TV Guide: Angus Scrimm

Video: Phantasm

Video Detective — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:28:32 -0500

Phantasm is a surprisingly artful and imaginative horror film, an impressive film for 23-year-old director Don Coscarelli who worked with a miniscule budget to create a small masterpiece. When Mike (Michael Baldwin) spies some sinister Jawa-like creatures stealing corpses from the local cemetery, he and his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) explore the mausoleum, where they find that the mortician (Angus Scrimm), a towering, emaciated figure with superhuman strength, has somehow bridged the gap between Earth and the afterworld and needs fresh corpses. Among the tools of his trade is a flying Swiss army pinball that bores into the skulls of its hapless victims then extracts their brains. Their allies die off one by one, until only the brothers are left to defend humankind against the nefarious Tall Man and his army of shrouded dwarves. While the film does contain a fair amount of graphic violence, the gore is never gratuitous and, relative to other movies of its day, is used rather sparingly. The effects are

Video: Phantasm 2

Video Detective — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:28:30 -0500

The Tall Man and his strange little Killer Sphere return for a second round in this sequel to the 1979 cult favorite. Mike Pearson (James LeGros) is still plagued by memories of the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), an evil mortician who has risen from the grave and bleeds embalming fluid -- and tried to kill him as a boy. Mike has been a patient in a mental institution for the last decade, insisting that the Tall Man is real; he still appears in his dreams ten years after their first encounter. When Mike changes his tune and says that the undead undertaker was merely a hallucination, he is finally released. However, Mike and his best friend, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), are actually out to find the Tall Man and put an end to his habits of grave-robbing and draining people's bodies with his flying brain-juicer. As they search for the Tall Man, Mike encounters Liz (Paula Irvine), a woman who has also appeared in his dreams, and she claims that she too has been pursued by the Tall Man. Phantasm II was followed by a third

Video: Phantasm 3: Lord Of The Dead

Video Detective — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:28:25 -0500

This third entry in the Phantasm series is the poorest of all. This time, Mike (Michael Baldwin) and Reggie (Reggie Bannister) meet some new friends and join up with Jody (Bill Thornbury) from beyond the dead in their quest to stop the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). The film has good special effects -- and Scrimm is at his best here -- but it answers all the wrong questions and not enough of the right ones. ~ Sean D. MacLaggan, All Movie Guide.

Video: Claw of Terror

Amazon Video on Demand — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 02:34:52 -0500

Cringe before the Claw of Terror (1973), a.k.a. Matthew, with a hook-handed killer hell-bent on mayhem (and a pre-Phantasm Angus Scrimm)!

Video: Claw of Terror

Amazon Video on Demand — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 20:53:46 -0500

Cringe before the Claw of Terror (1973), a.k.a. Matthew, with a hook-handed killer hell-bent on mayhem (and a pre-Phantasm Angus Scrimm)!