I didn't see the original PHANTASM until the advent of home video but once I did I was hooked. Originally released in 1979, the flick boasts a surreal "what the f*&k?!" vibe as we watch brothers Jody and Mike and good pal Reggie battle an invasion of interplanetary grave robbers led by the mysterious Tall Man.It would take almost ten years for director/creator Don Coscarelli to get around to helming a sequel but when he did it not only kick started the series and brought us a couple more installments but it also established Reggie Bannister (who appears in all four installments as Reggie, the shotgun-toting and somewhat horny ice cream man) as a reliable, crowd-pleasing horror icon for years to come.
Subsequent years have brought us infrequent, but always entertaining, sequels and one wonders if we'll see Reggie, Mike and The Tall Man again one of these days. Coscarelli has hinted at everything from future sequels and other types of PHANTASM-related incarnations as well as the possibility of a remake (nooooooooo!).
Thanks to it recent DVD release, PHANTASM 2 is finally available after many years out of print, making a PHANTASM Phest a reality for all. While you're collecting all four flicks in order to indulge in some PHASTASMania check out these links for a heaping helping of PHANTASM phun...
- Happy Birthday, Tall Man – LA Times interview with Coscarelli, Bannister and Angus Scrimm (The Tall Man) in which Coscarelli talks about some of the leftover footage that made it into subsequent installments
- Ice Scream Man – Reggie Bannister talks movies and music with ER
- Let's Get Phantasmed – our overview of the quartet of PHANTASM flicks
- PHANTASM Phan Phiction – want more stories about the PHANTASM crew? Here ya go!
- Make Your Own PHANTASM Sphere – evil dwarves not included
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