Don Coscarelli Selects

Don Coscarelli Selects

Independent filmmaker Don Coscarelli is best known for the PHANTASM films. Phantasm and its successful sequels spawned a rabid cult of fans around the world. Coscarelli subsequently wrote and directed three award-winning sequels. 

One of Coscarelli’s more celebrated films is BUBBA HO-TEP, starring horror icon Bruce Campbell and the legendary actor, writer and social activist, Ossie Davis, which he wrote for the screen and directed.

Coscarelli also co-wrote and directed, THE BEASTMASTER, described by Entertainment Weekly as being one of the most popular films of all time on cable television. THE BEASTMASTER has generated two sequels, a television series and a Saturday Night Live joke by Billy Crystal when he commented that HBO stood for “Hey Beastmaster’s On.”

For television, Don Coscarelli co-wrote and directed the well-received premiere episode of Showtime Networks, MASTERS OF HORROR cable series.

More recently Coscarelli wrote for the screen and directed JOHN DIES AT THE END starring Paul Giamatti and Clancy Brown. Another festival favorite, JOHN DIES AT THE END premiered at the Sundance International Film Festival and then played at both the Toronto International Film Festival and SXSW.

Coscarelli’s well-received memoir entitled TRUE INDIE: Life and Dead in Filmmaking was published by St. Martin’s Press. His most recent book, PHICTION: Tales from the World of Phantasm releases soon.

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Don Coscarelli Selects
  • Basket Case

    1982 • United States • Directed by Frank Henenlotter

    The feature debut of director Frank Henenlotter (Brain Damage, Frankenhooker), 1982's Basket Case is a riotous and blood-spattered "midnight movie" experience, now presented for the first time ever in 4K.

    Duane Bradley seems like a pretty ord...

  • Audition

    2001 · Japan · Directed by Takashi Miike

    One of the most notorious J-horror films ever made, Takashi Miike’s Audition exploded onto the festival circuit at the turn of the century to a chorus of awards and praise. The film would catapult Miike to the international scene and pave the way for such...

  • Deep Red

    From Dario Argento, maestro of the macabre and the man behind some the greatest excursions in Italian horror (Suspiria, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), comes Deep Red - arguably the ultimate giallo movie. One night, musician Marcus Daly (David Hemmings, Blow Up), looking up from the street be...

  • The Woman

    Almost a decade after Lucky McKee burst upon the indie horror scene and became a 'Master of Horror' in the making thanks to his directorial debut May, he teamed up with legendary cult author Jack Ketchum for his most shocking and brutal film to date: The Woman, an instant cause célèbre on its Sun...

  • Hiroshima

    Hiroshima (1953) is a powerful evocation of the devastation wrought by the world's first deployment of the atomic bomb and its aftermath, based on the written eye-witness accounts of its child survivors compiled by Dr. Arata Osada for the 1951 book Children Of The A Bomb: Testament Of The Boys An...

  • The Crazies

    1973 • United States • Directed by George A. Romero

    After the experimental outings of There’s Always Vanilla and Season of the Witch, Night of the Living Dead director George A. Romero returned to rather more distinct horror territory with his 1973 infection opus The Crazies.

    When a plane carry...

  • Smash Palace

    1981 ・ New Zealand ・ Directed by Roger Donaldson

    Smash Palace concerns itself with the marriage of former racing driver Al (Bruno Lawrence, The Quiet Earth) and French-born Jacqui (Anna Jemison, Nomads). The pair had met when she nursed him back to health following a career-ending injury. They m...

  • Ringu

    1998 • Japan • Directed by Hideo Nakata

    In 1998, director Hideo Nakata (Dark Water) unleashed a chilling tale of technological terror on unsuspecting audiences, which redefined the horror genre, launched the J-horror boom in the West and introduced a generation of moviegoers to a creepy, dark-ha...

  • One Missed Call

    Tapping into the same brand of terror as the Ring and Grudge movies, visionary director Takashi Miike ('Audition', 'Blade of the Immortal') presents a modern, high-tech twist on that mainstay of Japanese folklore, the yurei or vengeful spirit, in the form of its own iconic antihero - the terrifyi...