By RON WAITE

By now anything you say about Phantasm is superfluous. After 21 years, most everyone knows the story: Third feature film of Don Coscarelli, co-produced by special effects technician Paul Pepperman. The title says it all, a blend of sci fi and horror, of twisted images and nightmarish reality. Long before The Cell hit the big screen, Phantasm tested us, drew us in. Was it real or a dream? Even after several sequels we’re still not completely sure!

The setting is the infamous Morningside Mortuary where a really creepy mortician (Angus Scrimm) runs the place. His dark clothes and menacing expression only serve to enhance his vocal talents. When he says, "The funeral is about to begin – sir!" it’s with such ominous tones it makes you shiver. Mike (Michael Baldwin) sees some pretty weird stuff going on at Morningside but his older brother doesn’t believe him. Typical, yes. But the events that unfold as the story is told leaves you chilled, scared, wondering and perplexed. The final scene where The Tall Man appears in the mirror and utters but one word--Boy!--shook movie patrons from their seats.

The musical score, by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave, added to the mysterious mood of the film. The title lived up to its name, and the eerie events on screen reminded one of the classic German films like The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, only with color and sound. And who could forget that flying silver sphere? Designed by the late Willard Green, the horror scene had never seen the likes of such a dastardly weapon of death! Boring into the skull of its victim, blood and brain matter would pour from the other end of the drill bit. Impossible to remove for it attached itself to the skull with razor sharp prongs.

Phantasm was released in 1979, a pretty good year for movies. On TV there was Salem’s Lot. The starship Enterprise soared again in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Alien scared the hell out of everyone. The remake of Nosferatu, and Dracula with Frank Langella. And let’s not forget The Amityville Horror. There was All That Jazz, Apocalypse Now, Kramer Vs Kramer, and Manhattan. So this little film was up against some pretty tough competition. The fact that it is a cult classic, is still strong in the fan community, and sales on video are good and it’s shown on TNT’s Monstervision so often is proof enough of its ability to frighten.

It took nearly 10 years to make a sequel and "the boys" weren’t even in it. It was good to see The Tall Man again and the ever reliable Reggie. By the time the third installment arrived, Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead, the original cast was back; older and maybe not wiser, but better than ever. Good to see Michael Baldwin had grown up and actually make it to the year 1994. By the way, no relation to the Baldwin brothers.

Angus Scrimm...before the make-up...

For some reason, one that truly intrigues me, Leonard Maltin’s Movie And Video Guide has never had a kind word to say about any of the Phantasm movies. At least he didn’t give it a BOMB rating, but it never rated much higher. They make fun of The Tall Man’s tie and complain about the special effects, and critics on average just plain hated it. Well, say what you will and complain all you want. For the budget it had this was one hell of a good movie, creating a strange new twist on horror and even sci fi. Action packed, humorous, creepy, all the things a fanciful, bizarre, phantasma, figment of the imagination should look like.

Case in point: You can’t complain about low budget movies. OK, you can, but here are the facts. Quick! Name ten movies from the past 70 years that were Academy Award winners; Best Picture, Best Actor/Actress, anything like that. Some of you may be able to, but for me, I can’t even remember last year’s pix. (Actually I do but I can not for the life of me understand why this particular movie got five Academy Awards!).

They didn’t win any awards but I’m sure we can all name films like Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolf Man, the Mummy, Creature From The Black Lagoon and many others in quick succession. And those detestable low-budget, no-budget films that critics love to hate? Interesting how I Was A Teenage Werewolf landed in the New York Museum of Modern Art. And bad tho it may be, the everlasting worst movie ever made, yes… the one and only Plan Nine From Outer Space never faded away. Mocked, ridiculed, hated, laughed at, but it’s still selling on video and Elvira raves about it in her awful movie collection.

The Tall Man takes shape...

So while all these big budget epics are all but forgotten (The Robe, Demetrius And The Gladiators, etc.) little "awful" films like Phantasm will survive.

So if you want to say something bad about this film, ask the obvious question: If the Tall Man hated cold so much, why did he settle in Oregon? Why not in Dallas or Phoenix? These are the questions we need answered.

When I was assistant editor of FM we arranged for Angus Scrimm to come to the house for an interview and foto shoot. I was there along with Forry and Brian Forbes. When Angus arrived he brought along Don Coscarelli’s parents. When he first entered the Ackermansion we gave him the grand tour, even to the lower depths of Grizzlyland in the bowels of the house. We took the obligatory pictures then got down to business.

He had brought his black suit, complete with that skinny tie Leonard hates so much, the black boots, the red tie pin and before our very eyes he was transformed from mild mannered Rory Guy (his real name) into the dreaded Tall Man.

The Tall Man as we know him...

He talked the whole time he was in the make up chair. One story we all enjoyed happened in New York. He toured the country and even overseas promoting the movie. By now his pants were visibly thread-bare and shiny. He told us of an incident at a New York theater where Phantasm was showing. He had seen the movie so many times by now he was, quite frankly, getting bored. So he was standing in the lobby taking a break, when a girl comes down the stairs from the balcony. He turned and looked at her – and remember, he’s in full costume and make up – and said, "I wouldn’t leave if I were you!" And she ran back up the stairs.

Don’s parents had to leave, and it was getting late. Past lunchtime now, we were all pretty hungry so Forry suggested we go to eat at his favorite place, The House of Pies, just down the street on Vermont and Franklin. Naturally we assumed Angus would get out of his costume and get back into his street clothes. But no, not this man. "I am hungry", he said. "Let’s go eat". And so we all walked into the restaurant with Angus in the lead, followed by Forry, me and Brian. The whole place was staring, and we just smiled. We sat and ate and laughed and talked and finally someone came up to us and asked, "Are you making a movie?" This was, after all, the heart of Hollywood. We explained the situation and everyone listened. I think after we left many of the customers headed to see the movie!

Shortly after this event I attended a screening of Phantasm with Angus and my ex-wife. We couldn’t help but laugh when he pulled up in a Plymouth. "Not what we expected!" we told him. He said he thought about buying that white hearse used in the movie but decided against it. Imagine how thrilling it was to sit in the audience with The Tall Man as people screamed and shouted at the screen, and when we looked at him he was smiling. No one even suspected he was in their midst!

One reason he was The Tall Man...

At the time many of my friends and relatives, especially my brother, went to see the movie on my recommendation and once they found out I actually knew this Tall Dude they were green with envy. So when two dear friends from New Jersey decided to spend their honeymoon in Los Angeles, I thought of the perfect gift. I took them to lunch with Angus Scrimm!

The poor kids were speechless the whole time and just stared at him in awe and fear. We dined at the Ambassador Hotel, the same place where Bobby Kennedy was killed. So this was a bit of history, too. By the end of the meal my friends had relaxed and reality set in. This was not a dream, it was really happening. And I have to say, to Angus’ credit, he was in a very bad mood that day because of some kind of problems with work, his agent, plus he was late in getting there, yet he remained gracious and open and a perfect gentleman.

Though my friends were terrified--after all, this was the first movie star they ever met and he was The Tall Man--by meal’s end everyone was smiling and laughing and as the Beatles said, a good time was had by all. As we prepared to leave, Angus picked up the check and refused to let any of us pay or even leave a tip! This man is one of a kind; kind being the operative word.

Brian came up with the idea that we should do something special for dear Angus so we chipped in and ran an ad in the Hollywood Reporter.

It said:

FORREST J ACKERMAN, RON & IRENE WAITE, BRIAN FORBES AND NEW MADE FANS CONGRATULATE "THE TALL MAN" ANGUS SCRIMM ON HIS PHANTASTIC PERPHORMANCE IN PHANTASM.

It ran in the May 4, 1979 issue. He was delighted!

In 1982, my brother came to visit me from New Jersey and we had already treated him to visiting Forry, the Universal tour, and a Christmas party at War Of The Worlds star Ann Robinson’s house. So for his birthday present in January we invited Angus over to dinner. It’s funny to look back on that night now, for my brother was scared to death. He was having dinner with the guy from Phantasm! A nervous wreck he was.

Then, after looking through the curtains a hundred time, he saw that Angus had arrived, dressed in a casual suit and tie and bearing a kiwi cream pie which he had made himself. It turns out that among his many talents, Angus was also an excellent cook. Thinking about it now, I feel honored that he would even come to my tiny apartment, enjoy the meal (and we all enjoyed that pie!) and stay and chat for several hours. I did take pictures that night but sadly they didn’t turn out well because of a camera problem.

So here was this horrible man, a terror on screen, bringing nightmares to millions, dressed impeccably and carrying a pie. He was gracious and wonderful and I always admired his talents.

As I said, his real name is Rory Guy. The Angus Scrimm he made up himself, a combination of a relative and a stage curtain (called a scrim). In "real life" he worked at Capitol Records for many years, tho few people ever knew that. His office was on the fifth floor and there he did much of his work, writing liner notes for record albums. He even won a Grammy for his efforts and was nominated several times. Basically he worked for the Angel label, a classic offshoot owned by Capitol. He was highly knowledgeable in this field but could write just about anything. He covered everyone from The Beatles to Frank Sinatra. Right before I wrote this article I pulled up an album from my own collection and found: "A Sure Thing: The Music Of Jerome Kern." And on the back, following massive lines of liner notes is the name Rory Guy.

My wife also worked at Capitol Records in the accounting department on the fifth floor and of course she knew Angus. She’d see him most every day. But no one in the building knew of his "other life". One day she was talking with one of the workers, who just happened to be a young Black man. They were talking about Phantasm and he said it was his favorite movie.

When she told him that The Tall Man worked just a few doors away he didn’t believe it. So she took him by the hand and walked to Angus’ office, tapped on the door and walked in. The poor lad nearly fainted. "Oh my God!" he said. "It is you!" Angus smiled and they were introduced. Then this poor, excited kid starts yelling, "Call me boy! Call me boy!" As people walked by they couldn’t figure out why on earth he’d want anyone to call him boy. But Angus, in true form, stood up, made that copyrighted face, pointed his finger, and with his best voice bellowed, "Booooooyyyy!" The kid nearly passed out.

Knowing Angus was indeed a treat for me. He was always helpful, funny, a delight to be around. We wrote for many years but lost contact with each other in recent years. Regardless, I try to follow his career and enjoy his work. He’s appeared in Wes Craven’s Wishmaster, Subspecies, Mindwarp, and one of the funniest spoofs I ever saw, Transylvania Twist which in my opinion was superior to Scary Movie. If you haven’t seen TT, catch it on video. It’s worth it just to see him pitch that ball!

He also played Walt Disney’s father in a TV documentary story some years back and recently was seen on Fox-TV’s Beyond Bizarre. Lately, he’s been enjoying the convention circuit and is in demand. Fangoria magazine inducted him into their Hall of Fame. He’s still very active as a writer and a myriad of other activities.

Surely, Phantasm will remain his one film to go down in memory and cinema history. All fans will remember him for that movie. As he told me at the time, "I lost someone very dear to me (while filming Phantasm in Oregon) and those scenes in the graveyard were filmed in the middle of the night. It was cold, I was sad, and I guess a combination of all my feelings came through. So if I looked even more sinister, that’s why."

Poor Kathy Lester had to be out there half naked, freezing her assets off. So again I ask, why Oregon? If The Tall Man is to go on, they have to move him to a warmer place!

Ummm...by "warmer place," you weren't by chance referring to that real warm place, were you, Ron?  No?   Just checking...

Article copyright © Ron Waite.   Photos of Angus Scrimm in makeup are the property of Ron Waite.

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