Angus Scrimm, 1927-2016: R.I.P.

The Tall Man from the film Phantasm has passed on at the age of 89.

Entertainment Weekly reported the news of Scrimm’s passing. “Angus Scrimm passed away peacefully tonight surrounded by his friends and loved one,” director Don Coscarelli wrote in an e-mail to EW. “[His] performance as the Tall Man is a towering achievement in horror film history. He was the last in a long line of classic horror movie stars. He was a terrific actor and an even better friend. He will be missed.”

Born Lawrence Rory Guy, he pursued acting for most of his life (he portrayed Abraham Lincoln in an Encyclopedia Brittanica short that appears on Shout! Factory’s PHANTASM II Blu-ray), but found steadier employment for many years as a journalist and author of liner notes for Capitol Records, winning a Grammy for the latter. He appeared in the early-’70s fright films SWEET KILL and SCREAM BLOODY MURDER, but the seeds of his greatest success were sown when he took the role of an abusive father in the 1976 drama JIM THE WORLD’S GREATEST. That movie marked the directorial debut of Coscarelli, whom he referred to, upon his induction into the FANGORIA Hall of Fame at our 1994 Chainsaw Awards ceremony, as “a magician of filmmaking, a man without whom there would be no PHANTASM, no Tall Man, and no ‘Angus Scrimm,’ ” the name he adopted for the 1979 hit.

Sure, they were cheesy movies, but tell me you weren't horrified the first time you saw one of those flying steel balls in Phantasm impale a man's head and drill into his brain?

So long, "Angus." Thanks for all the frights!

Dwelling Under London's Streets, It's...

...Fatberg.

The latest Twitter/Facebook sensation. Can a reality show be far behind?

OK, It's Time...

...to trim my toenails.

What Did You Expect In Skid Row? Perrier?

A hotel in the Skid Row section of Los Angeles had water pressure problems.

Turns out there was a corpse in the rooftop water cistern.

And the guests of the hotel had been brushing their teeth with that water, and drinking it...

Jesus wept, how do you get that particular event out of your memory? Even just reading the cold facts of the story makes me shudder.

GAH!

Beaten, Raped, Burned...*Yawn*

It's no big deal, she was just a drug-abusing whore.

A story that should be getting more attention than it is: the horrifying last hours of Celeste Fronsman.

"I caught her and picked her up in my arms," the man said. "I told her I was going to lay her in the grass and knew then that God had put me there for her."

As the man laid Fronsman down in the grass, he said she kept crying for him to help her.

"I assured her that I wouldn't leave her, but I wanted to get the blanket out of the truck to cover her with," he said. "She didn't want to let go of my hand and she was gasping for air. Her skin was just hanging off her."

After getting the blanket and a bottle of Gatorade, the man gently held Fronsman's head so she could drink the Gatorade.

"She was still gasping for air, and I noticed that she had a 2-inch strap wrapped around her neck that had burned into her," he said. "I told her that I was going to loosen the strap so she could breathe better, but knew not to take it completely off because I knew the police would need it."

Click the link to read more. More information here.

So far, only USA Today and ABC News have covered the story, and it happened on Sunday. Is the value of a whore's life in the US so low that it's only a local outrage?

Jesus wept.

From Ghoulies and Ghosties and Long-Legged Beasties...

...and things that go bump in the night,
O Lord protect us. - - (Old prayer of unknown heritage. Some say Scottish, some say Cornish)

And how about adding a line to it about zombie ants?

Dead Zombie Ant With Fungus Growing From Head

A paper in the journal BMC Ecology, published on May 9, 2011, describes the parasitism by a fungus on the tropical carpenter ant in Thailand. It’s a macabre description of how the ant is invaded by the fungus, which takes over its body, commands it to perform actions to ensure the survival and growth of the fungus, then uses its dead body to grow a stalk with spores that are ejected into the surrounding area, ready to infect other passing ants.

Oh, damn, that's the stuff of nightmares, that is. And you can bet that Hollywood screenwriters are looking at that gruesome photo right now and firing up their Macs to write proposals based on it.

h/t Radley Balko.

Cruel Nature Horror Story of the Day

An 87-year-old woman missing for two days in Kershaw County was found Sunday about noon lying facedown on a nest of fire ants in a woods a mile from her house.

Even one fire ant bite is excruciating. Thousands? I can't see how she's still alive.

Ingrid Pitt, 1937-2010: R.I.P.

Nazi concentration camp survivor and Hammer Horror sex bomb.

Pic:



And another pic, in the sort of typical busty vampire pose that made her famous:



Hammer Horror vampires like Ingrid would make being a male vampire hunter extremely difficult, just too much temptation there.

The Return of Creepy and Eerie Magazines

Story in USA Today.

I didn't read those titles usually, but I liked Vampirella and especially Famous Monsters of Filmland.

Beware The Jabberwock, My Son!

Especially so when it is read by horror legend Sir Christopher Lee.

Hmm, Best Pick Up More Ammo

And maybe some gasoline to make firebombs, if these things really are in the sewers over by Fayetteville:

Warning: Don't watch video if you are easily grossed out!



h/t Hot Air Headlines.