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In honor of Phantasm‘s 45th anniversary, the film’s original motion picture soundtrack is available on vinyl for $60 via Waxwork Records.

Drawing inspiration from Goblin‘s work in Suspiria and Mike Oldfield‘s “Tubular Bells” from The Exorcist, the synthesizer score is composed by Fred Myrow (Soylent Green) and Malcolm Seagrave.

The deluxe 3xLP album includes the expanded and complete score sourced from the original 1979 master tapes, never-before-released score cues from the Phantasm recording sessions, and the newly remastered original 1979 score album.

The records are pressed on “Silver Sphere” metallic silver colored vinyl and housed in a heavyweight triple gatefold jacket featuring artwork by Graham Humphreys and an 11×11 insert with liner notes by writer-director Don Coscarelli.

“I recently received notice that our long-term film storage vault in the basement of the historic Howard Hughes Headquarters building on the corner of Romaine and Sycamore in Hollywood was being permanently closed.

As Benjamin Franklin famously wrote, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

The horror genre offers a controlled environment in which viewers can reflect on their own morality, whether it be via catharsis or escapism, but a personal loss can complicate one’s relationship with horror. Even the most hardened of fans may struggle to find comfort in the genre after experiencing the death of a loved one.

45 years ago today, Phantasm helped viewers confront death head-on while subtly exploring the grief that accompanies it. In the film, 13-year-old Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) convinces his older brother-turned-guardian Jody (Bill Thornbury) and their affable neighborhood ice cream man, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), to investigate a mysterious mortician dubbed The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm).

Phantasm was the third feature from writer-director Don Coscarelli. The seed was planted upon witnessing the audience react to a small jump...

‘Teach your children well’ they say, but Sondra Locke’s young girl in this show is the victim of parenting so bad it verges on criminal … John Lewis Carlino’s adult murder mystery has excellent imagery courtesy of director William A. Fraker and cameraman László Kovács. But the studio ‘made changes,’ removing explicit adult content and selling the show as horror even though it’s PG and has little to shock an audience. That leaves us with a carefully underplayed drama courtesy of Robert Shaw, Mary Ure, Sally Kellerman and Signe Hasso — and a twisted sex mystery that seems obvious from the get-go. The HD transfer restores Fraker’s elaborate imagery, making us wonder what his intended version might have been.

A Reflection of Fear

All-Region Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 84

1972 / Color / 1:85 / 89 min. / Street Date October 27, 2021 / available from Amazon.au / 34.95

Starring: Robert Shaw, Sally Kellerman, Mary Ure, Sondra Locke, Signe Hasso,...

We’re on the road again with a pair of eccentric new-age hobos, the kind that just can’t hack it in polite society. Gene Hackman and Al Pacino’s conflicting acting styles get a workout in Jerry Schatzberg’s tale of drifters cursed with iffy goals; Vilmos Zsigmond’s Panavision cinematography helped it earn a big prize at Cannes.

Scarecrow

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1973 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Dorothy Tristan, Ann Wedgeworth, Richard Lynch, Eileen Brennan, Penny Allen, Richard Hackman, Al Cingolani, Rutanya Alda.

Cinematography: Vilmos Zsigmond

Film Editor: Evan Lottman, Craig McKay

Production Design: Albert Brenner

Original Music: Fred Myrow

Written by Garry Michael White

Produced by Robert M. Sherman

Directed by Jerry Schatzberg

Movie-wise, everything was up in the air in the early 1970s. The view from Westwood in West Los Angeles, then the place to go see a film,...

Just as unsettling as the Tall Man's sinister stroll in Don Coscarelli's Phantasm is the music that accompanies his steady strides. Tomorrow, Mondo and Death Waltz will release the original soundtracks to both Phantasm and Joe D’Amato's Absurd:

Press Release -- "Tomorrow we have two awesome releases from Mondo & Death Waltz Recording Co: Phantasm Original Motion Picture LP and Absurd (Rosso Sangue) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 2Xlp.

Available on Vinyl for the first time in over 35 Years, Mondo is honored to re-issue Fred Myrow & Malcolm Seagrave's iconic soundtrack to Don Coscarelli's horror classic Phantasm. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, with new artwork by Phantom City Creative and featuring all new liner notes by the film's Writer / Director.

Death Waltz Recording Company is proud to unleash another cult classic from the video nasty era (and their first in an ongoing series from the legendary Cam Records in Italy...

Just as unsettling as the Tall Man's sinister stroll down the sidewalk in Don Coscarelli's Phantasm is the music that accompanies his steady strides. Over 35 years after Phantasm first hit theaters, the folks at Mondo have announced they will release Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave's iconic horror score on a new vinyl that will be available to purchase at a 35mm screening of Phantasm this weekend with the cast and crew in attendance, as well as at Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas. A new 24"x36" Phantasm poster from Mike Saputo will also be released this weekend.

Press Release (via Badass Digest) -- "Both the vinyl and poster will be available at Alamo Drafthouse in Richardson, TX as part of a 35Mm screening with filmmaker and cast in attendance as well as the Texas Frightmare Weekend in Dallas. If this news doesn’t excite you… You’re Already Dead!

The...

With art from frequent Mondo collaborators and celebrated artists Phantom City Creative, the Phantasm score returns to vinyl this weekend in Texas. Available at the upcoming Texas Frightmare, as well as a coinciding 35Mm screening of Phantasm with filmmaker Don Coscarelli in attendance, the score from Fred Myrow & Malcolm Seagrave is pressed on 180…

The post Phantasm Returns to Vinyl; Mondo Announces Soundtrack, Screen Print appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.

As a composer, I'm quick to acknowledge the role of music in setting the tone for a horror film, and while theme songs with lyrics and vocals can be just as effective as an instrumental score, there are definitely risks involved: along with clothing and hairstyles, songs tend to anchor a film to the year it was made, and as tastes change, a pop tune can be exposed as a quaint and silly relic of its decade. Then again, some of those tracks were pretty goofy to begin with, and nothing could have saved them. With that said, I love every one of these oddball themes to death (even the truly painful ones), so I'd like to share with you the best of the weirdest, straight from one of my more... uh, let's say “eccentric” party playlists. Let's rock! Fat Boys: “Are You Ready for Freddy?” (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master,...

Above: Image from Maurice Binder's title sequence for Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

Sleep Little Lush

This follow-up to the previous soundtrack mix, Hyper Sleep, is very much the same animal: a chance gathering of mesmerizing music tracks, carefully arranged to focus on the interstitial character of film music—its ability to distill into hallucinatory moments, the most sensual or emotional qualities of a film’s nature, and amplify these sensations to increase their temporal impact. With this idea of music as intoxicant in mind, the passing this year of John Barry was a loss of one of the great “perfumers” of film composing (for more on music as perfume, see Daniel Kasman’s “Herrmann’s Perfume”). The beautiful themes that Barry scored for the world of 007 that open this collection set the spell for a kaleidoscopic (largely) 60s and 70s sample of some of the best film music written by Ennio Morricone,...

Dennis Willman is an artist's artist. The guys talent is unbelievable, just ask the guys and girls who have asked out one of his pieces of art, Ginger-Stein! Dennis does commission work, movie posters, DVD art, an art series called PlayZom (check this out), comics, he also does logo design work and art for events. Dennis is also involved in something very close to my undead heart, he is involved with Comic Book Divas and Jeff Hughes and the upcoming series "Behind the Mask" which features the likenesses of many of our favorite Scream Queens and horror film stars taking on a superhero/ villain kind of role. Read on as we talk about Dennis' beginning as an artist, his inspirations and we go behind the scenes with "Behind the Mask" and other upcoming projects from artist extraordinaire Dennis Willman.

Brian  S- Hey Dennis. Your artwork is simply amazing, how did you get this good?...

Quick, what’s the scariest horror film score out there? I’m sure a couple of no-brainers came to mind, and a few of you probably thought of something wholly original. Thanks to the Cinemagic channel on Sirius Xm, we have an official list to choose from. There are a few shocking inclusions, and a couple of omissions, one that I, myself, deem glaring.

See for yourself:

Halloween John Carpenter 1

Psycho Bernard Herrmann 2

The Shining Wendy Carlos/Assorted 3

Jaws John Williams 4

Alien Jerry Goldsmith 5

Omen, The Jerry Goldsmith 6

Bride of Frankenstein Franz Waxman 7

Thing, The Ennio Morricone 8

Exorcist, The Pendereki 9

Fog, The John Carpenter 10

Rosemary’s Baby Christopher Komeda 11

Hellraiser Christopher Young 12

Friday the 13th Harry Manfredini 13

A Nightmare on Elm Street Charles Bernstein 14

Suspira Goblin 15

Poltergeist Jerry Goldsmith 16

Changeling, The Rick Williams 17

Dawn of the Dead Assorted 18

Haunted Palace, The Ronald Stein 19

Amityville Horror, The Lalo Schifrin 20

Creepshow John...