Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm movies have been released on DVD before, but never in quite the way they should have been. Horror specialist Anchor Bay Entertainment is going to change that. The studio has scheduled Special Edition DVD releases of the 1979 original Phantasm and the 1994 Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead for release in April. Licensing issues sadly prevent Anchor Bay from releasing the other two parts in the series as these films are owned by other studios.

In Phantasm, Mike, a young teenage boy who has just lost his parents, is afraid to lose his brother. This fear causes him to follow his brother to a funeral, where Mike witnesses the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) lift a coffin on his own. Mike decides to investigate and discovers a horrible world where the Tall Man, along with his flying spheres, shrink the to half their normal size and reanimate them as slaves. It is then up to Mike, his brother, and Reggie the ice cream man to stop the Tall man.

The Tall Man, that imposing menace from Morningside Mortuary, is back in Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead and once again haunting the thoughts of the now-adult Mike and his friend, ex-Ice Cream vendor Reggie. The two continue their hunt for the mysterious figure and in his path of destruction encounter a variety of dangerous situations, friends and enemies. They also must contend with the resurrected dead plus a growing number of the infamous and deadly silver spheres which aid the Tall Man as he sets his sights on indoctrinating Mike and finishing the fight begun so many years ago.

We do not yet have final information about the contents of these releases but we will certainly keep you up to date as new information emerges. For the time being, mark the date of April 10 in your calendars because that’s when the Tall Man is going to haunt you once again with his flying, deadly ball. Both DVDs can be yours then for $19.99.