It is an undeniable fact that Don Coscarelli is a filmmaker with balls.
The envy of many a man, Coscarelli’s balls are like no other: Big, agile, and deadly. Did I mention they were silver?
If you’re familiar with the work of this legendary director, then this reference is not lost on you. However, if you’re baffled as to how a man can have deadly silver balls, then you’ve come to the right place. Today, my dear children of the popcorn, I seek to educate you on the dreamlike madness of Don Coscarelli, a veritable icon of fright and this week’s Cult Filmmaker You Should Know.
Achieving cult status by the early 80s, Coscarelli’s career actually began with a drama film titled Jim the World’s Greatest in 1975. Written by the filmmaker at the tender age of 17, Jim served as a heartfelt tale of a boy whose world is torn apart by an abusive and alcoholic father. Although not as notable as some of Coscarelli’s works to come, the film was a significant first move in showing his ability to craft clever and intellectual cinema. It also marked the first time the filmmaker worked with actors Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm, who would become essential components in his developing filmic mythos. The acting duo’s humble beginnings in Coscarelli’s filmic debut gives almost no indicator of their place in the horror zeitgeist to come, but is a marked moment in cinema history. With Jim the World’s Greatest, Coscarelli began to lay the foundation for his career in cult and set in motion a dizzying future on the silver screen.
Coscarelli’s next effort, 1976’s Kenny & Company, continued the familial themes of his debut, but began inching ever closer to the world of genre. Set in the days leading up to Halloween, the film featured young A. Michael Baldwin as the titular Kenny, a 12-year old suffering the travails of young life and love. A charming and earnest look at childhood, Coscarelli was able to capture that era of innocence that so many of us long for after it has past.
Incursion onto innocence would be a theme of Coscarelli’s next film, and would ultimately serve as the turning point in his career. 1979’s horror landmark Phantasm gained instant notoriety and gave audiences a whole new perspective from which to consider the director. Telling the tale of Mike (played by a returning A. Michael Baldwin) and his brother’s investigation into a series of murders in their town, Phantasmdelivered to audiences a surrealistic and dreamlike vision of terror never really seen before. Featuring Angus Scrimm as the villainous Tall Man, an ethereal entity with plans to visit some unspoken evil on Mike, the film mingled the sensibilities of slasher cinema with the high art of existential thought. At the beck and call of the mysterious Tall Man were floating, otherworldly silver spheres, whizzing through the air, causing aerial death, and becoming an instant symbol of the movie’s unique approach. Audiences had never bore witness to such an abstract treat before, and Phantasm became the topic of much fan fervor and discussion. Rounding out the cast was Coscarelli regular, Reggie Bannister, as a gun-toting ice cream man with a penchant for action. In Bannister, Coscarelli had ensured that the eerie, dream-like Phantasm had an “every man” character that the audience could rally behind, and in effect made Bannister every bit the heroic icon that the Evil Dead movies made Bruce Campbell. With a powerful villain, a beleaguered victim, a fast-talking hero, and a world of endless possibilities, Phantasm was a success and unequivocally announced that Coscarelli had arrived.
The success of Phantasm was such that the film spawned no less than three sequels, each delving deeper into the psychotic dream-like world inhabited by the Tall Man and his minions. Individually, the subsequentPhantasm films are all ripe for discussion and debate, but as parts of a greater whole, they show at depth Coscarelli’s ability to craft stories on a larger scale. It is the humble opinion of this writer that while there have been many horror franchises, few have been as effectively grandiose and intellectually epic as the Phantasm story. At its best, Coscarelli has given us a true tale for the thinking man, and at its weakest, those silver balls are still damned cool.
Rumors have been abound in horror circles for ages that Coscarelli has a fifth and final Phantasm up his sleeve, yet nothing, as of this writing, has been confirmed. All I know is that if the Tall Man were to return for one final battle, many fans would be more than welcome to the idea.
In fact, Don…call me. Let’s get this ball rolling…
…or flying, as it were.
Can’t you all just see Peaches playing with balls?
…but, I digress.
Despite the enduring success of the Phantasm series, don’t for a minute think ol’ Mr. Coscarelli is a one-trick pony. To be sure, the man behind the silver spheres has made several other notable works of midnight movie greatness.
Long before I even knew who the Tall Man was, I first encountered Don Coscarelli thanks to a USA Up All Night airing of his 1982 follow-up toPhantasm, which was a sword & sandal piece called The Beastmaster. Starring Marc Singer and telling the story of a Barbarian warrior with the uncanny skill to communicate with the animals of the wild, The Beastmaster was the kind of movie every ten year old boy dreams of discovering on late night cable. Action, swords, magic, and tigers- oh my! Endlessly inventive, the film harkened back to the days of Steve Reeves-era adventure movies and was a welcome antidote to the usual vice drivel that populated the airwaves of afterhours 1980s television. Finding its own unique audience, The Beastmaster spawned a series of sequels of its own, though Coscarelli’s involvement with those was minimal. Yet, it still must be noted that if it were not for the strength of Coscarelli’s original, the franchise would have stopped dead. Therefore, the continuing endurance of the animal-friendly warrior is yet another feather in the already accomplished filmmaker’s hat.
1989 saw Coscarelli make another genre-hop, this time to the realm of the action-thriller. The movie, a survivalist adventure appropriately titledSurvival Quest, bolstered an all-star cast featuring Lance Henriksen, Catherine Keener, and Dermot Mulroney. Depicting a murderous rivalry between two groups of campers, Coscarelli delved into Lord of the Fliesterritory by revealing the disgusting, primal nature of mankind. A shocking and telling piece of cinema, Survival Quest may be Coscarelli’s least talked about from the era of the Phantasm and Beastmaster, but should by no means be discounted as his weakest. A strong story with a strong social statement, Survival Quest is the kind of film that will appeal to serious film fans and midnight moviegoers alike.
In 2003, Coscarelli proved that he was a filmmaker whose best was still to come with the release of Bubba Ho-Tep, a farcical terror adaptation of a short story by Joe Lansdale. Starring genre legend Bruce Campbell as a very much not dead Elvis in battle with an ancient mummy, the film was biting fun, mixing comedy with a heart wrenching look at aging. WithBubba Ho-Tep, Coscarelli continued to prove that good genre cinema did not have to be relegated to a one-note joke, but could be as deep and meaningful as any other film, all the while never losing sight of its need to terrorize and delight. Bubba Ho-Tep’s success helped introduce to a whole new audience a filmmaker whose work helped define a generation of genre cinema and has aided in keeping Coscarelli’s name on the tips of many tongues within the horror industry.
Showing no signs of slowing down, Coscarelli continues to forge his own unique path into the world of fright. Even as the aforementioned rumors of a fifth Phantasm continue to circulate and talks of a Bubba Ho-Tepsequel (titled Bubba Nosferatu) light up message boards across the internet, the filmmaker remains ever at work on a plethora of new and groundbreaking projects. His 2005 contribution to the Masters of Horrorseries (titled Incident On and Off a Mountain Road) saw the director reuniting with Angus Scrimm to deliver a tale of roadside horror in the short-form. The episode was well-received by critics and showed Coscarelli going to visceral places he had never before visited.
With the turn of the new decade, it was announced that Coscarelli would once again return to the big screen, directing an adaptation of the pulp horror novel John Dies at the End (spoiler in the title?), allegedly due out sometime this year.
With such a vast array of creative endeavors and many more down the pike, Don Coscarelli has won himself a legion of fans and has ensured that his name signifies some of the very best horror has to offer. For such an epic output and an endlessly bewildering sense of imagination, he is without a doubt a Cult Filmmaker You Should Know.
So, go forth, my dear children of the popcorn, and enter the dreamlike fantasy world of Don Coscarelli.
But remember to practice safe scares…
