FEATURE: UNLUCKY FOR SOME – 13 GREAT HORROR VILLAINS FROM THE LAST DECADE (PART ONE)

It’s Halloween this month. Horror blog time I reckon.

So, obviously I won’t finish the review, but I have been inspired to think about this genre I love.

People are always saying there’s no originality in horror any more. That its golden days are long behind us and that truly iconic villains such as Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees are a thing of the past.

Sometimes these people have a point. Major studios are certainly playing it safe most of the time, but I feel too many people are a little afraid to dig deeper. Take a chance on some of the little seen, direct to dvd or independent fare out there. There’s a whole host of terrifying boogeymen waiting to be discovered. Don’t believe me? Well allow me to enlighten you.

All of the following bad guys have appeared in films released over the last 10 years. While not all of them feature in great films, they have elevated those films through their sheer creepiness or bloody awesomeitude (it’s my blog, I can make up words if I want)

Let’s start in an obvious place, shall we?

Leslie Vernon

(Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, 2006)

As much as these blogs have become a bit of an ongoing love letter to Scott Glosserman’s fantastic deconstruction of the slasher film, I cannot ignore it’s fantastic lead.

The titular Leslie (played brilliantly by Nathan Baesal) is a marvellous creation. When depicted ‘out of character’ Leslie is likeable, enthusiastic and earnest.

But when it comes to his big night, Leslie is an entirely different beast. A cold and ruthless psychopath with his own carefully plotted ‘backstory’, Leslie is terrifying.

A lot of credit for this undoubtedly goes to his design (the childlike, blank mask is particularly unsettling, while the scarecrow-like garb and use of a sickle just add to this), but let’s not play down Baesal’s work in the role or the gorgeous camera work during his rampage at the abandoned farmhouse and orchard in Glen Echo, Maryland.

If the team behind the first film were to all get back on the same page, Leslie’s inevitable return and take on deconstructing horror franchise sequels would be all too welcome here at the House of Horrors.

So here’s the massive pain in all this — the team ARE all on the same page and DO want to do the sequel. But they can’t get the funding.

As I previously covered here on this blog, they even set up a kickstarter page to get this film made, they’re so desperate to get it done. Sadly it was unsuccessful.

So where does it stand now?

They are still working at getting the film off the ground but it has been very quiet re: progress for some time.

Will we ever see what happens after Leslie’s post-credits ‘resurrection’ in the morgue? Who knows.

At least this isn’t the case for the next fictional boogeyman on my list…

Jacob Goodnight

(See No Evil, 2006; See No Evil 2, 2014)

When 2006’s See No Evil was announced, I don’t think many people held particularly high hopes for it. It was a micro-budgeted slasher film, produced by WWE wrestling’s own studio, starring a wrestler and some budding tv actors/actresses, and directed by a man with a lot of music videos and soft-p0rn titles on his CV.

This could have been an absolute car crash.

So imagine my surprise when I watched this back-to-basics bit of popcorn horror and found myself caught up in its bleak little story.

As implausibly good looking young offenders were put through the wringer on the screen, the real star of the piece was Monday Night Raw’s own Kane, Glen Jacobs.

Much like Tyler Mane in Rob Zombie’s Halloween, Jacobs as Goodnight is a walking special effect. A real beast of a man, billed as 7ft tall and 23 stone, Jacobs doesn’t have to do much more than glare to frighten people. So it was a pleasant surprise to see him actually do much more!

However you feel about wrestling and the men that do it, they are entertainers and have decent acting ability and athleticism. And Jacobs proves to be up among the best of those to take the switch from the squared circle to silver screen.

Furthermore, the character had a suitably grim and twisted story, a penchant for plucking out his victims’ eyes, plus Jacobs used his hulking frame and a meathook on a chain to devastatingly gory effect to make Goodnight a memorable villain.

And I wasn’t the only one impressed. When WWE Studios announced it was planning to release a sequel (due out later this month), it was able to attract top scream queens Danielle Harris and Katharine Isabelle as well as the critically acclaimed Soska sisters to direct. This looks like one to watch, and if it does well as it should, surely Jacob Goodnight will be appearing on the screen again in the future.

Doll Boy

(Doll Boy, 2010; Circus of the Dead, 2014)

Speaking of slasher villains appearing onscreen soon, only this past week I discovered ‘Bloody’ Bill Pon’s brilliant short, DollBoy. Essentially a slasher film pared down to a lean mean 27 minutes (plus two completely jaw-dropping trailers… ESPECIALLY that second one that I refuse to spoil, it needs to be seen to be believed!), it follows the plight of several people kidnapped by the horrible Noodledome the clown. This group are dragged from Noodledome’s yellow van, then promptly thrown into an abandoned West Texas Mexican fleamarket that has become home to Doll Boy.

A very big man in childish attire with a creepy mask and sledgehammer as his weapon of choice (making him a smasher instead of a slasher!), the silent Doll Boy stalks his victims through his labyrinth-like home. The building adds to the creepiness, it’s full of eerie toys, a record player blasting out old-time songs, a projector screening cartoons and the physical remains of Doll Boy’s previous depravities.

I’d say that is about it, but Doll Boy is so much more than the sum of its parts. The atmosphere is incredibly unsettling while the unique look and horrific intensity of Doll Boy (as played by the imposing Sergio Gracida) make him a sterling villain.

Bloody Bill clearly impressed the right people with this effort as he is all set to release Circus of the Dead in the coming months. Once again featuring Noodledome as well as an equally grotesque group of killer clowns, it will also feature a confirmed appearance by Doll Boy himself. Here’s hoping this means the big, bad, baby-faced brute will be appearing in his own feature-length effort soon.

For those looking to see Doll Boy doing his thing in the meantime, the short (plus some very cool merchandise), is available to buy here. You will NOT regret it!

‘Craig’

(Creep, 2004)

I’ve got a couple of confessions to make here.

1)   Creep was finished and first screened a little over 10 years ago. But as it didn’t receive a wide-release until early 2005, I feel comfortable with including it here.

2)   The film itself, is actually not very good. The director, Christopher Smith, has gone on to give us the surprisingly funny and very, very dark Severance and the quite excellent Triangle, but here it doesn’t quite come together. I don’t think this is anything to do with his film-making so much as the story being told – and the fact that most of the characters in this film are massive wankers. Especially Franka Potente, the ‘heroine’.

So, with that in mind, let me explain why I’m including this film on this list.

First, I can’t help but love the setting. I travel on the London Underground on a daily basis (on the Northern Line no less, the same line on which Creep was filmed) and seeing the dark, dirty old tunnels that crisscross under the city used in a horror film makes it all a little more personal for me.

OK, the idea that somebody could fall asleep on a tube platform and A) not wake up when a train rumbled through and B) then end up locked inside the station as nobody checked the platforms before closing up, is pretty far-fetched (although I did once get off a tube into a closed station).

Second, the villain is great. A grotty and horrible cross between Gollum and a bald rat, Sean Harris (under a lot of prosthetics) bosses the role.

A deformed, mentally ill, cannibalistic hermit, ‘Craig’s’ name comes from a dirty old hospital wristband he wears. We see that he captures and stores people in the sewage system near Charing Cross Station, and has something of an affinity for rats. In fact, he is seen to feed them with any leftover body parts of his victims.

The character’s origin is strongly hinted at yet never spelled out. We discover a mysterious ‘Surgery Site 12’ underground, filled with cots and jars of foetuses. Pictures on the walls show a mysterious doctor and what looks like a deformed boy.

Furthermore, during the film’s most disturbing scene, Craig brutally murders a young woman in a horrifying imitation of an abortion. He follows surgical procedure prior to this, including the donning of gloves and robes and even places a (broken) anaesthetic mask over his victim’s face. Clearly he’s seen all this before somewhere…

Can I recommend this film? Well, us horror fans are used to picking the gems from the sewage, as it were, and this film boasts a fair few gems. Harris’s Craig is really unnerving; the Tube as a backdrop to worse horror than the usual slack-jawed gathering of tourists at the bottom of an escalator; some quite visceral gore effects and the chance to see a Holby City regular play an attempted rapist that gets chopped to bits.

That has to be worth 85 minutes of your time on a dull and rainy Sunday?

Sam

(Trick ‘r Treat, 2007)

Remember those fantastic portmanteau horror films of yesteryear? Amicus’ awesome 1960s-70s efforts such as Vault of Horrors, Asylum or Tales from the Crypt, or the Stephen King-penned Creepshow and its sequel from the 80s?

The long-delayed Trick ‘r Treat took a page from the book of these old school classics and gave us a fantastic and well-shot film that really captures the feel of Halloween (to such a degree that I now watch it every October!)

With a top cast including Tru Blood’s Sookie Stackhouse, Anna Paquin; the fantastic Dylan Baker and THE Brian Cox, it may come as a surprise to hear that the real star of the film is actually a masked child without a line of dialogue.

Cameoing in each story of the film, Sam (played by Quinn Lord) is the tiny, cute yet creepy mascot of the film. The iconic little demon in orange pyjamas and a Burlap sack mask first appeared in director Michael Dougherty’s animated short Season’s Greetings, and has since appeared in short films Halfway to Halloween, Father’s Day, Sam’s Going Back To School and Making Friends.

The reason I (and many others) love Sam, is because he’s so different to everybody else on this list. He’s small but scary, with a very cool design and a compelling air of mystery along with a great gimmick — he violently enforces the ‘rules’ of Halloween. He’s clearly a popular little chap, there is plenty of merchandise out there and it sells very well indeed.

Sam is due to return in a long awaited sequel, but first Michael Dougherty is given us another seasonal scare with Krampus, a film about Santa’s decidedly less jolly chum. Until then, I THOROUGHLY recommend adding Trick ‘r Treat to your to-watch list this Halloween.

The Collector

(The Collector, 2009; The Collection, 2012)

From frivolous fun to something altogether grimier — now let’s talk about The Collector. Written as a prequel to the Saw films, when the studio turned it down Marcus Dunston and Patrick Melton tinkered with their script… and The Collector was born.

Very much a reaction to Saw and Hostel’s torture-p0rn, the first film saw a burglar trapped in the middle of house booby trapped by a psychotic killer. A spooky, glinting eyed Collector stalked the house, bloodily disposing of the family who lived there before revealing exactly what it is that he collects during the film's shocking climax. Played by Juan Fernandez in this film, the sadistic Collector was different to slasher villains in that he was less physically imposing (his lean limbs reminded me of an oversized spider) but intelligent and cunning.

The first film did well enough financially that a sequel soon followed. Upping the ante quite significantly, the second film decided to fly in the face of any realism that might have slipped into the first (there wasn’t much to be honest) and just went mental. From the opening scene in which a nightclub is turned into a giant meat-grinder, The Collection is more fun and FAR bloodier. With Randall Archer under The Collector’s gimp mask this time, he added a different type of physicality to the role: he is bigger and seems more of your typical slasher villain, albeit one prepared to open fire on his victims with a machine gun or send trained attack dogs (or drug addled brainwashed humans) to run them down. To what purpose? Well, that revelation takes The Collector to a whole new level of bonkers!

What makes this villain stand out from the crowd (other than those very, very creepy eyes) is his unique M.O. The traps, the cunning, the hand-to-hand combat prowess — it’s like dealing with some kind of Special Forces soldier gone right off the deep end. Combine that with his ‘art’ and the Collector is a real monster.

A third film, titled The Collected has been penned, but following somewhat underwhelming box office takings from The Collection, that seems at risk.

I hope it is made, but until then The Collector and The Collection tell a story of their own that is well worth your time.

So, I know I promised you 13 and 13 you shall have… but the second part can be found here.

Let me know your thoughts on my picks so far below, plus feel free to send me any suggestions for those you think I may have overlooked.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. Alternatively, follow me on twitter: Hickey@HHouseofHorrors. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the internet so you don’t have to!

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

FEATURE: WELCOME BACK

thought was a pretty decent run on this here blog. But, provided things don’t go massively tits up, I reckon I could well be updating again quite regularly. Wouldn’t that be just swell?

And what better way to come back, than by courting controversy?

So now I’m going to fly in the face of common opinion and I’m going to reinvestigate a couple of horror properties that could do with a revisit or even a reintroduction to today’s genre fans.

So let’s get the ball rolling…

1: MANIAC COP

The misadventures of Matt Cordell are an odd thing. Those who know about the MC trilogy often speak of the films with fondness and a misty eyed nostalgia. Yet there really aren’t that many of them.

The film series did pretty well first time around. For those unfamiliar, the original 1988 film (starring none other than the legendary BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE CAMPBELL) spawned two sequels and made a decent, if not earth-shaking amount of money.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it followed police officer Matt Cordell, a tough no nonsense cop who would shoot first and ask questions… well, never, because he’d shot everybody. The twisty-turny back story revealed that Matt was framed by his superiors and sent to the notorious Sing Sing penitentiary after he came close to uncovering corruption among the upper echelons of the police force and city hall.

Needless to say, Matthew was not very popular among his fellow inmates, and despite being a great big badass (played by the great Robert Z’Dar, the man with the biggest jawbone in HISTORY), he got promptly shivved with a shank or shanked with a shiv (so, I’ve never done time! How am I meant to know???) during shower time.

Of course, this is a horror film, so he rose from near death and became consumed with a burning rage and need for vengeance. However, he also seemed to just kill lots of innocent bystanders for reasons that are never clearly explained.

Where Maniac Cop and its American police force baiting antics (several police representatives condemned the film for its portrayal of a monstrous bobby) really came into its own, was the sheer coolness of the way Cordell would dispatch victims. Not just the typical lumbering, Voorhees-esque hulk slasher, Cordell showed some dexterity and imagination. He actually used his policing skills and tools of the trade (including a really rather spiffy, if non-regulation blade inside his nightstick) from his backstory to help him stand out from the crowd. THAT’S what I’m talking about!

Best case in point: casually handcuffing a yuppy’s hands behind his back, then pushing his face into wet cement. YES!

And now the clincher… you know how Jason, Freddy, Myers et al have their own trademark musical stings? Cordell had a theme tune too!

WELCOME TO BIG SCHOOL.

Add in some plot tomfoolery involving citizens becoming terrified of the force assigned to protect them, a doomed love story (seriously) and, um, voodoo and you’ve got a rich smorgasbord to pick and choose the tastiest cuts from.

A couple of years ago it even seemed that something might be happening with the property too, as first a sequel, then a remake were rumoured, but since then all has gone VERY quiet.

I think it’s too late for a sequel, so I’m going to go the whole way and say this one is RIPE for remaking.

It’s a semi-recognisable property and today’s more gory and brutal take on slayings could really add a level of cruel darkness that a story with so many shady and amoral characters richly deserves.

Just keep the theme tune, dude. Keep the theme tune.

2: THE STRANGERS

Five years ago, when I sat down in the cinema to watch The Strangers, I didn’t expect that much. It starred Liv Tyler, already a pretty recognisable name, and seemed to have crept into cinemas. I thought I’d get a fairly creepy thriller masquerading as a terrifying horror film, kind of like Robert De Niro’s Hide and Seek.

What I got was a need to change my pants.

Such was its greatness, The Strangers pretty much kickstarted the modern trend for Home Invasion horror films (although it wasn’t first by a long stretch, it was certainly the most successful).

The film traded on tension and near heart-crushing suspense, it featured actual human characters who behaved like real people, and three of the most terrifying yet realistic antagonists I’ve ever seen.

As if that wasn’t enough, it even made folk music scary.

Yes it did.

Furthermore (and more importantly to people who value cold hard cash more highly than eerie banjo strings… um, so EVERYBODY then), it became a sleeper hit, more than doubling its budget at the box office in its opening weekend.

With that kind of performance and host of questions left unanswered (including the final fate of our leads), surely it was just a matter of time until the wheels started moving on a sequel, right?

OF COURSE!

A script was quickly knocked up (reviews can be found all over the internet and if somebody can find a link to the script online, please hit me up with it!), a director was found and then… NOTHING.

It seems that when Rogue Pictures, the company that were poised to film the sequel was purchased by Relativity Media, its new owners weren’t sure if The Strangers Part 2 was a good fit for them.

WHAT.

What kind of company isn’t sure if a project that will almost certainly make money is a good fit for them?

So there it is. A film well and truly languishing in development limbo.

Perhaps one day we’ll see The Man In The Mask, Pin-Up Girl and Dollface back terrorising more victims on the big screen. Maybe we’ll find out exactly what became of Kristen. 

Until then, the only motive we have for the chilling events of the first film is the one given by Dollface — ‘Because you were home.’

3: CHOPPING MALL

This film, right here, is something that could only have been dreamed up during the carefree, ‘we’ll make anything because we’re all coked up off our brain’ era of the 80s. It’s a concept that is so, so beautiful.

Some stupid teenagers decide to have an after-hours party in the shopping mall where they work… despite the fact that the mall now has some state-of-the-art, mechanical security robots.

WHAT.

THE.

FUDGE?

So during the raucous party that consists of several awkward looking 30 year olds trying to dance like teenagers to synth heavy electropop, then taking off their tops, lightning strikes the control centre and causes the robots to go BATSHIT and KILL EVERYBODY.

You wish this film was your brainchild, don’t you?

You do.

YOU DO.

First some background. The film was originally released to an abysmal reception under the title Killbots. When somebody came up with the puntastic new title, they hurriedly edited the film (cutting 15 minutes from it’s already slim running time), then re-released it and it did brilliantly.

Despite the fact that there is no chopping at all. The killbots don’t chop anybody.

This vexes me.

Perhaps a little irritatingly, this film has been set for a remake.

‘But that’s not irritating? In fact, that’s exactly what this whole feature is about, you great big bi-polar freak!’ I hear you cry.

And you’d be right… IF they hadn’t said that the new film will NOT feature awesome killbots and will have a supernatural menace instead.

So it’s not a remake, is it? It’s a different film set in a mall with the same title. It’s like saying: ‘We’re going to remake The Night of the Living Dead, but instead of having zombies putting a farmhouse under siege, we’re going for a giant crocodile stalking the guests in a luxury hotel!’

To make matters worse, if you’ve seen the brilliant Cabin In The Woods, the more eagle-eyed among you may have spotted a robotic menace brutally dispatching victims among the carnage of ‘the Purge’ sequence towards the film’s conclusion. This robot was a direct nod to the superb killbots of Chopping Mall fame and showed just how well today’s special effects could bring the murderous machines to life in a modern day interpretation of the film.

It’s the advances in special effects that really make this film so well-suited to a remake. Aside from one (admittedly superb) kill, Chopping Mall never really delivers on the promise of killbots murdering the crap out of people in a shopping mall. Let’s get some truly spectacular villainous robots, a more convincing cast, a little more social commentary and most of all, some actual CHOPPING out there.

Or we could just watch a film with a giant crocodile stalking the guests in a luxury hotel. That too.

4: BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON

Those of you that were around here when I last posted know that this is one of those rare occasions where we could actually see the sequel that I’m after. But for those of you that missed out on the first film (and for this I respectfully call you a STUPIDHEAD), let me enlighten you. First off you can forget Scream and The Cabin in the Woods, if you want the definitive referential, metafilm in the horror genre, Behind the Mask is the place to go.

It’s the story of a documentary team who follow the title’s Leslie Vernon as he prepares for a killing spree to make his name as legendary as horror’s real big hitters. The film is packed with references to classic titles (Halloween, Friday the 13^th and A Nightmare On Elm Street), plus a loving look at the tropes of the genre.

It combined a smart script, lovely touches to explain the usual nonsensical goings-on of horror films and, most importantly, a damn scary final act. As the final credits rolled (and even these featured an excellent horror cliché done well) Leslie looked all set to launch a franchise like those same icons he was so inspired by.

But chuff all happened.

Perhaps this is because the people that made the film had no more story to tell?

Balls, they didn’t.

They have written a script and secured a cast and crew.

The problem, it would seem, is financing. SIGH.

Once again, some complete moron somewhere isn’t sure that this film could do well enough to warrant a pretty tiny investment.

Yet even this hasn’t swayed the film’s makers. They want to make this film so much, they even looked at raising the production costs themselves.

Last year I linked to the film’s kickstarter page, where a donation would reward supporters with a range of rewards, from having your name in the film’s end credits to an exclusive edition of the DVD to even appearing in the film!

Alas, the kickstarter campaign failed to raise the requisite level of funding, but the makers are still scraping together financial backing and seem determined to get this thing made. Before the Mask (as the film has been titled) has its own Facebook page.

Interestingly, the creators refer to the film as a ‘spreemake’, saying it is kind of a prequel, sequel and reboot combined. This is something I need to see made. Luckily, much like the murderous Leslie, it seems that nothing can keep Before the Mask down.

Here’s hoping, but until then, focus on your cardio. Leslie would approve. 

5: THE BURNING

Now I could give you the rundown on the plot of this film, but instead I’m going to shamelessly pop the link to my review of this 80s slasher classic right HERE.

The Burning is one of the veritable AVALANCHE of Friday the 13^th clones that flooded video shops in the 80s. It gained some notoriety for getting caught up in the ‘video nasty’ furore due to its gruesome ‘raft massacre’ sequence.

It’s cheap, silly, gory, the cast mainly consists of people with bull’s-eyes painted on their heads, the music is horribly dated and the baddy is a true cinema boogeyman. And that is about all it has going for it.

Which is why I think a remake could be such a great idea. It is already semi-recognisable, it has a selling point (from a story so extreme it was banned for years!) and, well, here’s the kicker — the first film was pretty silly so why not embrace that? Here’s my take.

Set the film in the 80s. LOAD it with self referential tongue in cheek humour like the Piranha remake released three years ago (or better yet, go full-on Grindhouse with it, deliberately making as schlocky a film as possible). I want something that gels with Hobo With A Shotgun here. (This is what the world needs — more films that gel with Hobo With A Shotgun and pizzaburgers. Yes please.)

I’m talking gratuitous nudity, a bit of fun poked at 80s fashions and technology, a whole host of well-crafted one liners and a version of the demonic Cropsy that todays effects can bring to life. Think a cross between The Hills Have Eyes/Wrong Turn’s inbred wildmen crossed with some truly horrific burns a la the Dark Knight’s Two-Face or the Elm Street remake’s new-look Freddy. With shears.

It could be the BEST beer film for a group of lads to have fun with or for groups of teens to both squeal with laughter or terror.

Let’s just try not to cast any RnB singers or rappers in this. We know what happens when they get involved in horror films.

Well, unless Snoop Dogg wants to play the Superfly Pimpin’ Shaft MD orderly at the beginning. He’d OWN that.

6: PHANTASM

Right, put your shotgun/chainsaw/killer orb down and hear me out here.

First, I am not suggesting that we remake this legit horror classic. Hell no. Not in the slightest.

That would be like remaking Halloween, My Bloody Valentine, The Hills Have Eyes, Black Christmas, Friday the 13^th, The Last House On The Left, Dawn of the Dead, The Haunting, The Fog, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Amityville Horror, The Evil Dead or The Omen!

Oh.

No, what I’m suggesting is that we get what we were promised YEARS ago.

For those unfamiliar with The Phantasm franchise and the ongoing battle between Mike and Reggie and The Tall Man and his sinister army of flying chrome balls(!), I refer you to my comment in the Behind The Mask section above. Thank you.

Don Coscarelli’s microbudgeted 1979 classic (and its sequels) is a trippy, dreamlike journey into, well, an odd sci-fi/horror hybrid featuring the simply AWESOME Angus Scrimm as the dimension travelling Tall Man, whose plan involves turning the dead into dwarf minions and conquering the world.

I told you it was trippy.

The films are brilliant, truly imaginative and the complex (and very weird) backstory weaves an interesting tale that slowly but surely adds more layers to the premise of the psychedelic original.

The last film, OblIVion (it was film IV in the series, see!) had a bizarre but poignant open ending. I don’t mind those, in fact, some of the very greatest films get you to do some of the work.

And (despite the evident low budget afforded to the 4^th film) this ending would have been fine… if we hadn’t heard about Phantasm 1999AD/Phantasm’s End.

You see, hot off of winning an Oscar for his work on the screenplay of Pulp Fiction, Roger Avary was a BIG DEAL. He was able to pick and choose his projects… and he chose a labour of love.

A self professed Phan of the series, Avary wrote a sequel to the third film that can only be described as balls-out, arse-slapping genius (although I may be the only person to describe it in that way).

Get this, in the not to distant future, the Tall Man is on the verge of complete victory. Now there are just three states remaining in the United States: New York on the East Coast; California over on the West; and in the middle, The Plague Zone. This is the area that has fallen to The Tall Man’s inexorable march. It has earned its name from a mysterious disease, caused by The Tall Man’s gross yellow embalming fluid, known as the Bag Virus. Carriers of the disease (known as Baggers) see their head slowly decay and fill with pus until, eventually, it can’t take the pressure any longer and explodes, spraying Bag Virus carrying ooze over anybody stupid enough to be within range.

As such the US Government has built walls, keeping the Baggers away from the crumbling civilisations in LA and NY.

Eventually the government has enough (despite having an agreement with the Tall Man whereby social outcasts and criminals are cast into the Plague Zone) and assembles a crack squad of badasses, led by series hero Reggie — who is still haunted by nightmares regarding what became of best bud Mike, to travel into the Plague Zone — all the way to The Tall Man’s gargantuan mausoleum fortress and detonate a ‘universe-destroying bomb’ in the Tall Man’s dimension, ending the threat once and for all.

I know, awesome right?

There were even talks that Phantasm 1999AD (as it was then known) could become a trilogy itself. GOLD.

But then, guess what?

Go on, bet you can’t.

Yep, finances became a problem. SIGH AGAIN.

In the end series runner Don Coscarelli wrote, directed and produced OblIVion (for about $600,000!) as a stop gap, aiming to set the stage for the eventual release of Avary’s film (now retitled Phantasm’s End as 1999 stsrted to loom ever nearer). Certain plot elements that would be addressed in final film are even hinted at in Coscarelli’s sequel.

As if to make the eventual crushing disappointment worse, rumours swirled that BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE CAMPBELL would be playing one of the aforementioned military badasses on the mission and that there might also be a monkey on the team.

WHAT.

Anyway, after Don said he thought he’d be able to deliver the huge scope and awesome of the film for a relatively small $8m, people sat back and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Since then, we’ve had nothing but rumours. Coscarelli himself has said Phantasm is over, but he’s also said the fan demand is such that it may have to happen. He’s written SEVERAL drafts of sequels to the series and even teased us all with a video clip showing Angus Scrimm and A. Michael Baldwin in character as The Tall Man and Mike respectively.

But still nothing.

As ghoulish as it may sound to say, according to Angus Scrimm’s imdb entry, he is now 87 years old (albeit in rude health and still pretty spritely). If the Phantasm sequel is to be made, it needs to be made sooner, rather than later.

Because if it needs one thing, only one, it is the great Angus’s trademark delivery of the line: ‘Booooooooyyyyyyyyyyyyy!’

So, any thoughts on my proposed list? Does this stuff float your boat or do you think it’s an entirely different kind of floater?

Feel free to drop any comments below.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.