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Phantasm (film)
''Phantasm'' is a 1979 American science fantasy horror film that was directed, written, photographed, and edited by Don Coscarelli. The first film in the ''Phantasm'' franchise, it introduces the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), a supernatural and malevolent undertaker who turns the dead of Earth into dwarf zombies to be sent to his planet and used as slaves. He is opposed by a young boy, Mike (Michael Baldwin), who tries to convince his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) and family friend Reggie (Reggie Bannister) of the threat. ''Phantasm'' was a locally financed independent film; the cast and crew were mostly amateurs and aspiring professionals. Though initial reviews were mixed in regard to the dreamlike, surreal narrative and imagery, later reception was more positive and the film became a cult classic. It has appeared on several critics' lists of best horror films, and it has been cited as an influence on later horror series. It was followed by four sequels: ''Phantasm II'' (1988 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Coscarelli
Don Coscarelli Jr. (born February 17, 1954) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born to Italian settlers in Libya, he is best known for his work in horror films. His directing credits include the first four films in the ''Phantasm'' franchise, as well as ''The Beastmaster'' (1982) and ''Bubba Ho-Tep'' (2002). Biography Coscarelli was born to Italian settlers in Libya and raised in Southern California. Although his family was not connected with the motion picture business, he was fascinated with cameras and filmmaking at an early age. Long before he was old enough to attend film school, his short films, made with the help of neighborhood friends in his hometown of Los Alamitos, California , were winning prizes on television. At the age of 19, Coscarelli became the youngest director to have a feature film distributed by a major studio when he sold his independently produced drama ''Jim the World's Greatest'', to Universal Pictures. The film was the first ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord Of The Dead
''Lord of the Dead'' is a collection of crime short stories by Robert E. Howard. It was first published in 1981 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 1,250 copies. The stories are pastiches of Sax Rohmer Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in Da .... Contents * "Introduction—From Limehouse to River Street", by Robert E. Briney * "The Lord of the Dead" * "Names in the Black Book" * "The Mystery of Tannernoe Lodge", with Fred Blosser References * * {{Robert E. Howard 1981 short story collections Short story collections by Robert E. Howard Donald M. Grant, Publisher books ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Bradbury
Ray Douglas Bradbury (; August 22, 1920June 5, 2012) was an American author and screenwriter. One of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers, he worked in a variety of modes, including fantasy, science fiction, horror, mystery, and realistic fiction. Bradbury wrote many works and is widely known by the general public for his novel ''Fahrenheit 451'' (1953) and his short-story collections ''The Martian Chronicles'' (1950) and ''The Illustrated Man'' (1951). Most of his best known work is speculative fiction, but he also worked in other genres, such as the coming of age novel ''Dandelion Wine'' (1957) and the fictionalized memoir ''Green Shadows, White Whale'' (1992). He also wrote and consulted on screenplays and television scripts, including ''Moby Dick'' and ''It Came from Outer Space''. Many of his works were adapted into television and film productions as well as comic books. ''The New York Times'' called Bradbury "the writer most responsible for bringing modern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Something Wicked This Way Comes (novel)
''Something Wicked This Way Comes'' is a 1962 dark fantasy novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about two 13-year-old best friends, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, and their nightmarish experience with a traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern home, Green Town, Illinois, on October 24th. In dealing with the creepy figures of this carnival, the boys learn how to combat fear. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr. Dark", who seemingly wields the power to grant the townspeople's secret desires. In reality, Dark is a malevolent being who, like the carnival, lives off the life force of those they enslave. Mr. Dark's presence is countered by that of Will's father, Charles Halloway, the janitor of the town library, who harbors his own secret fear of growing older because he feels he is too old to be Will's dad. The novel combines elements of fantasy and horror, analyzing the conflicting natures of good and evil that exist within all individuals. Unlike many of Bradbury's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortean Times
''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (2005 to 2021), and Exponent (2021), it is now published by Diamond Publishing, part of Metropolis International. In December 2018, its print circulation was just over 14,800 copies per month. This now appears to include digital sales. The magazine's tagline is "The World of Strange Phenomena". History Origin The roots of the magazine that was to become ''Fortean Times'' can be traced back to Bob Rickard's discovering the works of Charles Fort through the secondhand method of reading science-fiction stories: :" John Campbell, the editor of '' Astounding Science Fiction'' (as ''Analog'' was then titled), for example," writes Rickard "encouraged many authors to expand Fort's data and comments into imaginative stories." In the mid-1960s, while Rick ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenny And Company
''Kenny & Company'' is a 1976 American comedy-drama film directed by Don Coscarelli. It stars A. Michael Baldwin and Reggie Bannister, who would both later star in Coscarelli’s '' Phantasm''. Plot summary The film covers the four days before Halloween as Kenny and his best friend Doug (both 12 years old) and awkward 11-year-old Sherman prepare for the holiday. They spend time playing flag football and skateboarding. The three boys must deal with a local bully, and Kenny gets his first crush on a girl. Kenny's beloved but elderly dog dies. The boys debut their costumes on Halloween, set off firecrackers as pranks, attend a neighbor's haunted house, and go trick-or-treating. The night culminates as they try to play a trick on an old woman who lives in a spooky, run-down house. Cast * Dan McCann as Kenny * A. Michael Baldwin as Doug * Jeff Roth as Sherman * Ralph Richmond as Big Doug * Reggie Bannister Reginald Horace "Reggie" Bannister (born September 29, 1945) is an American ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. When Buñuel died at age 83, his obituary in ''The New York Times'' called him "an iconoclast, moralist, and revolutionary who was a leader of avant-garde surrealism in his youth and a dominant international movie director half a century later". His first picture, ''Un Chien Andalou''—made in the silent era—is still viewed regularly throughout the world and retains its power to shock the viewer, and his last film, ''That Obscure Object of Desire''—made 48 years later—won him Best Director awards from the National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics. Writer Octavio Paz called Buñuel's work "the marriage of the film image to the poetic image, creating a new reality...scan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alejandro Jodorowsky
Alejandro Jodorowsky Prullansky (; born 17 February 1929) is a Chilean-French avant-garde filmmaker. Best known for his 1970s films '' El Topo'' and '' The Holy Mountain'', Jodorowsky has been "venerated by cult cinema enthusiasts" for his work which "is filled with violently surreal images and a hybrid blend of mysticism and religious provocation". Born to Jewish-Ukrainian parents in Chile, Jodorowsky experienced an unhappy and alienated childhood, and so immersed himself in reading and writing poetry. Dropping out of college, he became involved in theater and in particular mime, working as a clown before founding his own theater troupe, the ''Teatro Mimico'', in 1947. Moving to Paris in the early 1950s, Jodorowsky studied traditional mime under Étienne Decroux, and put his miming skills to use in the silent film ''Les têtes interverties'' (1957), directed with Saul Gilbert and Ruth Michelly. From 1960 onwards he divided his time between Mexico City and Paris, where he co-fo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Kenneth Muir
John Kenneth Muir (born December 3, 1969) is an American literary critic. As of 2022, he has written thirty reference books in the fields of film and television, with a particular focus on the horror and science fiction genres. Biography Born December 3, 1969, Muir began his full-time writing career in 1996, penning several books for the North Carolina-based publisher of scholarly reference books, McFarland & Company. Muir also has written monographs about SF-TV, including ''Exploring Space: 1999 (''1997), ''An Analytical Guide to Battlestar Galactica'' (1998), ''A Critical History of Dr. Who on TV'' (1999), ''A History and Critical Analysis of Blake's 7'' (1999) and ''An Analytical Guide to TV's One Step Beyond'' (2001). Muir was educated at the University of Richmond in Virginia from 1988 to 1992, where he studied for two years under renowned ''Hudson Review'' film critic, Bert Cardullo (a student of The New Republic's film critic Stanley Kauffmann). Muir also counts Paulin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reggie (Phantasm)
Reggie is a fictional character from the ''Phantasm'' series of horror films. In all of his appearances, Reggie has been portrayed by Reggie Bannister. Concept and creation Writer/director Don Coscarelli wrote the character for Reggie Bannister and based it on their friendship. They then pushed the character into new directions, divergent from Bannister's personality. Bannister describes the character as an everyman. According to Coscarelli, everyman characters like Reggie are important, because they ground the film and allow humor to unfold. Bannister further described the character as written to be extremely loyal; Bannister says that Coscarelli "wrote this character to be every guy's guy, every man's friend, the guy that would throw himself on the flames to the door of hell to save a friend." The character was named after Bannister himself, as Coscarelli liked to draw characters from his own experiences. Instead of struggling to find a unique name, Coscarelli named him af ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States. The publication has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes. It is owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by the Times Mirror Company. The newspaper’s coverage emphasizes California and especially Southern California stories. In the 19th century, the paper developed a reputation for civic boosterism and opposition to labor unions, the latter of which led to the bombing of its headquarters in 1910. The paper's profile grew substantially in the 1960s under publisher Otis Chandler, who adopted a more national focus. In recent decades the paper's readership has declined, and it has been beset by a series of ownership changes, staff reductions, and other controversies. In January 2018, the paper's staff voted to unionize and final ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demographic. The newspaper reported a weekly readership of 545,500. It is part of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and it emulates the typical publications of the 1960s counterculture movement. History The ''Chronicle'' was co-founded in 1981 by Nick Barbaro and Louis Black, with assistance from others who largely met through the graduate film studies program at the University of Texas at Austin. Barbaro and Black are also co-founders of the South by Southwest Festival, although the festival operates as a separate company. The paper initially was published bi-weekly, and later weekly. Its precursor in style and format was the ''Austin Sun'', a bi-weekly that had ceased operations in 1978, after four years of publication. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
