R.I.P. Angus Scrimm

Word surfaced this weekend that veteran actor Angus Scrimm passed away. Angus, best known as The Tall Man in the excellent PHANTASM series, actually got his start in the music business, where he worked writing liner notes for a variety of musicians, even winning a Grammy in 1974 for his notes for “Korngold: The Classic Erich Wolfgang Korngold."

His first couple of film roles were in horror pictures - SWEET KILL (1972) and SCREAM BLOODY MURDER (1973). Three years later he would work with Don Coscarelli on the film JIM THE WORLD'S GREATEST. The two would reunite in 1979, when Coscarelli wrote the role of The Tall Man for Scrimm.

 In 2015 Coscarelli filmed the fifth and probably final installment of the Phantasm series, PHANTASM RAVAGER. The previous installments were PHANTASM (1979), PHANTASM II (1988), PHANTASM III: LORD OF THE DEAD (1994), and PHANTASM IV: OBLIVION (1998). Ravager is scheduled to premiere this year.

I remember showing these films to my kids when they were younger, and how much they loved them just as I did. I think I'll be revisiting them sometime soon, for sure...

BRUTAL premiere with Twisted Central

The fine folks at TWISTED CENTRAL sent me all the details on a really cool event I want to share with you ghouls -it's the Texas premiere of a great looking movie called BRUTAL. It takes place Dec 7th and 8th in Dallas with several of the cast and crew members onhand, and proceeds go to some great charities. Check out all the details below...

Twisted Central has joined forces with indie film maker Michael Stevens (Brutal) to help bring some much needed attention to homeless animals and victims of violent crime.

Brutal will be making it’s Texas premiere during a two night screening on December 7th & 8th at 7pm at the Angelika Film Center in Dallas, Texas. Director and actor Michael Stevens, star A. Michael Baldwin (Phantasm) and composer Alan Howarth (The Thing, Halloween) will be on hand for a Q&A immediately following the film on both nights. A raffle and silent auction will be held with items signed and donated by many of your favorite horror celebrities with all proceeds going to Operation Kindness, North Texas’ oldest and largest no kill animal shelter and For Those in Need, a Portland, OR based victims of violent crime organization.

Guests scheduled to attend include actor Bill Oberst Jr. (Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies), Camille Keaton (I Spit on Your Grave), Frederic Doss (Humans vs. Zombies), Kristen Hall (Sweatshop), model Courtney Crave and many more.

Tickets are $15.00 and will be available at the door or to reserve your seat early, you can preorder tickets by visiting the Twisted Central event page at http://www.twistedcentral.com/p/events_3.html. If you are unable to attend but would like to donate that option is also available on the site. Seats are limited!!

For more information and updates you can also join the event page

Recommended Movie of the Week #21

For those of you new to this blog, or my recommended movie of the week series, it isn't really so much a review as it is exactly what the name implies - a recommendation. It is a movie I like and recommend you watch because I feel you'll like it too. And this week's recommended movie comes from 1979 - it's the Don Coscarelli film, Phantasm, a truly bizarre movie that is absolutely drenched in atmosphere. It is a bizarre film that plays more like a nightmare than a straight forward narrative. 

It is a fun ride and spawned three sequels - Phantasm II, Phantasm III Lord of the Dead, and Phantasm III: Oblivion.