The Phantasm Archives at PhantasmFilms.com

DUSTIN: In your own words, Stephen, please identify yourself for the phans out there.

STEPHEN: Well, let's see here . . . I am a professional writer and musician residing in Austin, Texas, where sparks fly in the streets with filmmakers such as Robert Rodriguez, Richard Linklater and Quentin Tarantino making their films, holding festivals and generally kicking all kinds of ass. I was a vital part of the festival scene for several years at the turn of century. (I love saying that! Makes me feel a million years old!) That was at the end of a great and bizarre period in my career, when I had spent several years working on mostly sound and sound-related projects. My big claim to fame at that time was an audio adaptation of Sam Keith's million selling comic series THE MAXX, and I did lots of other stuff, such as soundtrack album re-releases and tribute albums to film director Lucio Fulci. My first novel INVASION OF THE MUTANOIDS came out in 1997. In 1998, I met Coscarelli for the first time at a Fango convention and was determined to get involved with his future film efforts. This is how I've always played the game of life. Just getting out there and seeing what happens. I never went to collage or took classes on how to be a screenwriter. I just did it. I absorbed as much as I could by doing and learning from the success and failures of others. I kicked ass at just about everything I ever set out to do . . . but a lot of it was leading me to my professional association with Don. He gave me my first big break in the film business. Sometimes this road I have chosen is very hard. But I am here to tell each and every Phan who is reading the words I write now: Anything Is Possible If You Want It Bad Enough. In other words, get out there and NEVER GIVE UP.

DUSTIN: When did you first see Phantasm and what was your reaction?

STEPHEN: I saw it when I was thirteen on an old VideoDisc SelectaVision machine. Not a laser player, but one of those crappy Captaince Electronic Disc systems that popped and skipped like and old record. I'll never forget the experience. The characters, the weird dreamy quality--man, the MUSIC knocked me on my ass. I sat, slackjawed, staring at the static-filled screen for ten full minutes after the final credits had rolled and was indescribably moved in a way I'd never been moved by any film before. It was the open-ended way the film allowed you to interpolate the deeper meaning of what was going on--the doomed, freewheeling dream-within-a-dream logic that ruled the story and plot. No other horror film is like it in that way. And the whole Graverobbers from Outer Space thing was just fucking CRAZY, man. There was also something in the performances and the dialogue that was otherworldly, yet strangely familiar. It was my first "art film" experience. The funny thing was, as a younger child, I had seen a preview on TV for a PHANTASM 2, and so I returned to the video store and asked if they had a copy to rent . . . and, of course, I learned that there was NO PHANTASM 2 (not yet, anyway, this was 1983, people) . . . and then I started to wonder . . . had I just DREAMED the preview on TV? I still wonder to this day. You can imagine my excitement when PII actually came out, and I was eighteen years old and on my own in the big bad world, beginning my career in film as a dishwasher in a local dive, and working on my first novel by day.

DUSTIN: How did you wind up making 'Incident on and Off a Mountain Road' with Don?

STEPHEN: I met him, as I mentioned, at Fangoria's Weeend Of Horrors in New York City in early 1998. I became fast friends with Reggie Bannister also that weekend, as many Phans do because he is so awesome . . . and the next year I pitched him the PHANTASM-ANIA film fest idea, which he then passed on to Don. Since I knew Reg and Don and Angus would be my guests in Austin for a week or so during the show, I did something really insane: I collected all the loose hanging ideas I had about a new P film and wrote not one but THREE full one-hour scripts, which I pitched to Don casually one night when we were unwinding after the show as possible episodes for a TV series. I had done a really cool comic book for the film fest---it was a program guide with a three page comic story and really cool art---and so he knew I wasn't some dumbfuck messing around and took my scripts home and read them. To my surprise, he really, really liked what I had written, and turned me loose to adapt them into a four-issue comic miniseries. I did that while Don went off and made BUBBA HO-TEP, and later Don published my comic. Then, when we opened at ComicCon later that year, he took me aside and asked if I would work with him on a new PHANTASM script, which fucking blew my mind. So we worked on that for a bit . . . and as the years went by, we got more and more comfortable with one another, and by the time he was offered "Incident," we had done a lot of hours together as collaborators, so it was natural that we would work together on that as well. It was our chance to prove ourselves as a writing team on a project that was already funded and green-lit. I had a blast writing the screenplay with him. Filming the movie was more difficult and challenging . . . but I was there for every single day of shooting, working with him on last-minute revisions and helping to solve problems . . . and he even consulted with me some on the editing. It was a real acid test for us as creative partners, but he always keeps me close in his confidence and values my council, which is a great honor as a fan of his films and an education as well. I feel like I provide a fan's point-of-view when we work together, but also a solid professional point-of-view, because I have paid a lot of dues as a writer and spent years learning how to create realistic dialogue and so forth. I'm seasoned. Also, I really believe in Coscarelli and think he's one of the most solid, visionary filmmakers working today. He's always taken risks when he could have gone down safer roads. For example, he was recently offered one of those silly horror remakes to direct, and he said no thanks unless he could re-write the screenplay. It was a big money deal, but he let 'em know where to get off because he's not interested in making some lame teenybopper horror picture. He wants to make quality stuff with real vision.

DUSTIN: How would you describe the experience of having your written word brought to life?

STEPHEN: It's weird because you live with it for so long during the making of a movie. It's almost like someone else wrote the damn thing by the time you see the final product. I mean, it's all fun and everything to be proud because Angus Scrimm is speaking the lines you wrote for him---and he spoke them WORD FOR WORD, unlike Ethan Embry, who always changed things around unless Don told him not to---but, man, it's just strange by the end. My mom died on the last day of shooting INCIDENT, too, so that threw a great deal into perspective. I'd say it's still pretty damn cool . . . but INCIDENT was a real trial by fire for me. My initiation into the real world, so to speak. And so the film itself is this giant touchstone in my life and a towering achievement in so many ways. I feel like it may be BIGGER than my contribution in a more cosmic sense. I'm still pretty overwhelmed when I watch it. On the set, first day of shooting, I had a grand and dark revelation while watching Ethan and Bree interpret the "knife fight divorce" scene. It was really amazing, because that was a scene we created expressly for the film and wasn't in the short story by Lansdale . . . and I saw in Ethan's very intense performance exactly WHY Bruce does the things he does. I suddenly knew he was to be pitied because this brutal, tyrannical way he was abusing his wife and goading her on was his way of LOVING her. It was the only way Bruce knew HOW to love. That was incredible to see. Then again, that was just the first day of a very intense shoot.

DUSTIN: The IMDB lists you as a co-writer alongside Coscarelli on the upcoming Bubba Nosferatu. Naturally things are hush-hush at the current stage of pre-production so I'll ask what your thoughts were on the first Bubba Ho-Tep.

STEPHEN: A brilliant film. Hats off to everyone involved. I think it stands alone as something truly unique in the world, just the way the first PHANTASM does, and speaks volumes about Don's balls as a filmmaker. The sequel will be unique and ballsy also. It takes different risks. But what is amazing about the original film is that at the center of a bizarre and funny story is a very, very serious statement about growing old. And the ending! Just beautiful, vintage Coscarelli. He's a really sweet guy in real life, as you are no doubt aware, and I think that ending is probably the truest bit of filmmaking to his own personality yet. I think KENNY AND COMPANY also has it's moments like that . . . but it was Don's first film. BUBBA is a classy, polished piece of boutique movie magic made by a genuine maverick who has paid some serious dues.

DUSTIN:: There have also been reports around the internet that you've churned out a script with the Don for Phantasm 5. What, if anything, can you tell phans about the proposed script? In your opinion, short of divine intervention; what's it going to take for this sequel to get off the ground?

STEPHEN: Actually . . . I'm not sure what I am or am not allowed to say about this project at the current time. There is a script. I am involved. I'm not sure it will ever be made. It's wild, way-out stuff. Don sort of said all that in the interview he gave on the DVD box set released in the UK, which is I guess where the 'rumour' started. But we are concentrating our energies on BUBBA 2 at the moment.

DUSTIN::: Last summer you had a collection of short stories published in a book called "The Riot Act" which is from my understanding, a balls to the wall horrifying bunch of scary fiction. I actually plan on picking a copy up based on John Skipp's comments alone. Have you any plans for a follow-up anthology of short stories?

STEPHEN: Not currently, no. And I would like to make the distinction between my fiction in THE RIOT ACT and "scary" stuff. It's not really a horror book at all in the classic sense. Most of it is pretty HORRIFYING, yes, but there are stories about superheroes and sci-fi stuff in there as well. It's not only my best work ever, but my most well-received work. There will be no sequel collection, but a second edition of THE RIOT ACT is coming soon from a new publisher, with three new stories included! That book really got me noticed by the highbrow literary crowd. Brain Keene, whose new book, GHOUL, is basically a sick, twisted (and quite brilliant) remake of PHANTASM, praised the ACT as "daring and different from anything that's come before" . . . which is hella nice, since he's kinda the new Stephen King these days. Right now I am working on a real breakaway kind of book project. Something very original, very unique---something that horror movie fans will LOVE! You'll hear all about it later this year or early next year. I am really excited about it!

DUSTIN: I'm yet to meet a phan who wasn't ape-shit over your PHANTASM: OVERMINDS comic; the story was fantastic. Have you ever considered adapting this into a screenplay?

STEPHEN: It never occured to me at all. (Wink.)

DUSTIN: Beginning with your throwing the ever-awesome "Phantasm-ania" in 2000 and continuing with your Phantasm comic and screenplays; you're rapidly becoming a major player in the franchise. Have you any idea what you're getting into!?

STEPHEN: Well, I've been into it for the better part of a decade now, I'd better!

DUSTIN: Weren't you once just an average phan like us?

STEPHEN: Phan, yes. Average? ME?!!! Crazy, maybe . . . but "Average" . . . hmmm.

DUSTIN: What's it like to be on the other side of these films?

STEPHEN: Surreal. Michael Baldwin is actually my next-door neighbor in Austin these days! How's THAT for cosmic!? There are a few things I wish I could tell you about with regards to being the "new kid on the Phantasm block," but it mostly ties into the proposed new film . . . so let me just say this: I am grateful and lucky and blessed. And this is To be Continued.

DUSTIN: I couldn't help noticing in your website's gallery; a photo of Angus Scrimm at Comicon 2002 and behind him a poster that reads "Phantasm 2: Play The Game: On Sale Really Soon" which looks to be a sequel to OVERMINDS. What happened to this? Did I just entirely miss this release?

STEPHEN: Well . . . see, we never finished the comic series for various reasons that are too complex to go into here. It had to be abandoned. What you see in that photo is an ad for PHANTASM ISSUE 2, which was originally called PLAY THE GAME . . . but everybody thought it was an ad for a video game, so we changed the title to THE GAME OF FEAR, which is the version of that same ad that appears on the back cover of ISSUE ONE. The second issue was finished, but it's still sitting in my vault, unpublished. It deals with Rocky and Mike's escape from Quezada's Nightmare Factory, and what happened to Reggie, setting up the next two issues, which were never drawn by the art team. It would be cool to complete them one day, maybe get the issues out as some sort of "renegade edition" or something like that? The conetuning storyline is really wild, introducing a crazy new villain and a bizarre new hero into the mythos. That first issue was just the setup.