Scrimm's portrayal of the Tall Man actually improved with each new film in the series. Not necessarily because he grew older, but it didn't do any harm, either. As someone else said, it's not like he ever did much -- you really can't compare the character to the Terminator or most other movie villains and creatures. The Tall Man is at his best when he's being subtle and mysterious, not when he's running around or physically attacking people. There was far too much of that in the first film, and it took them a while to develop the character ( and possibly Scrimm's acting capabilities improved over the years, as well ). He basically went from a fairly generic slasher film villain, to some ominous, almost god-like alien presence you cannot defeat or run from.

As for the new film, I suspect it's entirely fan-service. No more, no less. I doubt anyone expects this to be a huge commercial success. Even the fourth film is primarily aimed towards longtime fans of Phantasm. I do expect that it will be decent, though. I don't think Coscarelli, Scrimm and the rest of the crew would even have bothered, if they hadn't been convinced of being able to deliver one more worthy addition to the series.
I think I first heard of it in 2014 ( or was it 2013? ) or so, and supposedly it was close to release back then. I'm actually surprised it's still not out. Let's hope for the best.

By the way Coscarelli's "John Dies At The End" is great too, if you haven't seen it.

Apparently they covered Angus's face with bits of real chicken skin, for that "death" scene at the end of Phantasm 2. :D

They didn't do rubber?!

I like that fact. Basically because I like real and not CGI because CGI shows. It's ok in some films but not in most.
Also not having the easy way out of CGI seems to really boost creativity with not only effects but also scripts (Which is way more important!.).

Nope, real chicken skin and flesh, as I recall, and apparently it felt quite disgusting. :D

I think they talked about it during one of the audio commentary tracks, on the Anchor Bay DVDs of Phantasm. If you like the movies, I strongly recommend checking those out, since they're very entertaining and informative.

And I fully agree on the CGI. There's only two ways to use CGI effects successfully: either use it very subtly and sparingly, or go all out and pump a few millions into it. Obviously the latter isn't really an option for low budget productions. But cheap CGI all over a film is just the worst, unless it's some kind of parody.

I really like the old-fashioned, traditional effects myself. But then, I'm a fan of classic Horror & Sci-Fi, or modern Indie productions, and don't watch many Hollywood blockbusters.

There's a third option for CGI. Can't do it because it's phantastical. Watchers tend to suspend belief or not care then. :)

Otherwise I agree. Though I do like blockbusters. They're usually big and over the top. There's something to be said for films with good looking apocalyptic big booms.

I did. I liked it too. :)

I promissed myself to buy a book but I didn't. And the author already published the sequel ("This book is full of spiders" or something like that). I think there was a talk of Coscarelli filming that one too. But I'm out of loop for a few years so I'm not sure about the current development and if there is another book sequel. :)

They're a hit or miss affair for me. They're fun sometimes, but I tend to prefer the smaller, more original releases. With AAA movies, the production companies usually try to make them as family-friendly or mainstream compatible as possible, and avoid anything controversial or weird, since they invest so much money in them, same as with AAA video games.

I don't even remember the last "big" film I really enjoyed. I actually liked Indiana Jones 4, even if it wasn't as good as the first three. Prometheus was OK too, but again, not as good as the first two Alien films.
Oh, thanks, I didn't know about a potential sequel. I'll have to keep that in mind. Too bad that Coscarelli is fairly slow with his film productions. :P

2015-08-10 - JourneyQuest + JourneyQuest: City of the Dead
2015-04-17 - Superhero Me
2015-04-16 - We Cause Scenes
2015-04-02 - Going Cardboard
2015-03-18 - Programming the Nation
2015-01-31 - Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock
2015-01-25 - Starring Adam West
2015-01-18 - Ecstasy of Order - The Tetris Masters
2015-01-11 - Trek Nation
...

It seems there was a big drop-off in movie releases starting at the end of January with releases pretty much halted in mid-April (now 7 months ago). I can't remember the last time I ever saw any of the movies being feature in a promo/sale.

Seeing movies continue to be released on Steam whilst GOG is getting nothing is disappointing. I don't want to be limited to streaming and don't even want to entertain the idea of "renting" a movie which is what Steam is now offering.

I sent an email to Devolver Digital in June asking why they had stopped releasing films on GOG. The response I got back was:

"GOG has been curating the films carefully and have not yet been ready to add more. Hoping they'll open the doors again soon."

It would be great to get some kind of answer from a GOG staff member regarding whether or not we will likely see any future movie releases on the platform? If there are intentions of releasing more movies, when will this happen? If no movie releases are planned what is the reason for halting the releases, is it purely lack of sales or is there something more?

I either have or have wishlisted most of the films as well.
Oh, and The Gamers series is da bomb! :)

- Indie Game: Special Edition => six days ago
- Minecraft: The Story of Mojang => five days ago

Doesn't in any way invalidate your frustration.

Nothing interesting for me, aside from the AVGN Movie (which will hopefully be on sale this X-mas).

Personally I might buy even movies like Uwe Boll's "Far Cry" or really-unknown (yet entertaining) straight-to-VHS/DVD '80s/'90s action movies (been watching numerous PM Entertainment movies on YouTube, but perhaps even those have worldwide rights' issues or other limiting factors (such as GOG's "curation").

Maybe Harbinger Down - horror/sci-fi - http://harbingerdown.com/

They've pretty much abandoned the idea of movies at this point it seems. The expectations of the existing GOG customer base do not line up too well with the extremely complex nature of ownership rights in the movie and television show industry which would end up only being able to offer DRM-free titles in specific regions or even individual countries because no one party owns global rights to anything in that industry. That business model just does not go over well here and so I doubt there is much GOG can do about that.

DRM-free movies will catch on some day on some website I believe, but it'll have to be a brand new business with a brand new business model just starting out with a fresh slate offering movies/TV shows to customers with no pre-existing large base of expectations.

Until then all we can hope for here are random obscure low budget indie documentaries about video games and other trivia for the most part, and it doesn't appear that they're bringing any more of that here. I'm betting it hasn't been terribly profitable or they'd put more weight behind it.

It was a cool idea though.

GOG could have handled it better. I think they should have focused on obtaining older material, such as the Three Stooges shorts, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, classic Bugs Bunny cartoons, and so forth. Basically things that have public recognition, while simultaneously not being of great importance to whoever owns the properties. Ditto goes for anime like Patlabor or foreign films like Roaring Currents.

After all, a big part of how GOG started their business was with cult classics within the gaming world. It was only after building up a war chest, recognition, and plucking the low-hanging fruit that GOG moved into the indie and modern gaming sphere.

I would even say that the movies they released are a niche within a niche. GOG has supposedly rejected games as "being too niche" that were much less of a niche market than the less niche of these movies