Bloody Good Work: Carpenter Whittles the Tall Man

Phantasm phan Jon Denton (IG username: PootieDude) has a real talent for hand carving things out of blocks of wood. He's made several cool characters lately including Freddy, Jason, and even Frank-N-Furter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. But most recently, he's whittled the Tall Man from Phantasm! Check out the sweet pics below including his final painted version.

I'm a little jealous as I sometimes struggle folding a piece of paper evenly, but this guy is able to make incredible works of art with his bare hands and a blade. Hit up Jon's Instagram account to see more of his work!

Super Rare Piece of Phantasm's Mausoleum For Sale!

Here's something you truly don't see every day. Right now, there is an eBay auction underway for a piece of contact paper used in the making of the original Phantasm! That's right - you can now own a legitimate piece of the Tall Man's mausoleum! Most phans likely already know that the original 1979 film didn't shoot at an actual mausoleum, but rather inside a Chatsworth, California warehouse made to look like a mausoleum through the use of contact paper.

The backstory on this rare item goes like this. Don Coscarelli gave this item to series crew member Kristen Deem during the making of Phantasm Oblivion. Kristen later gifted it to phan and artist Robert Long, who is now parting ways with it. You may recall Rob as the artist behind Phantasm's 20th Anniversary poster. On an unrelated note, so weird to think that poster came out twenty years ago. How time flies...

The starting bid is a mighty reasonable $75, so go get it!

Pre-Order: Mini-Sphere Display from Nightmares Unlimited

Dig this latest offering from Mark Phillips of Nightmares Unlimited! It's a miniature sphere display complete with spacegate and Phantasm lettering! Perfect for the phan with limited desk space. Mark is currently fielding pre-orders on these bad boys. You can get this entire display for $60 USD, shipping included within the United States. Do note that while the picture below is of a P2 Display, this pre-order is for P1 displays, which will ship in late May. Contact Nightmares Unlimited to order!

Mark Shostrom Reveals Tall Man Melting Makeup Ingredients

Thirty-odd years later, makeup effects legend Mark Shostrom has revealed the ingredients to the grotesque makeup that melted the Tall Man at the end of Phantasm II. Phans will recall that Mark supervised makeup effects on both Phantasm II and Phantasm III, which were arguably an effects high mark for the entire franchise. Angus Scrimm lovingly dubbed Mark "the Julia Child of Makeup" for his use of food products in the melting sequence. We've long known Mark incorporated chicken skin in the melting makeup, but here's a complete list of items used!

• Knox gelatine
• Karo syrup (Tall Man blood)
• Yogurt (in moderation)
• McCormick food colours
• Raw chicken skin

Mark further comments: "Since chicken skin often has salmonella and is incredibly greasy, I had to wash it with Ivory liquid and hot water for at least 30 minutes. I wore rubber gloves for this. Angus wore full face, neck and hand prosthetic I had sculpted; these were foam latex and painted with PAX and rubber mask greasepaint. All the food stuff went on afterwards. The only glue that would work to stick the chicken skin to his rubber neck prosthetic was super glue (I never glued them directly on his skin). I also have a good Jambalaya recipe but I've never tried that one on an actor."

To learn more about Mark's incredible career in makeup effects (including more Phantasm'y goodness), visit his official website or check him out on Facebook.

"Hot as Love" Reggie Cosplay from Monsterpalooza

This weekend saw the terrific Monsterpalooza convention unfold in Pasadena, California. In attendance was true phan David Hanger, who chose to go in full cosplay as Reggie Bannister from the original Phantasm! Hot as love! You can see that David's even rocking a tuning fork, which is essential weaponry for any fight against the Tall Man and his forces of evil. Great work, David!

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#ReggieBannister #cosplay I wore to @monsterpaloozaofficial. Thank you @littleshopofgore doe the awesome #Phantasm #enamelpin.

A post shared by David Hanger (@david.hanger.16) on Apr 13, 2019 at 7:47pm PDT

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Reggie! #phantasm #mosterpalooza

A post shared by Freaky Fandoms (@freakyfandomspc) on Apr 13, 2019 at 5:39pm PDT

Talented Phan Creates Spooky Tall Man Makeup

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Phantasm has the coolest phans. Instagram user PotterMakeup has concocted a pretty spooky looking Tall Man look on himself using only makeup, a white wig, and a black suit. (Bonus points for including the red tie pin - an essential part of any Tall Man cosplay!)

Visit PotterMakeup's page to see that, in reality, he looks nothing at all like Angus Scrimm, which only highlights how incredibly transformative this makeup job truly is! This talented phan has also created a number of iconic characters from throughout pop culture including Doc Brown, Rocky Balboa, Hellboy, both Laurel and Hardy, and so many others. "You play a good game, boy!"

Can we get a Regman makeup next? Fingers crossed!

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Angus Scrimm The Tall Man 🌑 #phantasm #phantasm2 #phantasm3 #phantasm4 #phantasm5 #thetallman #tallman #angusscrimm #horrorfan #horrormovies #horrorcosplay #classic #horrormakeup #fxmakeup #fxmakeupartist #horror_sketches #horrormovies #80shorrormovies #halloween #halloweenmakeup #ilovehalloween #halloweencosplay

A post shared by Ant (@pottermakeup) on Apr 10, 2019 at 12:33am PDT

Strange Advertising for Italian Phantasm Box Set

Italian distributor Midnight Factory has just released a pretty cool Blu-ray box set of the entire Phantasm franchise. This release packs six discs, meaning there's an entire disc devoted to bonus features. It also includes nifty postcard prints and an exclusive full-color booklet. Given how cool all that is, I guess we can forgive the inclusion of James LeGros on the cover instead of A. Michael Baldwin. (Happy belated birthday to Mr. Baldwin, by the way.) It wasn't like they just recycled the old Universal poster art - they had an artist draw this cover based on that!

Even stranger than LeGros being featured over Baldwin is this recent advertisement for the set. Is that masked man... supposed to be... the Tall Man? Yikes! As weird as it is, this ad is also kind of cool. I dig it. And judging by the blades, that sphere hails from the old Anchor Bay UK DVD set from many years back.

A. Michael Baldwin in New Slender Man movie 'FLAY'

Phantasm phans, this may be of some interest to you. Several years ago, A. Michael Baldwin appeared in a Slender Man thriller called FLAY from filmmaker Eric Pham, which we first reported on here back in 2017. The film's release was significantly delayed due to a cease-and-desist order filed by Sony Pictures, whose own Slender Man movie released last year. Fortunately, FLAY's filmmakers have prevailed in that legal spat and the film is now available for moviegoers to rent/own from a number of streaming platforms.  Visit the movie's official site here.

As many phans know, the original Slender Man legend was partly inspired by Angus Scrimm's Tall Man character, so it's fitting that Baldwin would make an appearance in the new film. The trailer looks awfully creepy!

Plot description: Patricia Crane dies when she acquires a mysterious black chain that unleashes a centuries-old curse from Flay, a faceless Native American spirit who traps the souls of his victims in the netherworld. Flay begins a killing spree as the evil chain is stolen and passed onto others. Plagued with disturbing and violent visions, Patricia's daughter Moon struggles to understand its enigma and fights to save her teenage brother River as Flay seeks vengeance on anyone who touches its condemned chains.