6WH: October 10th

Week 3 ends with Mrs. K and I venturing to the theater. Later, we'd watch a film with my mother... always hard to pick a horror movie when that happens.

Zombieland (2009) directed by Ruben Fleisher
A bucket of fun. More of a comedy than a zombie film (whereas I might say the opposite about Shaun of the Dead). Sure, the story, when you boil it down, is pretty Hollywood-standard: lost souls wind up together by accident, dislike each other at first and then end up as a happy family. I know, I'm aware that amusement park rides require an operator and don't just go on their own once they sense someone sitting in them. Yeah, a certain actor in a cameo isn't really as rich as they made him out to be. Doesn't matter. This stuff is in the film to drive the fun, not to make sense.

There are lot of good bits stuffed into the picture. I loved Tallahassee's quest for a Twinkie and Columbus' quest to simply push stray hair behind a girl's ear. The zombies were of the fast type, but this okay due to both the awesome slo-mo shots of them chasing food (especially the stripper zombie) and so that Columbus could have his amusing cardio rule. The scene in which the four main characters have a blast trashing a highway tourist shop struck me as unique. In these zombie apocalypse films, I can't recall anyone ever just having fun with the situation (at least, without the scene ending in someone getting bitten or eaten). That was nice. That's one thing I would do myself if zombies were everywhere.

It's not exactly a deep reflection on the end of the world, but it is one of the funniest horror-comedies I've seen. (8/10)




Creepshow (1982) trailer
The Shining (1980) fake trailer
Michael Jackson: "Thriller" (1983)


Bubba Ho-tep (2002) directed by Don Coscarelli
I hadn't seen this in while and it seemed like something mom might possibly get a kick out of. Of course, I'd forgotten how much Elvis talks about his pecker throughout. Ostensibly about a mummy who eats the souls of old people in a rest home, this really isn't much of a monster movie. It's more of a comedic mediation on old age. Most of the movie has little to do with the title character; it's Elvis ruminating on what it means to have lived so long you're about to die of old age. As such, it's not exactly the most exciting mummy movie ever made. You have to be a certain frame of mind to enjoy this one, I think. I suppose this is the frame of mind that finds the idea of a mummy writing dirty graffiti on the wall of a toilet stall while taking a dump amusing. Afterward, mom expressed disbelief such a thing was ever shown in real theaters, stating "that was a weird movie." (7/10)




Book of Blood (2008) directed by John Harrison
After everyone was asleep, I popped in this Netflix acquisition. I read the short stories this was based on so long ago, I had no idea what it was going to be about. It was sort of Clive Barker's version of Poltergeist, in a way. Very much in line with Barker's style, it mixed horror, sexuality and metaphysics as it told the story of a college professor investigating a haunted house. Turns out the house exists at an intersection of a ghost highway, where their realm and ours mix. Turns out also that the ghosts are really sensitive to people messing with them, going so far as to rip the faces off of teenage girls performing seances. It's a bit slow-paced in the middle when the ghosts aren't doing any real harm to people, but I dug this one. (7/10)

Pumpkin Guarding the Steps

6WH: Oct 29

Phantasm IV: Oblivion (commentary by Don Coscarelli, Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm) (2005)
More than likely recorded after their P2 commentary session, so they were good and warmed up (or, it was just that their memories were a decade fresher and easier to recall). Angus doesn't have too much to say in this one, but I think that's because he's too polite to interrupt and Don and Reggie, who have a constant stream of anecdotes to discuss. In fact, sometimes they're so busy talking about one story, they will neglect to comment on something cool happening in the movie at that moment... but that's a minor complaint. Few silences, good background info and a trio a buddies hanging out talking about something they love. Yep, this is how it's done. (8/10)

Phantasm IV: Oblivion: Behind the Scenes (2008)
Phantasm: Actors Having a Ball (2005)
Phantasmagorical Mystery Tour (2005)
Phantasm: Genesis (2005)
Phandom (2005)

Phantasmagoria directed by Jake West (2005)
Pretty much all I wanted in a feature-length documentary about the series. All of the major players are interviewed: two Coscarellis, all four main actors and even Kathy "Lady in Lavender" Lester. The first half is spent discussing P1 with the remaining 45 minutes giving equal shakes to the three sequel. For me, there was a lot of repeat information -- having just watched all of the commentaries and every featurette of the series that exists -- but it's always nice to have everything collected into one, definite spot.

Poor Mike. You can tell he's still pissed off about P2. It's not that he gets angry, but he starts to blink a lot and look away while talking about it. Poor Bill. He was pained that his character turned evil in P4. The brotherly love between the two actors is real, thanks to the fun of filming P1, and he enjoyed that it showed in the movies. Poor Reg. All of his songs got cut from P1. Not that this is, in any way, a whoa-is-me documentary. But, those were three things I hadn't known about before.

Hopefully, if P5 ever gets made, the same crew will update this documentary to include it. It's just too bad the North American DVD release of P1 only got an edited version of this. (8/10)

And, that's it. My unofficial Phantasm Halloween celebration has come to its conclusion. I've exhausted every piece of Tall Man-related video I've got in the house. While The Thing may be my favorite individual movie of all time, the Phantasm series is my favorite series of films. The same writer/director for every movie, (nearly) the same family of actors for every movie, hell, even the guy doing the voices for the dwarf creatures was the same for all four movies. All of this spanning twenty years. This is something special. Thank you, Don, Reg, Bill, Mike and Angus.

A grown man with toys?

6WH: Oct 28

Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998) directed by Don Coscarelli
It's been ten years already since we've had a new Phantasm movie? Man. We're now passing the record set between P1 and P2. Well, if it has to end here, I'm okay with that. P4 brings everything full-circle in Phantasm style.

This movie is really for "phans" only. I can't imagine anyone not familiar with the previous three movies getting anything other than a headache out of this one. And it's probably mostly for phans who love the first movie. This isn't a "hey gang, let's drive this cool car through the apocalypse and kick dwarf ass!" movie like P2 and P3; it's back to the dream-like thoughtfulness of P1. Some may complain -- and it was a result of a low budget, to be sure -- but the integration of the never-before-seen scenes from P1 are absolutely fascinating to me. The scene in which Jody and Mike hang the Tall Man, in particular, is beautiful.

I also love the new scenes in which Mike visits Jebediah Morningside. Sometime around the turn of the century, this scientist activates a homemade spacegate ("dimensional fork"), walks through it and accidently alerts some terrible being that there's a ripe planet/dimension over here waiting to be harvested. Those scenes suddenly make the series very lovecraftian, which I think fits perfectly. Lovecraft was the godfather of sci-fi/horror. His monsters weren't just monsters; they were unimaginable, intelligent entities from some distant part of this vast universe who regarded humans as we do insects. Which is how I think of the Tall Man.

Not unexpectedly, there are still plenty of questions left unanswered by the end of the film. What is the infection Jody mentions in the future, empty L.A.? What does the Tall Man need with the sphere that came out of Mike's head? What are the hundreds of spacegates in the desert going to bring to this world? But, ultimately, those questions can be just fodder for fun speculation if P5 never comes. The point of the movie -- all three sequels, I think -- is summed up in Reggie's last action: Reg angrily picks up his quad-barrel shotgun and dives into the frightening unknown after the Tall Man, determined to help his dying friend. Steadfast to the end, that Reg. (8/10)

6WH: Oct 22

Phantasm III (commentary by A. Michael Baldwin and Angus Scrimm) (2005)
Apparently, this was the first of the new batch of commentaries recorded. It's disappointing that Don Coscarelli didn't participate, as he was always a great driver of conversation and full of background info. Mike and Angus are great, but they really weren't in this movie that much. They're often commenting on long stretches where neither of them were present for the filming. You gotta love Angus, though. He quite obviously spent the entire preceding day boning up on the movie in order to be better prepared to talk about it. He mentions re-reading his journals from the filming and he always has the name of a crew member or bit actor handy. Mike is also constantly asking Angus about plot points (if the spheres have brains in them, how do they have room for the cutting tools in there?) and Angus is always ready with a plausible answer (there are different spheres for different purposes). Still, there are more stretches of silence in this one than the previous commentary, though we're given some juicy bits of info here and there (some gangbangers didn't appreciate them filming in the mortuary where their homies were buried, for one). (7/10)

Phantasm III: "Deleted Scene" (1993)
Phantasm III: Where the Dead Are No Longer That Way (2007)
Angus Scrimm & Don Coscarelli at Fangoria Convention in 1993 (1993)

6WH: Oct 21

Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge (1991) directed by David DeCoteau
I remembered this one as being the best of this series. Puppets vs Nazis! The origin of the puppets! Seventeen years later (!), meh, not so exciting. Much time is spent with the evil Major Krauss having vaguely angry arguments with the not-as-evil Dr. Hess regarding the Nazi's project to reanimate the dead for cannon fodder. Hess repeatedly stops Krauss from dragging puppet master Toulon into his torture chambers, ensuring the only interesting thing we see the Major do on screen is die. Krauss's death is also the only interesting part of the titular revenge. Toulin has his puppets kill a few other Nazis in revenge for them murdering his wife, but they're nothing special. Krauss's death, though neat, almost felt out of place. It was more Hellraiser than Puppet Master, involving ropes and hooks and such.

An ambitious movie -- especially for Full Moon, being a period piece and all -- but ultimately unfullfilling. It's not looking good for me keeping this box set in my DVD collection. I know it only goes downhill from here... (6/10)


Phantasm III (1993) directed by Don Coscarelli
I like this one more every time I watch it. I, like many other others, had been originally disappointed with this sequel. "Too goofy" was the main complaint, followed closely by "I hate the kid." The kid really isn't that bad. He's a good actor -- better than the lady that plays Rocky -- and he fits into P3's theme of doing everything from the previous movies in a bigger way. They crash the hearse in a spectacular flip far better than how they destroyed the Hemi in P2. The Talls Man's hands transform into cool hand-demons, much scarier than the rubber finger-fly from P1. There's an order of magnitude more sentinals and dwarves in P3 than any other film. And, Tim is a hardened, ass-kicking version of Mike from P1 (made obvious by the duplicate shot of Reg and Tim at the fireplace talking).

This is not to say I like Tim more than kid-Mike from P1. Mike from P1 is an average kid, easy to relate to. Tim's greatest flaw is that he is not, especially in light of Mike from the previous movie, which makes him seem a bit cartoony. Fortunately, I think, the kid's acting reigns this tendancy in a bit. And, c'mon, you have to love the Home Alone parody when he's introduced: of course, the robbers would be killed by the precocious kid's traps.

The big reveal in this movie is that Mike, like the Tall Man himself, has a large sentinal where his brain should be. "Reg, don't believe everything you see. Seeing is easy. Understanding, well... takes a little more time," says Jody after Mike runs off. Though the Tall Man strongly implies that he is, I don't think Mike's always been one of the Tall Man's kind. I think he did something to Mike, maybe when he was in his coma at the beginning of the film. Mike, I'm fairly certain, would've noticed that he has yellow blood at some point in his life before then. Alternatively, Mike could've woken up into another reality after his coma, one in which he's a Tall Man-thing raised as a human.

My guess is that Liz was also a sphere-head -- or potential sphere-head -- explaining why Mike and her could communicate telepathically. This would also be a reason for why the Tall Man takes her head with him after the car crash. I wouldn't have been shocked to see her appear as a sentinal in P4, brainwashed into serving the Tall Man.

Anyway, P3 throws out some answers -- the Tall Man is building an army, using corpse bodies for dwarf soldiers and corpse brains to control the sentinals -- and raises even more questions before it ends. This is why I love the Phantasm series. It has the *cough* balls to never explain itself completely. So few movies can get away with this. It's refereshing when a director/writer says: "you're smart enough... come up with your own theories."

Side note: I'm glad to see Anchor Bay has changed the title card:
to
This "Lord of the Dead" stuff always smacked of Universal's interference. It was also written in a rather goofy font on the original VHS/LD releases, not at all matching the gothic "Phantasm" above. It's much better that P3's title card matches the other sequels. (8/10)

6WH: Oct 15

Phantasm II (commentary by Don Coscarelli, Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm) (2005)
Ten years later, the guys are back doing another commentary for an entirely new video format. It's nice to have Reg join in this time. He comes off as a really easy-going guy having a blast chatting with a couple of old pals. This track isn't quite a good as the previous one, though. There are a few more stretches of silence than I'd have liked and a few too many "this is great" comments. Coscarelli does do a nice job, as always, of keeping the conversation going about the behind-the-scenes stuff. I would've liked to have heard something about the conflicts with Universal he had making this movie (making it less dream-like, replacing Mike with James, etc.), but my impression is that Coscarelli is too damned nice of a guy to dish dirt that way. (7/10)

Fangoria: "Tall Man" ad (1988)
Angus Scrimm at Fangoria Convention in 1989 (1989)
Greg Nicotero: The Gory Days (2005)

6WH: Oct 14

Phantasm II (1988) directed by Don Coscarelli
What an ultimate guy's fantasy: driving around with your best friend in a sweet car, picking up pretty hitchhikers, armed to the teeth with flamethrowers and quad-barrel shotguns, ready to save what's left of the world. It's hard to get more bad-ass than this, which is undoubtedly one of the reasons I love this flick so much.

The dreaminess of the first film takes a backseat to a more action-packed road trip/chase of the Tall Man, but thankfully doesn't disappear altogether. This creates a nice mix completely appropriate to the series: one minute, Mike is (day-)dreaming of corpses of future hitchhikers, the next he's torching a Tall Man demon.

One bit I'd never picked up on before was that Mike and Liz were the "only ones who can see what's going on" in regards to the Tall Man's slow rape of the country's small towns. It's a decent Phantasm-style explanation as to why the FBI/National Guard aren't crawling all over these dead towns, looking for clues as to what's happening. The Tall Man's influence over perception and dreams has sort of the entire country asleep, allowing him the freedom he needs. Or, Mike's still in the insane asylum and has cast himself as the hero of his own delusion. Either way. (8/10)


[Universal: frell you for keeping this film in your vaults. I know you're proud of being the worst major studio when it comes to home video, so just sell the damn thing to Anchor Bay so we can get a North American DVD already.]

6WH: Oct 1

Phantasm: Introduction by Angus Scrimm (1995)

Phantasm (commentary by Don Coscarelli, A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury and Angus Scrimm) (1995)
This is an ideal commentary track. It features four old friends who talk about a movie and moviemaking experience they all love. There are no quiet stretches worth mentioning. The discussion is mostly behind-the-scenes info and stories about the scene they're all watching. This is how a commentary should be done. (8/10)

Phantasm: "Deleted Scenes 1-6" (1978)
Phantasm Australian TV Promo (1979)
1979 Phantasm Interview (1979)
Phantasm: Behind-the-Scenes (1995)


Tales from the Crypt: "The New Arrival" (1992) directed by Peter Medak
The dwarf from Poltergeist and Satan from Time Bandits in a creepy house with a weird kid running around wearing a mask. Sounds great, but it's actually a pretty low-key episode. Not something that'll stick in my mind. (6/10)

1000: the Phantasm commentary was the thousandth movie I've watched since I started keeping track (19 Dec 2003). By movie, I mean any film >= 60 minutes (or any Masters of Horror episode). That breaks down to:

1 movie every 1.7 days
4 movies per week
17 movies per month
209 movies per year

65% were from 1980-2008
20% were Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes
14% were watched in October
3% were John Carpenter movies
1% were watched at the theater

Most-watched movie was Halloween (1978) at 4 times.
Oldest movie was The Golem: How He Came Into the World from 1920.
Newest movie was The Dark Knight from 2008.
Average year was 1982
Average rating was 6.8

6WH: Sep 30

Phantasm (1978) directed by Don Coscarelli
Like a good free verse poem. The film wanders wherever it wants -- fortune tellers, annoying kid brothers, finger flies, auto repair, evil dwarves, impromptu acoustical guitar performances, a dimensional spacegate -- but always returns to dreams and death. Characters can fall asleep in one reality and wake up in another. Characters alive in one reality are dead in the other. Coscarelli does this all without explanation, letting the story flow were it may in the manner of a dream. He knows what the rules of conventional storytelling are -- see Jim the Worlds Greatest -- and knows that throwing those rules out the window would be the coolest way of exploring a story about a kid dealing with his brother's death / an extra-dimensional entity stealing our dead to use as slaves.

It's all kind of like Bill Shakespeare says: "To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come." (9/10)

SWH: Week 4 (nineteen)

Interview with the Vampire (trailer)
Frailty (trailer)
The Devil's Ball (1934)

Near Dark (1987)
Excellent acting, music, story and action meet to create my favorite vampire movie. (9/10)
d. Kathryn Bigelow

Masters of Horror: "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" (2005)
This is the Lansdale I know, though I didn't know Coscarelli had this much slasher in him. (8/10)
d. Don Coscarelli

Parts of the Family (trailer)
Werewolves on Wheels (trailer)
The Simpsons: "Treehouse of Horror 07-3: Citizen Kang" (1996)

Wolf Creek (2004)
Been there in 1974, done that in Texas. (6/10)
d. Greg McLean

Inhumanoids: "Cult of Darkness" (1986)
Musings on teen bullying, peer pressure, cults, and the ethics of zombie dating make for a deep show. (8/10)
d. Ray Lee

Gave Jones Soda Berried Alive a try this week. An unsophisticated version of Faygo Red Pop, but of a vaguely blueberry persuasion. Again, not bad. I seem to remember being sickened a lot more by last year's flavors. Then again, I haven't gotten to Candy Corn yet.

Watched the movies with C. He fell asleep in the middle of Wolf Creek and only woke up when the screaming started. Afterwards, he wanted to know what happened prior to all of the noise. I explained that a giant UFO came out of the sky, scooped everyone up and beamed them onto the crazy guy's property.

Mr. Boo guards the hallway, as he is wont:

Don Coscarelli

Don Coscarelli (1954 -)

1. 1975 - Jim the World's Greatest
2. 1976 - Kenny & Company
3. 1978 - Phantasm
4. 1982 - The Beastmaster
1. 1984 - Dio: "The Last in Line"
   
5. 1988 - Phantasm II
6. 1989 - Survival Quest
7. 1993 - Phantasm III
   
8. 1998 - Phantasm IV: Oblivion
9. 2002 - Bubba Ho-Tep
2. 2005 - Masters of Horror: "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road"

The Don Coscarelli Chronocinethon
28 Jul 2005 - 9 Sep 2005
(originally posted at IMDb)

opening thoughts
1975-1978 - Jim the World's Greatest, Kenny & Company, Phantasm
1982-1988 - The Beastmaster, Phantasm II
1989-1993 - Survival Quest, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead
1998-2002 - Phantasm IV: Oblivion, Bubba Ho-Tep
closing thoughts

Prev: Clive Barker
Next: Stuart Gordon & Brian Yuzna

Coscarelli (closing thoughts)

That's it! That's everything Mr. Coscarelli has directed so far. I may just be subscribing to expensive Showtime, just so I can see his newest effort in the Masters of Horror. Waiting for the DVD sets for that would be hard.

The Phantasm quadrilogy is probably my all-time favorite horror movie series. I love the fact that Coscarelli wrote and directed each and every installment. I love that -- except for fake-Mike and no-show Jody in P2 -- the four main characters stick around for the entire series. I love Reg's everyman hero. I love the surreal aspects of P1 and P4. I love the "road trip through a post-apocalypse" theme of P2-P3. It's truly a unique series. I'm saddened that it seems -- like every other horror series -- we will be getting a remake instead of P5. Worse yet, Coscarelli will not be directing the new trilogy. Because of this, I doubt very much that these new films will have a fraction of the magic of the originals. Ah well. We're lucky to have the four that we do.

(comment in the main post)

Coscarelli (1998-2002)

1998 - Phantasm IV: Oblivion - A welcome return to the surrealistic style of P1 and a welcome return of the Reg-Mike friendship started in P2. The emptiness of the world of P4 is subtle. Coscarelli doesn't announce it, but by the end of the film it's fairly clear that the Tall Man has been consuming the country unabated, despite 20 years worth of interference from Reg and Mike. There are only six characters in the entire film, and only two (one?) are actual human beings. Tantalizing glimpses of potential futures, definite pasts, blurry faces, and the psychic from P1 all add to the fun. A bittersweet, but appropriate, ending to the series (if this is indeed the last).

2002 - Bubba Ho-Tep - Hellishly good idea for a movie, though executed a tad slowly. This is probably due to stretching out a short story into a full movie. Bruce Campbell absolutely disappears into his role. I love the design of the mummy and the fact that he speaks in hieroglyphs. It's also nice to see Joe R. Lansdale get some movie love; he's one of the best horror writers no one knows about. I wasn't blown away by this movie as I was expecting to be, but it was a lot of fun.

(comment in the main post)

Coscarelli (1989-1993)

1989 - Survival Quest - Beautiful scenery, but nothing terribly special. Lance Hendrickson, as always, does a bang-up job as the Survival Quest master. He's essentially the Mr. Miyagi to his group's Daniel. Their rivals, the military boot camp sharing their woods, are essentially the Cobra Kai dojo. Similar lessons are learned. Also: man, Catherine Keener has aged very well since this.

1993 - Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead - Not as annoyingly goofy as I'd remembered. Clearly, Coscarelli is a fan of Sam Raimi. I think he was going for the Evil Dead 2 style of horror-humor in this one. Doesn't stray too much from the path P2 blazed; it's a road trip movie with a mausoleum. However, we're thrown some juicy info concerning the Tall Man and his interest in Mike. A satisfying Phantasm film.

(comment in the main post)

Coscarelli (1982-1988)

1982 - The Beastmaster - Never really congealed into a solid universe for me. There seemed to be a lot of Marc Singer running around barren landscapes and inside of pyramids. And, unfortunately, the stunt fighting was pretty bad. The mix of Celtic, Greek and Mayan mythology was unique, however. I can't figure out why they painted a tiger black?

1988 - Phantasm II - All you need is a 70s muscle car and a trunk full of weapons. Coscarelli leaps forward as a director; he's far more confident with his camera than he was before this. Reggie Bannister establishes himself as one of the (sadly, seldom recognized) gods of the horror hero pantheon. P2 is in the top tier of 80s horror movies and one of my favorite post-apocalyptic films.

(comment in the main post)

Coscarelli (1975-1978)

1975 - Jim the World's Greatest - I don't know the history behind this film; it's hard to say how much Coscarelli versus how much Craig Mitchell is in the direction. However, Coscarelli's warmth towards both childhood and brotherly love seems to have gotten started right here. With the possible exception of the drunken father, the characterization in this film was surprisingly deep. Because of this, Kelly's death had an appropriately weighty impact. The hopeful ending, though, isn't quite; instead, it comes off a bit strange. I just wish I had a better copy of this rare movie.

1976 - Kenny & Company - Pretty much every cool / stupid / embarrassing thing you ever did as a kid rolled into one movie. Despite being their age 10 years later in history, I still saw my own childhood reflected. It's easy to see why many folks have such fond memories of this movie and why Anchor Bay released such an obscure flick. Structurally, I can see some of the free-flowing narrative of Phantasm in here as well.

1978 - Phantasm - A gem of a horror movie. From the sentinels to the blind psychic to the Lady in Lavender to the gate to the yellow-goop-for-blood to the Hemi to the Tall Man to the ice cream man to the hammer & bullet trick to the surreal construction, everything about this film is special. Phantasm, outside of David Lynch, is the closed film I've seen to a nightmare. And, indeed, it is - or may be - just Mike's nightmare. Like all good films, this is open for interpretation. This is also the final chapter in Coscarelli's exploration of childhood (at least, I suppose, until P3).

(comment in the main post)

Coscarelli (opening thoughts)

Chronocinethon? Made up word. It means I watch all of someone's films in chronological order. It allows me to marvel at their growth over the years... or lack thereof.

(comment in the main post)