Phantasm 1999 – WTF Happened to This Unmade Horror Movie

Writer/director Don Coscarelli kicked off a mind-bending horror franchise with his low budget 1979 classic Phantasm, following that up with Phantasm II in 1988 and Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead in 1994. One Phantasm phan who thought they knew where the franchise should go next was Roger Avary – and soon after sharing an Academy Award win with Quentin Tarantino for co-writing the stories that made up Pulp Fiction, Avary started crafting a Phantasm sequel script he called Phantasm 1999. Coscarelli was impressed with what Avary had come up with, and set out to bring Phantasm 1999 to the screen… but it never happened. Nods to the ideas in that script made it into Phantasm: Oblivion and Phantasm: Ravager, but the budget required for Phantasm 1999 (which was also called Phantasm 2013 A.D. and Phantasm’s End as time went on) could never be secured. So find out about the Phantasm movie that never was by checking out the new episode of WTF Happened to This Unmade Horror Movie, embedded above!

If this Phantasm film had been made, returning franchise stars Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm would have been joined in the cast by Bruce Campbell, who was on board to play badass military man Colonel Heckleman.

Coscarelli’s original Phantasm (get it HERE) has the following synopsis: The residents of a small town have begun dying under strange circumstances, leading young Mike to investigate. After discovering that the Tall Man, the town’s mortician, is killing and reanimating the dead as misshapen zombies, Mike seeks help from his older brother, Jody, and local ice cream man Reggie. Working together, they try to lure out and kill the Tall Man, all the while avoiding his minions and a deadly silver sphere.

Do you wish Phantasm 1999 had been made? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

The WTF Happened to This Unmade Horror Movie series (formerly known as The Horror Movie That Almost Was) focuses on the various horror projects that could never seem to get things off the ground, be it for budgetary concerns, creative differences, or just an ever evolving Hollywood landscape. We dive into every aspect and see just how close these films had come to cameras rolling.

This episode was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Tyler Nichols, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

A couple of the previous episodes of WTF Happened to This Unmade Horror Movie can be seen at the bottom of this article. To see more, and to check out our other video series, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channel – and subscribe while you’re there!