Don Coscarelli talks the remastered version of Phantasm, as well as the franchise’s final upcoming installment.
It was in 1979 that filmmaker Don Coscarelli brought sci-fi fans one of the genres strangest film yet.
Fast forward a number of years, and Coscarelli moved onto other things.
It also gave him a chance to put a final coda on the fan favorite series.
Were you in touch with any of those other filmmakers?
You know, strangely not.
Id actually met John Carpenter back when he finished his first movie,Dark Star.
That was the intention and to have it be horrifying and to try some shock scares throughout.
I think that was basically what I was intending to do, which I think I did.
But then I didnt realize that at the same time, it would have these strange surreal qualities.
I think one of the things that madePhantasmstand out were the science fiction elements.
Maybe it wasnt until decades later that I started working with writer Joe Lansdale with hisBubba Ho-Tepbook.
Even Sam Raimi with theEvil Deadmovies, he changed genres with each one, which came out of thePhantasmmodel.
And evenNightmare on Elm Streetdid that a little.
Yeah, Im sure that mixing it up is super-important.
So did working with Joe Lansdale make you want to revisitPhantasm?
What made you want to do a fifth movie?
I would watch him these little shorts.
That would be cool.
That part of it is great, in terms of just compositing and what have you.
But generally, I was happy with how it all came out.
How did this remastered version ofPhantasmcome about?
Did JJ Abrams reach out to you?
Did you have a 35mm print of your own or how did you find it?
Angus always treasured that role.
The music, a lot of it was originally mono and now its this rich stereo.
If you like thatPhantasmscore, youre going to love what theyve done with it.
Did you still have the original audio tapes to work from?
I feel that its really hard to find it.
I imagine its on DVD but its not as easy to find as other movies.
