As part of the 40th anniversary celebration, Well Go USA has announced that they will be releasing a limited collector’s edition Blu-ray set of the full Phantasm franchise that will also include a full-scale replica killer sphere! While there’s no official release date, the distributor promises that they will be available this Halloween season, so we should be able to get our hands on these before October 31!
The “Phantasm Sphere Collection,” in addition to all the Phantasm films and previous supplemental materials, will be packed with new extras. The centerpiece will be a meticulous 4K restoration of 1988’s Phantasm II, personally supervised by Coscarelli. Other phantastic extras include a newly-created Dolby Atmos track of the original Phantasm (by Post Haste Digital) and a new, longer feature-length documentary on the making of Phantasm: Ravager, with more to come.
Coscarelli’s franchise began in 1979 and there have been five films total, the most recent being 2016’s Phantasm V: Ravager. The two actors who have been in the series since the beginning are Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm, the latter of whom passed away in early 2016, prior to the film’s release. Coscarelli directed all but the fifth film, which was directed by David Hartman.