31 Days of Halloween: The Tall Man - Just Another Working Stiff in Don Coscarelli's Phantasm

There are many iconic characters of the horror genre, some that have become household names. A person may never have seen any entry in a famous film series, but still know Norman Bates of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), Leatherface of Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), Michael Myers of John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) or Jason Voorhees of Sean S. Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980). Another such character who may not be as popular, but is just as noteworthy, is the star of Don Coscarelli's 1979 Phantasm. He's an imposing figure with a deep, raspy voice, known simply as The Tall Man.

Jody Pearson (Bill Thornbury) has been caring for his little brother, Mike (A. Michael Baldwin), since their parents have died. Mike has an overwhelming fear that his brother will leave him, and he follows Jody wherever he goes, even to the funeral of Jody's friend, Tommy. Watching with binoculars, Mike is soon skeptical of the strange, lanky man (Angus Scrimm) who runs the Morningside Funeral Parlor. His distrust is based on observing the man lifting the casket -- by himself -- and placing it back inside the hearse after the funeral.

When Jody picks up a young lady at a bar, Mike trails the both of them to the Morningside Cemetery. Hiding in the nearby trees, Mike hears curious noises and is suddenly chased by what appears to be a dwarf adorned in a brown cloak (he describes it as being "little and brown and low to the ground"). Jody has trouble believing his little brother, even when Mike claims that he is attacked a second time while in the garage working on Jody's car (an achingly beautiful 1971 Plymouth 'Cuda). Determined to uncover the mystery at the funeral home, Mike sneaks in at night and has chilling encounters with The Tall Man, the pint-sized henchmen, and a floating silver sphere that... well, let's just say that it's best to run from it. It isn't long before Jody and his pal, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), join Mike to put a stop to The Tall Man's evil doings.

Coscarelli's film is a creepy and often terrifying horror gem. The sequences inside the funeral home and a mausoleum will make viewers never want to set foot inside such places again. Scrimm is perfectly cast as The Tall Man, with a performance that thrives on his staggering presence. He says very little in the film, but hearing his voice boom, "Boy!" (when he sees Mike) is more than enough to scare an audience. The other performances are satisfactory, particularly from Bannister, and the score is suitably eerie.

The director followed this successful movie with The Beastmaster (1982), which, like Phantasm, has gradually become a cult film. Coscarelli also wrote and directed three sequels, Phantasm II (1988), Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) and Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998). In 2002, Coscarelli released Bubba Ho-tep, yet another of his movies to achieve a cult following -- and with Bruce Campbell of The Evil Dead (1981) fame starring as a still-living Elvis Presley in a retirement home and battling a mummy alongside Ossie Davis, who claims to be JFK, a cult status is not surprising.