The Tall Man is a villain from the Phantasm series of films written, directed,
photographed, co-produced and edited by Don Coscarelli. The Tall Man was portrayed in
the film and its sequels by Angus Scrimm. The character is a supernatural undertaker
who turns the dead into
zombies, in order to do his bidding and
take over the world. He is known for saying the now infamous quote, "Boy!" on
several occasions. The Tall Man's henchmen include Sentinels (flying silver
balls, referred to as sentinel spheres by fans) that contain a lethal
pair of spiked blades and a drill that eviscerates the victim's brain), lurkers
and gravers (zombies dressed in nuclear suits armed with chainsaws), dwarves in
monk robes (who are made from corpses), and the reanimated dead. He is also on
the hunt for Mike Pearson and Reggie and their friends for reasons that are only
hinted at in later installments in the series. The Tall Man has been in four
Phantasm films and is still alive.
Relatively little is known about him. Once upon a time the Tall Man was a kind-hearted soul named Jebediah Morningside, and he was experimenting with
inter-dimensional travel. After perfecting the device that would allow him to
travel between worlds, he stepped through the gateway. Upon his return he was no
longer Jebediah, but the cold and evil being known to Mike and Reggie as the
Tall Man. It can only be speculated that while in a different dimension
Jebediah's body was possessed by another intelligence. Ever since then he has
carried out his duties of turning the dead into slaves.
In terms of his powers the Tall Man has considerable psychic and telekinetic powers. On numerous
occasions he has shown the ability to levitate objects and people without
physically touching them, merely by twitching an eyebrow. He also has tremendous
physical strength. In the original film he lifted an entire casket by himself,
and the effort seemed to cause him no strain. In the second film he flung Liz
across a room after holding her by the throat. The Tall Man is able to invade
the minds of his victims, and also to cause them to see images and
hallucinations. He seems to be able to control the actions of the Sentinels,
though in Phantasm II Mike was able to use one of the deadly spheres to
attack him (which had no effect on him). In addition to the abilities listed
above, the Tall Man is also seemingly immortal. Though it is possible to
temporarily "kill" him, he is able to return in only a matter of minutes.
Throughout the series the Tall Man has been hung, blown up in a car, embalmed
with acid, frozen, and dropped down a mine shaft, and has always easily
recovered. It should be noted, however, that in Phantasm III it was
revealed that when one of his physical bodies is destroyed another exact
duplicate enters our world through his dimensional gateway. Whether this is the
same being or another separate entity is unknown. Added to his powers of
resurrection is the ability to regenerate, as he has been shown to regrow lost
body parts. |