Phantasm introduced audiences to two of horror’s most memorable monsters: one, the Tall Man (played with tremendous charisma by Angus Scrimm), an extradimensional wraith in a sensible black suit who is reanimating corpses as diminutive slaves; and two, a little metal ball. To be fair it’s a very shiny metal ball with some pretty sweet knives in it and an ingenious drainage port, but still, making a metal ball scary is no mean feat. And yet the twin terrors of Phantasm haunted video-store cardboard stand-up displays (and the nightmares of the unsuspecting kids that saw them) for decades. A true independent film and labor of love, Phantasm was conceived, written, directed, edited and filmed by one man: Don Coscarelli. Passion projects like this story of two over-curious brothers and the mysterious funeral home operation they uncover are rare enough; try to name passion projects so successful and imaginative they launch a whole franchise and influence a whole genre, and you might only come up with one.