The Tall Man talks

>> A chat with horror icon Angus Scrimm of the Phantasm films

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Appearances can be so deceiving. Take Angus Scrimm. He's the actor who plays the Tall Man, the menacing, mysterious bogeyman around whom the Phantasm films revolve. As I dial him up at his California residence, I visualize him rising from his dusty coffin, ready to clutch his cobwebbed phone and, in his trademark sepulchral growl, demand, "Why do you disturb my slumber... booooooy!"

The Angus Scrimm with whom I spoke is anything but. Soft-spoken, patiently articulating his thoughts, he's clearly a gentle and thoughtful soul. Asked to explain the cult appeal of the series, the fourth instalment of which has its world premiere at Fant-Asia this Friday, Scrimm waxes philosophical: "It's probably still the most offbeat of the horror genre," he says. "It deals subliminally, or perhaps even more strongly than that, with the subject of death. I think its fascination is this, that it appeals to young people who aren't really ready, on a conscious level, to deal with death.

"Young people, we're told by psychologists, consider themselves indestructible... but there's always that nagging doubt. The Tall Man is really just a representation of death. The character of Mike is a young boy--a character every boy his age could identify with--who's lost his family. He has these dreams, these hallucinations, without the mind to cope with the concept of death. I think that's the running theme of the films."

There's more to it than that, though. The Phantasm films benefit from a number of enticing aspects. It's clear that writer/director Don Coscarelli understands that the essence of a good fright show isn't simply the unexpected--although he's more than happy to have this or that creepy freak jump out of nowhere for maximum "boo!" effect. The real key is the unexplained, the mystery left to the viewers for interpretation. Pat endings, neat tie-ups and simple answers are fine for Scooby-Doo episodes, but they steal vital spook factors away from more serious efforts.

Accentuating the ambiguity in the Phantasm films is the clearly defined simplicity of its cast and setup. Essentially, the characters are limited to the Tall Man, the boy Mike and the quadruple-shotgun-toting ice cream vendor Reggie. After the death of his parents and brother at the hands of the Tall Man, Mike enlists Reggie (and a wicked cool black Hemicuda muscle car) to pursue the otherworldly villain. It seems the Tall Man has been going from town to small, isolated town in the Northwest U.S., setting up shop in the local cemetery and turning the population into jawa-esque undead trolls.

A new character or two pops up in each film, in the interest of propelling the storyline along, but that strikes many as tampering with Phantasm's perfect simplicity. "It's interesting that the fans often object when new characters are introduced," notes Scrimm. "They didn't like the zombies in Phantasm 2 at all. I thought they were hilarious. But the fans really want the story pared down to the characters it began with."

Coscarelli has another trick to keep 'em coming back, and a mischievous one at that. Each film ends with a jarring cliffhanger. It's a testament to the quality of the movies that fans are willing to wait out the years between each release for the resolutions... which in turn establish new confounding mysteries.

The long waits are not of Coscarelli's making, though. They're the result of the painfully familiar story of studio tangles that have plagued the series since its initial success as a low-budget indie breakthrough in 1979. Ah, the good old days. "Phantasm was financed by Don's father, who is a financial consultant. It was shot on weekends, because Don could rent the cameras on a Friday and keep them through 'til Monday morning for the price of a one-day rental.

"The film was picked up by a very resourceful studio called Avco Embassy. They were losing money on every other film they distributed, so they were very keen to see it succeed. They sent Don and I around the U.S. on five separate trips to various regional areas, and it just gathered steam immediately. It became a huge hit with moviegoers. I think it was a number one hit--oddly enough--in Paris, where it played for weeks on end. It was a hit in Spain, Germany and even the Philippines."

Unfortunately, Phantasm 2 and 3 suffered through major studio meddling. With the latest film, Phantasm: OblIVion, Coscarelli has returned to the creatively satisfying, if financially frustrating, indie leagues.

As our conversation veers to the lamentable state of the horror film in the late '90s, with its dependence on gore and sexual violence, it becomes clear that Scrimm is cut from the same cloth that once gave us such grand old men of mystery as Karloff, Price and Chaney. It's no surprise that Scrimm cites old b&w fright fests such as Frankenstein and The Black Cat as his own favourites of the genre, as well as exercises in atmosphere such as The Haunting. To him, the Phantasm films stay afloat largely due to their originality--a rare commodity these days. "There's been such a proliferation of horror films since the late '70s and early '80s that I'm wondering where the imagination will come from that will produce something new, since almost every angle has been exploited again and again."

Then again, there's a wealth of scares to be found right there on the daily news. I ask Scrimm what could possibly scare the Tall Man, and his answer is a surprising one. He remarks on the excessive ultraviolence in films and on American TV, a dangerous catalyst in a country where kids have far-too-easy access to firearms--an unusual remark from someone in the horror biz. But there's something out there that scares him even more.

"Kenneth Starr terrifies me. The fact that a man can obtain so much power that he can actually hinder the work of the President, over a little matter of whether he had a sexual relationship with a 21-year-old intern, which is legal age down here, and then was discrete enough to say he didn't, to protect his wife's sensibilities, and the country's sensibilities. Everyone seems to think he did; he says emphatically that he didn't, and I tend to believe him. I can't imagine he'd be that stupid.

"But if he did, it isn't a matter of perjury when he says he didn't, it's a very valid discretion to which every human being should have a right. I don't think we should have to open up our sexual lives to the world. I am horrified that this is going on in the U.S., and that Starr has already spent more than $50 million of the taxpayer's money investigating the charge."

Phantasm: OblIVion premieres at the Imperial as part of Fant-Asia Friday, July 31, at 9:20pm.