31 Days of Horror: Phantasm

Writer / director Don Coscarelli made this low budget horror film in 1978. He would later bring to the big screen such cheesy masterpieces like The Beastmaster and Bubba Ho-Tep. Here he tries to actually create a horror film that scare the crap out of you.

The story has two orphaned brothers (A. Michael Baldwin and Bill Thornbury) looking into the mysterious deaths of the residents of the small town that they live in. They suspect that the local creepy mortician they call the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) is behind it. And it's not to hard to figure out that the Tall Man is behind it. There aren't too many other tall, creepy and sinister looking suspects to choose from. With the help of his evil jawa like minions - he has very some very sinister plans for our heroes.

This horror film has a huge cult following and Coscarelli has made three sequels so far but this is the best of the bunch. With the terror of the Tall Man and the shiny metal ball that he uses to zip around through the air looking for a head to impale - along with numerous twists and turns - this movie has an unsettling creepiness about it.

Pick of the Day: Little Red Riding Hood

Not to be confused with the popular Sask-Tel advertising campaign (pictured at left), this post concerns a special kids' concert that the Regina Symphony Orchestra is presenting this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. at Conexus Arts Centre.

In the past, the RSO has presented similar concerts showcasing child-friendly works like Prokofiev's Peter & the Wolf where different musical instruments are used to represent different characters. Like the aforementioned Sask-Tel ads, which you're surely familiar with since they run constantly in pretty much every media outlet in Saskatchewan except for maybe two, this concert isn't a literal recreation of the famous fairy tale. It dates back to the Middle Ages, after all. There were no cell phones back then. No high speed internet. Stuff like that.

Similarly, this RSO concert is based on an imaginitive retelling of the fairy tale by Roald Dahl -- the author responsible for such children's classics as James & the Giant Peach and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. All the familiar characters are there, perhaps even the coded reference to female sexual awakening via the girl's red cloak which symbolizes the onset of menses, it's just that things have been twisted around a bit. Just like in those Sask-Tel ads.

To conclude, here's another imaginitive retelling of Little Red Riding Hood courtesy of Monty Python. (YouTube)