates You and Bloody Bloody Bible Camp), he went through a dimensional gate after the Tall Man because that seems sane. In the search for Mike, Reggie seems to have landed back on the world out in Death Valley.  Can't seem to find his car or other such weapons. Makes me wonder if it has actually been 18 years too.  That would be a nice addition to the story.   The gates are temporal based as well as dimensional too so why not.

Finding his car being bad touched, Reggie fixes that by stripping the thief down and leaving on the two lane blacktop. With a few killer spheres chasing him, they are no match for the 'Cuda or a 9mm. This ain't Reggie's first rodeo with these round mounds (yeah I wanted that one to sound dirty) and he is taking none of their crap. With the open road, behind the wheel of his 'Cuda, he has a mission. To find Mike, battle the Tall Man and put an end to this crazy shit.

Who doesn't love some Rocky?

No idea what happened to Jody or where Mike (A. Michael Baldwin of Kenny & Company, Eight Is Enough, Phantasm, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Vice Girls, Virtual Girls 2:Virtual Vegas, Brutal, It Came from the Dead and The Pick-Axe Murders Part III: The Final Chapter) is, we flash...to a mental insitution? Well hey, there's Mike. What's that? You saying that The Tall Man, his army of grave diggers, killer dwarves and menacing the dead from another realm is all my dementia. Well, when you put it that way.

Popping in and out of these different realms, Reggie is having the hardest time figuring out which is which and is any of it real or not. I would reference the multiple realms of Silent Hill as a basis of comparison and yet...this is done vastly better.

Reggie meets a girl on the road where the world is relatively untouched by the spheres, dwarves and Tall Man so it's gotta be the really real world, right? A girl Dawn (Dawn Cody of Computerman, Twigger's Holiday, Cold Case, The Call of Echo Mountain, Your Magic Touched Me and Stop It) is stranded by the road and Reg's grease monkey powers could easily get the land rover up and running buuuut he'd rather give her a ride back to her place with the potential dirtier ride later. For those that didn't get that subtle joke, I was talking about sex.

Whoops, Reg mixed up his sleep aid and Viagra again.

Of course this being a Phantasm film, Reggie and women folk go horribly awry. SPOILERS! Reggie and the pursuit of the female tends to end in tears. Quick interaction with Dawn annnnd... well balls will be balls. Sorry, killer spheres will be killer spheres.

A quick blast to another realm confuses and makes Reggie question life as a whole. What about Jody? Is he alive? Is he dead? Is he Memorex? See that? I did a thing there. With...with the jokes. Meh.

Reprising characters such as the Lady in Lavender from the first film brought to us by the lovely and talented Kat Lester, musician, actress and writer and Gloria Lynne Henry a.k.a. Rocky of Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead

Our Tall Man gives Reggie a chance. He could have his family back. His life before all this madness of the undead, crazed grave digging minions and dwarves of unspeakable butt ugly. Can he agree to this Faustian deal that will most likely destroy his very soul?

Jody ( Bill Thornbury of Summer School Teachers, Sarah T.- Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, Secrets of Midland Heights, The Lost Empire and Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead) seems to be a distant memory or is he? Is the struggle against The Tall Man wore him down or has he regained some humanity in this battle?

'Cuda got an upgrade. Awesome.

 

A further notion, what if the world isn't even that well off as Reggie thinks but is actually a barren wasteland and The Tall Man and his minions are already in possession of the world. They're just mopping up the last pockets of resistance, perhaps?

A few comments now. The spheres are completely CGI which has me at mixed feelings. On one end, that is a ton of post work getting those buggers flying about, so you feel for the editor. On the other hand, it looks really good and similar to a lot of the practical FX from the second movies so again, mixed bag.

 

Ultimately this is a love letter to the fans. A final confrontation perhaps and even resolution to several questions...possibly. We are dealing with anything from a man's total madness brought on by the loss of some many loved ones or the quite distinct probability of multiple dimensions rubbing against each other creating this rift between them. Whatever the case may be, this is sadly the last time we will see Angus Scrimm don his Tall Man appearance as he passed away. Described as a fun, good natured and kind hearted man by cast and friends, he will be missed by his family, friends and of course, his phans. 

'Sup man?

 

Phantasm IV: Oblivion

Hey folks! Um quick apology. As I was attempting to decide on Phantasm V: Ravager or Hellraiser, a thought occurred. I never reviewed Phantasm IV: Oblivion. Now I have seen it, probably made various mental notes and noticed some plot holes and jotted it down for Epinions.com oh so many years ago, but never got around actually reviewing it for the blog. My profound bad. So while many of you decide my viewing fate for the future! I will be here in the present, sitting through Don Coscarelli's fourth installment. This is Phantasm IV: Oblivion.

BOOoOoOoOOyy!!!

Released four years after the third film we have a few SNAFUs that have to be addressed. The budget after dealing with the $ 3,000,000 of Phantasm II and the $2,500,000 of Phantasm III, the fourth installment was about $650,000 so certain things were removed, forgotten or just cut.

Case in point, Tim (Kevin Connors of Harry and the Hendersons TV series, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Full House, Prehysteria! 2 and Pleasantville) was taken through the glass by one of the bodies in the mortuary and then...nothing. Kinda hoped the undead Dwarves/Javas would play wishbone with his intestines.

Mike (A. Michael Baldwin of Kenny & Company, Eight Is Enough, Phantasm, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Vice Girls, Virtual Girls 2:Virtual Vegas, Brutal, It Came from the Dead and The Pick-Axe Murders Part III: The Final Chapter) took off in a hearse, leaving Reggie to deal with his balls. Sorry, killer spheres. Reggie (Reggie Bannister of Kenny & Company, Phantasm, Survival Quest, The Demolitionist, Wishmaster, Bubba Ho-Tep, Satan Hates You and Bloody Bloody Bible Camp) looks like he is in the soup when The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm of Phantasm I through IV, Subspecies, I Sell the Dead and John Dies in the End) having Reggie at his mercy, simply lets him go with a parting few words about the final game is almost upon them. Yeah, Reggie the chucklehead who has been a thorn in The Tall Man's side for years gets to bounce. Huh?

Man, I hope the 70s never ends.

Reggie checks out the state of the Cuda, when visited by Jody ( Bill Thornbury of Summer School Teachers, Sarah T.- Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, Secrets of Midland Heights, The Lost Empire and Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead) pops by to reveal himself to Reggie again, urging him to help save Mike from The Tall Man and himself. Spoilers! Jody is now a sphere that cannot fully resist The Tall Man's power.

Meanwhile driving out into the desert leaving Reggie to fend for himself, Mike seeks answers to what has happened to him since the third movie, has flashbacks from when he was a boy and Jody was still alive. What is The Tall Man? Where did he come from? Was he ever human? What are his plans for Mike?

The Ice Cream Man is packing more than popsicles.

Reggie goes bombing out on the two lane blacktop to see a young girl, Jennifer (Heidi Marnhout of Roadkill, Vice Girls, Phantasm IV: Oblivion, Angel, Bubba Ho-Tep, CSI: Miami and Swingtown) managed to flip her car, it catch on fire and Reggie barely able to pull from the explosion. The two join up as she is out of a ride and it's not as though there has been any traffic. In fact, no traffic. Where the nine hells are they? 1-15?

They find an abandoned hotel and Reggie breaks in and they drop sleeping bags on the bed for the night. Bow chicka wew wew!!! Oh wait, it's Reggie. He gets no ladies. He had a wife and daugther and they blew up. By the way, I still have no idea what he does for money? Maybe like Spike from 976-EVIL and 976-EVIL II, he had a huge life insurance policy out on his family, just in case.

Thus far, all these distractions are keeping him from Mike. Who seems to be journeying through those massive tuning forks as he looks into the past when a fellow Jebediah Morningside, a doctor trying to discover the link of life, death and anywhere in between.

With a mishap with state trooper that is EEEEEVIL!!! No, I don't mean he gave Reggie a ticket or offered to destroy it for some highway head, I mean tries to tear Reggie apart Deadite style.

Can Reggie stop The Tall Man and his minions? Can Mike be saved? What the hell is the secret of 

 the Yeti?

A lot of creative shots had to be made as filler to deal with the lesser budget.  Again this is not a bad chapter to the series, it just feels a bit limited.  We are just at the cusp of computer generated effects so those simple post effects aren't as available compared to now and they had plenty of location areas but not all the effects or story elements could be added.  The spheres were almost all CGI and not bad for its time and looks pretty fair now.

A great musical score by composer Fred Myrow (Scarecrow, Soylent Green, Phantasm, Phantasm II, Hour of the Assassin, Love Is a Gun and Phantasm III) sadly passed away shortly after this film's release. Reggie Bannister's band, Reggie B and the Yiz Wailin' Ya' Doggies performed the end credits song.

That being said, we do get more questions answered and plenty of the fans will agree it has been a wild ride.

Hmm, Hell dimension looks cozy.

Director of the Week: Don Coscarelli: Bubba Ho-Tep

Howdy boys and girls and welcome to Day 5 of Director of the Week with Don Coscarelli.  Now yesterday was a bit of a stomach turner with Incident On and Off a Mountain Road so let’s end the week on a classy note, and nothing screams classy like an Elvis Mummy movie. So hide your candy, keep a flashlight handy for lights out and tell that orderly where he can stick it.   This is Bubba Hotep.

The King in deep contemplation. 

Elvis: Don’t make me use my spoiler on ya, baby.

In a third rate nursing home in East Texas not much goes on in The Shady Rest Retirement Home.  The staff is ill-mannered and adheres to their schedules and even though they may have more than a few faded celebrities, we are all reminded that death still keeps taking its toll.

The staff of the nursing home does have a bit of amusement what with Sebastian Haff (Bruce Campbell of The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2 and Burn Notice), an Elvis impersonator claims to be the actual Elvis that swapped lives with Sebastian Haff in order to live in peace and anonymity.   But if things get dicey he and Haff agreed that if the King gets tired of the quiet life they can swap back but a propane explosion burned all of his proof preventing Elvis to be able to ever return to the old gigs.

Whaddua mean wood tick on my neck??!!

A hip injury happened during a concert causing an infection and a coma leaving him here at Shady Rest wound him into this predicament.  His only friend is Jack (Ossie Davis of Car 54, Where are You?, The Defenders, Cool Red, B.L. Stryker, Grumpy Old Men, Doctor Dolittle and The L Word), a black man convinced he is John F Kennedy that had his brain swapped out into this body to avoid another assassination attempt and was forgotten about.   The two start to notice people dying in numbers around the home and come to realize that a mummy is roaming the halls at night sucking souls from the residents.  Only these two men can stop the madness and bring this undead soul sucking monster down.

Not so good ole boy.

I have just a few points on this film.  Based on the written work of graphic novelist, and Bram Stoker Award writer, Joe R. Lasdale this warped and amusing story holds elements of memories past, regret, sorrow, triumphs and joy.   Yes all that can be found in an Elvis Vs. the Mummy novel.  Bruce Campbell read the script and called Don Coscarelli to make sure than the infected cancer sore on the end of Elvis’ penis was NOT to be on screen.  Once that air was cleared he was on board for the film.  

Phantasm alumni Reggie Bannister makes a cameo in the film and you can just hear the ecstatic cries of Reggie and Ash fans losing their minds over two cinematic monster slayers on the same screen.   In spite of this being an Elvis Preseley film not a single song of his is heard throughout the whole film.  Don Coscarelli when to explain how it would have cost half of the movie’s budget to license even just one of his songs.

The moral of the story kiddies is, “Don’t f&*k with the King, babies!”  

Just a lonesome cowboy, ma'am.

Director of the Week: Don Coscarelli: Incident On and Off a Mountain Road

It was a dark and stormy night…oh wait my creative writing course is later.  Welcome back to Director of the Week: Don Coscarelli.  We have found yet another toilsome tale of darkness.   From something as mundane as a crash accident could lead to such impending terror.  So stock up your road munchies, grab that mix CD or audio book and ride on into the night.  This is Incident On and Off a Mountain Road.

 

Zoning on the road.

Buddy: They say the eyes are the spoiler to the soul. You see so many bad things in your life. It all comes in through your eyes. And sometimes your eyes lie to you, and show you things you don’t wanna see.

Anchor Bay Entertainment assembled some of the greater horror directors into creating 13 one- hour films ranging from supernatural entities to demented madmen roaming in their own worlds.  From the likes of Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive) John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond), Joe Dante (Piranha, The Howling),Mick Garris (Critters 2, The Fly II) Dario Argento (Suspiria, Deep Red) and John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, Innocent Blood) comes morbid folk lore to the small screen.  This time around is Don Coscarelli’s turn to make you shake and quiver in terror.

Fly Moonface!!!

Driving in a secluded mountain road Ellen (Bree Turner of My Best Friend’s Wedding, American Pie 2, Just My Luck and The Ugly Truth) collides with an abandoned car on this stretch of the highway.  Prepping her insurance card and story, she notices there is no one in the vehicle but spies a trail of blood leading into the dense forest.  

Now a logical person would be calling the highway patrol, the forest rangers and the like but our plucky gal proceeds to follow the trail into the seemingly never ending forest with she encounters a deranged and deformed loony calling himself Moonface (John DeSantis of Thir13teen Ghosts, Bloodsuckers, Blade: The Series, The Dresden Files, The Hole and 30 Days of Night: Dark Days), dragging the presumed other driver by the hair in the dirt.  Only just escaping him, Ellen flees into the aforementioned dense forest with Moonface in hot pursuit.

Now throughout this particular flick we get a few flashback sequences of Ellen getting survival training from her husband giving her hand-to-hand combat, melee weapons and even some firearm instruction.   Man I normally suggest taking Krav Maga but this is even better.  Moonface finally catches up with her, knocks her out and brings her to this eerie workshop on a ridge just above an enormous waterfall. 

Just hanging..

Ellen stirs back to consciousness from this foul smell and finds herself chained in a basement with the remains of her host’s former victims.  Sitting in a corner is Buddy (Angus Scrimm of Phantasm, Subspecies, Vampirella, Phantasm II and I Sell the Dead) muttering how about Moonface’s methods and motives for his victims.

Good lighting at the kill floor!!

Okay just a few points to make about this film.  For the ladies, this is fairly graphic with its gore, there is a rape scene I too could have done without and more slaps to the face than ever needed.   For the film nitpickers, you will hear thunder and see lightning flashes while in the forest and yet no rain.  Now normally I can dismiss this with just atmospheric discharge on its way to a hard rain but the constant full moon being seen on a quite clear sky made it a bit off for me.  Then again I have not spent a great deal of time in British Columbia.  I am definitely avoiding this mountain stretch if I lack a Mossberg 12 gauge and good size kukri.

Director of the Week: Don Coscarelli: Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead

Hello all and welcome back to more of Director of the Week: Don Coscarelli.  Since Phantasm II has already been covered I thought it only fair to drag you kicking and screaming into the depraved depths of its continuation.  So load your Dwarf Cutter, gas up the ’71 Barracuda and let the road be your guide.  This is Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead.

Hmm, my coat is on fire.

Reggie: I sure hope that ball got a better sense of spoilers than mine do.

Minutes after escaping the mortuary with the Tall Man destroyed our heroes Reggie, Mike and Liz hop in a hearse driven by Alchemy (Samantha Phillips of Phantasm II, Deceit, The Other Man, Hot Springs Hotel, Menno’s Mind and Cheerleader Massacre) and off to safety…or is it?  Alchemy is revealed to be yet another of the Tall Man’s vessels of death and destruction as she flogs Reggie and tosses him out of the hearse.  Mike and Liz are rocked about as the car crashes into a tree.  Reggie finds Mike (A. Michael Baldwin again) and the grassy area is surrounded by the Tall Man’s undead dwarves.

C'mon you mutha!

Blowing away a generous portion of them, Reggie gambles with his and Mike’s lives threatening to blow themselves up with a grenade.  The Tall Man seems to have other plans for Mike and bows out of the impeding conflict.  Mike in a coma begins to dream and understand what the Tall Man is, what the dwarves are and why the spheres are so lethal.

Not for hanging on the Christmas tree.

Saving himself from a possessed nurse, Mike and Reggie make tracks to clear out before the Tall Man comes knocking again.  As they prep they are visited by a ghost from the past.  Jody appears before them and both Reggie and Mike are confused seeing Jody died 12 years ago.   He warns Reggie of the Tall Man only to be too late as he slaps both Jody who is now one of the killer spheres and Reggie down and claiming Mike as a prize.

Back on the road trying to find Mike, Reggie drives through abandoned and ransacked towns with graves turned up and no living soul to be found.  He is befriended and saved by a 12 year old kid name of Tim (Kevin Connors of Full House, Prehysteria! 2, and Pleasantville).  The two scope other towns when they encounter a couple of fairly well armed women that want to know what happened to their town.  A sphere nails one of them draining her dry and the other, Rocky (Gloria Lynne Henry of Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, The Devil’s Advocate and The Horse Whisperer) joins Reggie and Tim to fight the evil forces of the Tall Man.

 

Da wife is a real twist, eh?

I have a few complaints to register about this film.  Thanks to the anal retention of the MPAA, the film in its original VHS release was neutered to great levels cutting down on the violence and only a handful of films kept the movie intact.  In 2007, Anchor Bay was allowed to release an unrated version having the same level of violence and gore as the previous two films.  After 1985, Horror genre slasher/supernatural/zombie films had a lot of interference due to overbearing parents, Christian focus groups and people feeling that art could persuade some folks to imitate it in real life.  If that is true to form I am off now to watch 1978 Superman in order to fly, bend steel in my hands and gots to try out that X-ray vision.

Blog 275!!!! The Beastmaster!!!

Hey hey, hey boys and girls!!! Welcome back to Director of the Week: Don Coscarelli and I bet you would like to hear about Phantasm II… Well it is archived so look it up.  That’s right I reviewed it ages ago but don’t worry my little munkins I have another film in mind that spawned two sequels and even its own TV series of three seasons worth.  So don your loincloth, commune with nature and talk to the animals. This is The Beastmaster.

He is...Chest Waxer!!!

Dar: I have my eyes…I have my cunning…and I have my spoiler.

Based on the award winning sci-fi fantasy writer Andre Norton (Astra, Beast Master, Carolus Rex,Witch World, Trillium and Estcarp Cycle), Don Coscarelli and writer Paul Pepperman (The Beastmaster, Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time and Beastmaster: The Eye of Braxus) collaborate to bring this tale of kings, tryants and monsters to life.

This is the story of Dar (Marc Singer of V, A Man Called Sarge, Watchers II, Dead Space, Dan Turner, Hollywood Detective, Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time and Angel Blade), son of King Zed (yes, that is his character’s name) who was claimed from his mother’s womb by an evil witch in order to end the Empirical order and install the dark, menacing high priest Maax (Rip Torn of Tropic of Cancer, Slaughter, Cotter, Payday, City Heat, Men in Black and Wonder Boys) leaving him free to reign Hell on Earth.   The witch women prepare young Dar for his ritual sacrifice when a poor villager swooped in and rescued the boy.  Good timing on his part.

Tuesday Night is deep fried toddler night at the Sizzler.

The villager raised Dar as his own son and begins to notices how the boy is adept to fighting from their sparring lessons.  Proud father he is, he also notices the strange interaction the lad has with the animals around them.  It is almost as he is speaking with them.   No sooner is the village joy and prosperity is ruined (Cue Conan the Barbarian incidental music) as the villages is sacked, pillaged and burned to the ground by beast like warriors known only as the Jun Horde.   Dar being the only survivor of this horrific attack, vows revenge and journeys (while not listening to Journey) to the land of his father’s former kingdom with only the death of Maax on his mind.

I have just a few tidbits on this particular film now. The kingdom and surroundings are mostly scale model representations and a bit of superimposed pictures but the way it is shot only a persnickety film student would be hip to it.  Minatures modeler Bret Culpepper (The Beastmaster, Human Highway and The Jupiter Menace) working in sync with Visual Effects Cinematographer William Cruse (City on Fire, The Amityville Horror, TRON, Repo Man, Firestarter and The Haunted)really bring the A game in this delivery.  

Wardrobe malfunction in Sci-fi Fantasy!!

Between the copious amounts of stuntmen, not to mention animal trainers you get the feeling this was an impressive production value.   The story is a bit cliché of the seeking vengeance aspect but it was a pretty common theme in loads of genre films, TV and books.  All in all, this was pretty enjoyable and one of the few sci-fi fantasy films I could watch again.

Director of the Week: Don Coscarelli: Phantasm

Okay guys and dolls let’s kick this week off with a wee bit of horror and our director of the week as it is Don Coscarelli.   This movie is not blood caked on the walls violence and a massive behemoth of a man tearing limbs off a token black man simply because he can.  This is a complex story arc that if you skibble off to the bathroom or go get a snack without pausing; yes you will be confused and annoy your fellow viewers.   So load up your .45 and 12 gauge and shoot at anything little, brown and low to the ground.  This is Phantasm.

 

Sorry if I made you wet your pants, SIIIRRR!!

Jody: What’s out there?

Mike: I don’t know. It was little, brown and low to the ground.

Jody: Ahh, it was probably just a spoiler in heat.

Young Mike (A. Michael Baldwin of Kenny & Company, The Fantastic Journey, Eight Is Enough, Vice Girls, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead and Brutal) has lost both his parents in a car accident and now lives with his brother Jody (Bill Thornbury of Summer School Teachers, Sarah T.- Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, Secrets of Midland Heights, The Lost Empire and Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead) and all is more or less well and good when Jody’s best friend Tommy (Bill Cone of Phantasm) is found dead in a graveyard , stabbed through the heart.  The official explanation is suicide but Mike doesn’t believe the inept cops and starts his own investigations.  Screw you Goonies!  Mike does this solo. 

Reggie, yer blinding me again.

Unexplained events seem to be occurring around the funeral home managed by man of 6’4” the lad simply calls The Tall Man.   As Tommy’s funeral ends and the pallbearers have done their duty, our Tall Man lifts a coffin weighing at least 200 lbs plus an additional 200lbs of dead weight inside like it was a potted plant.   Further sleuthing is needed as Mike heads into the mausoleum itself seeing these disturbing dwarves in Jawa robes and top of which silver spheres floating about and drilling into people’s skulls.   Rather than seek immediate therapy, Mike tells his brother Jody and Jody’s buddy Reggie (Reggie Bannister of Kenny & Company, Survival Quest, Phantasm, Phantasm II, The Demolitionist, Wishmaster and Bubba Hotep) and our improvised Scooby gang go and investigate.  And brother they are packing shotguns and .45s.   This is a novel concept in my book.

I have just a few notes about the film if you don’t mind.  Now in interviews Coscarelli has never been frank on what town this was supposed to occur in but clearly areas of California from Pacific Palisades where Morningside Cemetery is to parts of Oakland I was recognizing from personal travels.  Heck I saw regions of San Fernando Valley as well but the story arc is somehow in Oregon.  Seems fitting to bring something so malevolent into God’s country, right?    

Oh boy I wet 'em.

Filmed in 35 mm Spherical this film’s audio is sadly in Mono but hey it was cheaper to film in such with the old school Panaflex.  Bill Thornbury also wrote one the songs for the movie “Sittin’ Here at Midnight” which both he and Reggie Bannister performed on screen.   Hey folks these actors did their own driving and stunts too.   Ballsy lot in my thinking.

Director of the Week: Don Coscarelli

This week I chose a writer, a director and producer.  That means his projects takes a bit to get off the ground. From genres of the darkest of Horror to the depth of the ridiculous.  His creations stem from the Phantasm series to a heartfelt journey of a 12 year old lad and his friends in Kenny & Company, Don Coscarelli has managed to plum the vast expanse of human emotions all the while letting his stories unfold in due time.  Most commonly casts two of his Phantasm alumni Reggie Bannister (Kenny & Company, Survival Quest, Phantasm, Phantasm II, The Demolitionist, Wishmaster and Bubba Hotep) and Angus Scrimm (Phantasm, Chopping Mall, Subspecies, Mindwarp, Vampirella, Alias and Incident on and Off a Mountain Road) to whatever feature has come to his warped mind.   With similar camera techniques as Sam Raimi, Coscarelli get much done on a limited budget and has dubbed a cult following for his Phantasm series as well as the inception of The Beastmaster.

You will laugh, cry, be bamboozled and quite possibly say, "What the hell was that?" more times than you would care to admit.  So journey with me into his various film projects of the past and present...possibly even the future.  Well if I can get this damn blue box to work right.

Ah the worlds to conquer, eh BoOOoOOoy!!!!