8-Bit Phantasm/Elm Street Music Video? Yes, please!

Here's a pretty cool way to end the work week.... a hybrid Phantasm/Elm Street double-feature music video from indie-rock bands Horror Section and Eaten Back to Life! It's the latter who performs the song, "The Tall Man," which is directly inspired by Phantasm. The first two minutes of the video feature the Freddy-related tune, "Cut you up," with EBTL's "The Tall Man" starting at the 2:03 mark.

In a nice touch, video director Aaron Romero borrows visually from the old Nightmare on Elm Street NES video game. The hybrid music video features the bands being stalked by Freddy Krueger and the Tall Man while performing in the 8-Bit world. It took Romero, who hails from Southern Illinois, an entire week to animate the project. In a showdown between Krueger and the Tall Man, Romero tells the Archives that his money is squarely on our dear alien mortician. Cheers to that! You can see more of Aaron's sweet work here.

Was Phantasm Ravager planned 30+ years ago?

In the absence of news or a release date for the new Phantasm sequel, phans have taken to examining the previous four films for clues as to the direction of David Hartman's fifth. And - surprisingly - one of those phans has come upon irrefutable evidence that Don Coscarelli had secret plans for a fifth Phantasm when he first made the original film back in 1977.

Have a look at the video below, which was submitted by the talented Filemon Pi Piripi, and be sure to pay close attention to Reggie's truck!

Phantasm Ravager's Mega-Sphere

What little bit of footage we've seen from Phantasm Ravager has already raised so many questions, particularly where that giant skyscraper-desrtoying silver sphere is concerned. How does this mega-sphere fit into series mythology? Surely there isn't a massive brain inside of it per previous balls... or some Godzilla-esque creature roaming around from which such a huge brain originated? Perhaps the mega-sphere is comprised of many smaller spheres.... or possibly it's all just a Phantasm and we're not meant to know.... yet.

Regardless, phan and video artist Filemon Pi Piripi shared with us this terrific video inspired by that mega-sphere. Click play below to see the mega-sphere leveling yet another towering building!

Let's Talk About Fake Phantasm Props...

This year has seen an unusually high number of purportedly authentic Phantasm props crop up on the online auction market. Dozens of spheres have appeared on both iCollector and eBay, but we have yet to see adequate proof that any of these actually hail from a Phantasm production. Considering how much of a prop hoarder Don Coscarelli is (seriously, this guy even kept mausoleum wallpaper from the original Phantasm!), you should always demand proof that whatever prop you're interested in is legitimate. Props and wardrobe have managed to escape Phantasm sets with cast and crew before, but these are few and far between. Even fewer items have escaped to the hands of collectors.

Filmmaker and effects creator Kerry Prior, whose sphere work on the series thus far includes Phantasm II, Phantasm III and Phantasm Oblivion, chimed in on this very blog with a comment last week that I'd like to share with you all now. Take it as a warning.

I was contacted recently by a fellow looking for me to verify that the Phantasm Sphere he had purchased on Ebay was in fact genuine. It even came with a "certificate of authenticity." I had to tell him that it was fake.

While it is possible that the occasional prop found it's way off the set--(at least one was given as a gift, that to Bob Ivy for an amazing stunt he did on P-III; some (2 motion control spheres) were archived in Dreamquest Images' storage vaults; and there's no accounting for any spheres in the hands of those sphere-guys who came before me...) as a general rule, if it shows up on Ebay, it's not genuine. I've never sold a prop from the Phantasm (I have two spheres from P-III and I can see them from here) although I did make some props from the original molds for a diehard "Phan" many years ago, I'm certain he will never part with them. But, to be sure, if it comes with a COA with my signature, it is unquestioningly a fake.

Hope that helps.

Kerry Prior