If you're a horror fan and you were around for the 90's, you may look back fondly on TNT's MonsterVision and its charming host Joe Bob Briggs. A Texan with a love for monster flicks, Briggs hosted the Phantasm trilogy more than once on his program. Presented below thanks to some generous YouTube uploaders are his segments from hosting Phantasm II and then a double feature of both Phantasm and Phantasm II. The first Phantasm II segments show Briggs in his usual format complete with his "Drive-In Totals," an arguable highlight of his program. The second two videos are from a 1999 marathon that parodied The Blair Witch Project. These segments have their own storyline, but Briggs still pauses several times to discuss the Phantasm flicks.
Southern California phans seem to have all the luck! This August, Scare LA will be hosting what I believe is the first ever Phantasm Ravager reunion event. Has it been long enough since the film's original release to call this a reunion? I suppose so! The screening will be attended by writer/director David Hartman, star/co-producer Reggie Bannister and his co-producer/"goop girl" wife Gigi Bannister. The trio will host a Q&A session along with the film. They will also be signing autographs at the event and Hartman promises to have copies of his new Zorgon CDs on hand as well!
Read all about the screening and get your tickets here!
We now have (somewhat pixelated) artwork for Well Go's upcoming Phantasm DVD Collection courtesy Diabolik DVD. This is new art not seen on the previous Blu-Ray set and appears to feature a Ravager-era Tall Man reflected in the surface of a silver sphere. The tagline proclaims, "One of the MOST BELOVED HORROR FRANCHISES of all time." Diabolik DVD currently has the set on sale for a very affordable $21.99. That's five films for just over twenty clams! Their listing also reveals that the discs will be housed in slimline cases. The set will be hitting store shelves on September 12!
The following is a special treat and arguably one of the rarest items I've posted here on the Phantasm Archives across the past ten years. Series crewmember Kristen Deem was recently cleaning out some old boxes from her collection when she stumbled across a script page from the original Phantasm! Why is this so significant? Because Phantasm's original script is the holy grail of series collectibles. Although the film was changed, re-written, and condensed throughout production, it DID have a script at the start of filming, albeit one without an ending. Some cast received this incomplete draft early on while others only received script pages on the day their scenes were to be filmed. In researching the original film for my Phantasm Exhumed book, I found that no cast member from the original film had kept any part of its script. Presented here for your viewing pleasure is a page from Phantasm's script. Notice that Jody calls one of the dwarves a "dog in heat" instead of a "gopher in heat" as in the film. A much bigger difference is that the dwarf-driven hearse speeds past Mike and Jody much earlier in this draft than in the finished film. Thanks to Kristen Deem for sharing!
It seems like just yesterday I was writing here on the Archives about Phantasm Ravagerdirector David Hartman's debut musical album "The Art of Monsters" by Zorgon. I mean, it practically was yesterday as the album dropped in March of this year. Now get this - Hartman has wasted no time in churning out a follow-up Zorgon release called "Walking with Monsters." The album hit iTunes and Amazon yesterday and appears to be MP3 only at the moment. If you happen to like 80s synth or the musical stylings of Daft Punk or John Carpenter, then this album is for you! "Walking with Monsters" is currently a great value at just under $10 for nineteen tracks, which is more than an hour of terrific music. I've already given it a listen and am immediately declaring "Blood Cop" and "SynthCave" to be my favorite tracks. Check it out on Amazon here!
Phantasm series crewmember Kristen Deem is moving and parting with several rare items that have been in her collection for decades. We've already seen two fantastic sphere props hit the auction block.... and now she's offered up literal pieces of the Tall Man's melted skin from the ending of Phantasm II. Read on for all the gory details! Kristen writes on the auction page: "On March 21, 1988, principal photography for "Phantasm II" had wrapped and we were well into filming a series of "insert shots," SPFX sequences, etc. These shots are generally close-up or FX shots that take awhile to film and are left until after the main cast and crew have completed their work. On March 21st I spent the day working at our Chatsworth warehouse, and watched them film Angus Scrimm recreating his "meltdown" scene (where the Tall Man is dissolved from the inside out by hydrochloric acid-spiked embalming fluid). After this, I also watched the SPFX team use a blowdryer on a gelatin prop hand to simulate the Tall Man's hand melting/bleeding). After filming ended that day, Mark Shostrom removed the "meltdown" latex patches/appliances from Angus' face, and Angus gave a sample to me as a keepsake (most everything went into the garbage because all sorts of perishable items were used on these appliances--milk, chicken skin, etc. The latex patches I have are mainly just latex covered with makeup, taken directly from Angus' face. From what I can seen in the plastic bag, there is a large patch (almost 2.5 inches wide) and then a much smaller patch. Everything has been stored unopened/untouched for twenty-nine years in plastic zip-lock baggies from that day. I don't remember exactly what part of his face these came from." I double dare the winner to open that plastic bag once you get it. Imagine all that sealed in freshness! Get your bid in on this bloody good item here!
