Fan Spotlight: Peter Marullo's Phantasm Mega-Edit

As an amateur video editor myself, there's nothing I appreciate more than seeing an ambitious phan cut together their own reworking of Phantasm. Whether they're re-incorporating deleted scenes, re-scoring the film or combining them all into one - it's fascinating to watch. Phantasm's creator also shares this interest, having publicly voiced his surprise and delight at such creations.

In this post, I want to introduce you to a good friend of mine, Peter Marullo, and show you some of his editing handiwork in bridging Phantasm II with III and Phantasm III with Oblivion. Upon watching the embedded video, I think you'll find Peter's editing makes the transition between films positively seamless.

Click here to see a clip from Peter's mega-edit

"As an eight-year-old," Peter says, "Phantasm II became a movie I watched everyday during my summer vacation. One of the biggest jaw droppers for me was how the beginning picked up right where the last one left off with Reggie jamming on his guitar and hearing the chaos above. I convinced myself that Don Coscarelli had filmed the beginning of the movie way back in 1979. Little did I know it was movie magic at it’s finest."

Growing up in a big VHS household, Peter fondly recalls first encountering Phantasm III at West Coast Video in Lionville, PA: "I was getting ready to go to a rambunctious fifth grade sleep over. As my Father was at the counter renting a Sega game for my big brother, I looked up to see Phantasm III on the new releases sign hanging above the counter. In a panicked tone, I asked the rental clerk when it would be available. Before she could finish saying “It’s available now”, I was racing back to the “P” section of the new release wall only to see that movie had been rented. When my Dad saw my devastated reaction he promised me we could rent it the following day, which was special in it’s own right because we normally did not rent movies on a school night, let alone a Sunday night! As fate would have it, the movie was in stock the next day and I still remember watching Phantasm III for the first time. It was magical."

"I soon got the idea of editing Phantasm's I, II, and III into one epic movie. I put two VCR's together and edited a Phantasm Trilogy tape that had each ending flow into the next. I would pass this tape around to friends who had never seen the movies. When Oblivion came out in 1998, I did the same and made the Phantasm Quadrilogy tape."

Peter has since taken his editing to the next level. Observe in the video below his excellent film-to-film transitions.

"This will be a big year for Phantasm," Peter continues. "We're coming up on the release of the fifth and final (hopefully not) installment: Ravager. From the trailers and footage released, I am both nervous and optimistic at what Phantasm Ravager will be like, but I can almost guarantee that when I first see it, I will have the same excitement that I did when I was ten in that video store."

Peter Marullo resides in Salem, MA. When he's not collecting Phantasm memorabilia, he sings in the band PROTAGONIST and is working on his first feature length documentary "Norman 68616"