Photo by Joel Yohn
The iconic Angus "Tall Man" Scrimm dropped in at the Loft for a special Q&A session and a screening of the horror classic "Phantasm."
The Loft Cinema in Tucson held a special screening Wednesday night of the horror classic "Phantasm." The screening of one of writer/director Don Coscarelli’s personal prints would have been enough to get most horror fans into the seats, but there was something more important to take place that night: a special appearance of “The Tall Man” himself, Angus Scrimm. After catching wind that Mr. Scrimm was going to be in Tucson working on a new movie, our friends at the Loft were able to arrange the appearance along with a screening of the first movie in the "Phantasm" series.
I was excited to be at the screening for several reasons - most importantly to meet Angus Scrimm and take pictures of the event like I often do for the Loft, but also to see "Phantasm" itself. I have always meant to see it but had never gotten around to it. I knew enough about the movie to know what people were talking about whenever it was mentioned in conversation, but it was always on my extremely long list of movies I needed to see. I still have memories of being seven years old and the television commercials being enough to give me nightmares. One day a commercial for the film aired in the early afternoon and scared my little sister so badly she started screaming. My mom was so irritated that she called the Oracle 4 theatre down the street and demanded they stop showing scary movie commercials during the day, as if they were somehow responsible. I don’t remember those commercials airing during daylight hours after that though. When she was mad my mom was way scarier than the Tall Man.
As happy as I was to finally see "Phantasm," I found out that my only opportunity to get some face time with Angus was going to be when he arrived at the theater during the movie. So unfortunately I have now only seen the first half of "Phantasm" - sigh. That first half was enough to make me need to see it on DVD as soon as I can get my hands on a copy. As I stood in the lobby of the Loft waiting for Angus to arrive, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d had some less than pleasant experiences with celebrity guests in the past. You have to feel them out a little bit to see what they are willing to cooperate with as far as photographing them goes. Also, due to Mr. Scrimm’s age, I wasn’t sure what he would feel up to doing. He showed up wearing a suit that looked fairly normal on him but was nicely reminiscent of the clothes he would wear as The Tall Man in the "Phantasm" series, appropriate but not tacky. His Andy Warhol-like thick, white-framed glasses were a different story.
He settled into one of the tables on the patio of the Loft and chatted with some of the people who run the theater and were organizing the night’s event. My friend Jeff Yanc, who normally hosts the Q & A at these events, did a little bit of pre-interview preparation by way of friendly conversation. When I asked Mr. Scrimm if he’d be alright with me taking pictures during the evening he said he didn’t mind at all. He told us the only area he really drew the line at was smoking. He refuses to smoke on camera for a part or be in a scene where someone is smoking. Between friends and family, he has lost about forty people who were close to him due to smoking. Angus also filled us in on what was going on with a high profile project he was involved in. The sequel to "Bubba Ho-Tep" is looking like it may not happen due to Bruce Campbell’s announcement last week that he would not be reprising his role as Elvis in the sequel. (I guess he doesn’t need the work after making all that Old Spice money.) This is a shame after learning from Angus that Coscarreli had written a nice meaty part for him to star alongside Campbell in the film.
We were given notice that the movie inside had reached the credits and it was time for us to move in for the Q & A. The man I met outside, who seemed old and tired, quickly came to life when he was greeted with a roar of applause and a standing ovation as he took the stage. He revealed behind the scenes info about making the "Phantasm" movies while being interviewed by Jeff in a kind of "Inside the Actor's Studio" set up. An interesting bit of minutia was revealed during the interview: Mr. Angus Scrimm is a Grammy Award winner. Years ago he’d one a Grammy for what he calls “the most insignificant” category, Best Liner Notes. He used to write the liner notes for classical albums many years ago, and in 1974 won a Grammy for “Korngold: The Classic Erich Wolfgang Korngold." And now you know.
After the Lipton-esque interview, the floor was opened to audience questions. Having attended a few Q & A’s with stars of horror films, I have come to learn that most of them aren’t really fans of the genre they are famous for and are very concerned with losing some of their street cred with their own fans once they are found out. By special request from a member of the audience, Angus finished his time on stage reading from the journal he kept while shooting on location for the first "Phantasm" film.
Afterwards, Mr. Scrimm took part in an autograph signing that lasted nearly three hours and wrapped up around midnight. The line to meet him stretched the whole length of the theatre, with a varied array of eager fans. I even saw a couple of families of Tall Man fans ranging from grandmothers down to their grandkids. The grandmothers were clearly the biggest fans in their clan.
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