Meet the Makers: Don Coscarelli

Meet the Makers is a periodical post I will run, delving into the world of indie and cult filmmaking. Each post will feature a single filmmaker and will explore a portion of their work, giving a snapshot into an artist and their films generally lesser known outside of mainstream cinema.

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If you were to spot Don Coscarelli on the street, you might think he’s just another average-Joe American working-class dude, or you may not notice him at all. Fact is, he was born in Tripoli in North Africa. His story begins to make more since however, once you realize he grew up mostly in the Southern California area.Coscarelli began his movie career in 1976 with two virtually unknown films. Jim the World’s Greatest tells the story of a teenager dealing with an abusive alcoholic father, while the comedic drama Kenny & Company follows a young teen through the trials of those turbulent years of awakening. Both films are ultimately uncharacteristic of Coscarelli’s later films and also not available in any format for viewing.

In 1979, Coscarelli found his niche’ with the low-budget, highly successful cult sensation Phantasm, which follows the struggle of a young boy and friends as they attempt to evade the mysterious Tall Man. His arsenal of zombie-migdet-monsters that seem at first like evil Jawas from an alternate dimension of Star Wars, along with his deadly chrome spheres packed with Swiss-army-style devices of death, accompany Tall Man’s grave-robbing and killing agenda. As you may have noticed, Phantasm is Coscarelli’s swan dive into the horror film genre and gee-whiz, does he make a splash. The film eventually becomes a franchise, beginning with the sequel in 1988 and followed by two more with a fifth on the way.

With Phantasm as his bread and butter, Coscarelli is able to branch out in 1982 with a fantasy epic called The Beastmaster. Marc Singer stars as Dar, a boy with the gift to communicate with and control animals, who after his family and village is slaughtered, seeks out to avenge their deaths. He is accompanied by his valiant cougar, loyal hawk and a pair of cunning ferrets, meeting up with allies along the way, including Kiri, played by the stunning Tanya Roberts. Dar seeks to conquer the evil Maax, played by Rip Torn, who in turn seeks to destroy him, who is unaware he is the son of the dead king.

Between Beastmaster and his newest creation, Coscarelli returned to his Phantasm legacy three times. During this time, he also delved into the arena of psychological terror with Survival Quest, which follows a diverse group of city folk who venture out into the wild for a retreat. As it turns out, a militia group has also chosen to setup camp in the same area. When one of the militia’s leader turns up dead, the soldiers believe the metropolitan intruders are at fault, leading them to hunt down the city dwellers and seek to exterminate them. Coscarelli attempts to bring his style of filmmaking to a more human drama, but doesn’t develop the same level of interest as his other films, despite featuring Lance Henriksen and an early performance from Catherine Keener.

In 2002, Coscarelli unleashed an all-new type of horror film called Bubba Ho-tep. As a result, he has also unleashed a whole new following for his films. Bubba Ho-tep stars the infamous cult actor Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley, or at least an elderly man in a retirement home who believes he is the king. He is accompanied by his friend Jack, played by Ossie Davis, who believes he is JFK. These two lively old farts believe they are under attack by an ancient Egyptian, gun-slinging mummy named Bubba Ho-tep. Truly, the film is more of a human story of two men in their waning years seeking adventure before they die. Despite the low-budget, the film succeeds at its goal and has developed a large enough cult following to justify a prequel called Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires, which is currently in pre-production.