Trivia / Phantasm

• Channel Hop: First film: AVCO Embassy Pictures. Second film: Universal. Third film: Starway International Inc. Fourth film: Orion Pictures. Fifth film: Well Go Entertainment.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Germany: The Evil
  • Greece: The Ghost
  • India: Horrible Dwarfs
  • Italy: Ghosts
  • Pakistan: Zombies
  • Poland: Killer Balls
  • Turkey: Maniac
• Creator Backlash: Regarding Phantasm II, while Don Coscarelli doesn't regret making the movie overall, he has expressed disappointment in recasting Mike, believing he should've fought harder to keep A. Michael Baldwin in the role instead of recasting him.^note  Don didn't have problems working with James LeGros and still felt he did a great job playing Mike though.
• The Danza: A. Michael Baldwin as Mike and Reggie Bannister as Reggie.
• Disowned Adaptation: A. Michael Baldwin isn't too fond about discussing Phantasm II and on some occasions called it "the Phantasm that didn't happen", most likely due to the Executive Meddling that got him replaced.
• Executive Meddling: This is one reason why the second film is more straightforward, faster paced and altogether a more conventional horror film than its predecessor.
• The Foreign Subtitle:
  • Finland: Phantasm: The Horrors of the Night
• In Memoriam: Ravager was dedicated to the memory of Angus Scrimm, who played the Tall Man in all of the Phantasm movies.
• The Other Darrin: Executive Meddling replaced A. Michael Baldwin with James LeGros for the second film; Baldwin returned to the role of Mike in the third film.
• Swan Song: Ravager was the final acting credit of Angus Scrimm, who died shortly before the film's release in 2016.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Roger Avary's Phantasm's End script, which was to star Bruce Campbell and take place in a future America overrun by the Tall Man's minions. News on this project was silent for, oh, about a decade. And with the script leaked and Ravager being made, it's safe to assume it's dead.
    • Interestingly, Oblivion has two scenes that were intended as set ups to this ultimately unmade project. The first being the scene in which Reggie finds out that Jennifer's breasts are in fact spheres and gets attacked by them was directly taken from a dream sequence in that script. The other scene is one later in the film, where Mike ends up in a deserted future Los Angeles where Jody tells tells him it's not safe to be out too long due to "a risk of infection".
  • Universal wanted to recast A. Michael Baldwin and Reggie Bannister when it came for casting Phantasm II, with the studio eyeballing Jeffrey Tambor for the role of Reggie. Don Coscarelli fought to have both of them onboard, but ultimately James LeGros replaces A. Michael Baldwin as Mike.
    • Brad Pitt was one of the actors who auditioned for the role of Mike in Phantasm II.
  • Phantasm II was supposed to be much, much gorier than what was released, with most of the uncut gore popping up on the Blu-ray special features and one particular scene (the priest’s extended and bloody death) being restored for the latest box set release.
  • Phantasm Forever which was proposed by Stephen Romano. The plot would be kicked off with Mike waking from seemingly being in a coma for years while he's treated by Dr. Morningside (The Tall Man in disguise). A bit from this unproduced concept was made into the infamous Farewell To the Alamo Drafthouse video.
    • In Forever, the character of Rocky was to return (Gloria Lynne-Henry reprising) and Ashley Laurence of Hellraiser fame would have appeared as a character that was referenced all the way back in II. One of the most notable scenes in this project would have been a confrontation between A. Michael Baldwin's Mike and James LeGros' Mike.
  • Shirley Coscarelli (Don's mother) pitched her own version of the second film which involved Mike and Jody's cousin (rumored to be played by Kristy McNichol) arriving in Morningside to investigate what happened in the first film.
  • Ravager started life as Reggie's Tales, a spinoff web series.
    • Back when they were making the web series there was a scene where Reggie fights a giant dwarf played by Derek Mears. The scene was shot and edited, but was ultimately never used for the film due to the change from being a web series to a full movie.
  • A reboot film (but still taking place in the same continuity as the others) was planned in 2005 that had J. J. Abrams considered as a possible director for it.
  • An alternate ending for Lord of The Dead was filmed that provided a definitive ending to the series. In it, Reggie and Tim travel up to the wild regions of Alaska, where Reggie digs a small hole in the ice and Tim places a little case (containing The Tall Man's gold sphere) inside. Subsequently, Reggie puts a metal plaque over the hole and seals it up. The plaque reads "Here Lies The Tall Man - R.I.P.". Reggie then says "Now, all we have to worry about is global warming" and they walk off.
    • Rocky was supposed to die as well in the original ending, but after seeing an positive audience response to the character she got to live.
  • Tim was supposed to be shown in the beginning of Oblivion getting devoured alive by Lurkers. But they couldn't afford the gore effects.

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