Angus Scrimm Movies

Machines fight for control of a world destroyed by man in this ultra-low-budget sci-fi saga from filmmaker James Felix McKenney. A global war has left the surface of the Earth uninhabitable, and the few humans who have lived through the conflict have been driven underground in order to survive. The Girl (Christine Spencer) lives in a subterranean bunker that she shares with several rattletrap robots of her own design. The Girl occupies herself by watching old videotapes of a scientist who was her friend and mentor before the apocalypse, but lately she has other things on her mind. Another survivor (Brenda Cooney) has established a robot army, and is using the machines to lay claim to the remains of the Earth. As the Girl constructs her own mechanical security force, she discovers the Enemy Leader has a dangerous surprise in his arsenal -- the ability to turn the Girl's robot friends against her. The ranting scientist in Automatons is played by Angus Scrimm, best known to horror film buffs as "the Tall Man" from the Phantasm franchise. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The Showtime series Masters of Horror opens with Phantasm director Don Coscarelli's Incident on and off a Mountain Road, based on a short story by Joe R. Lansdale, who also wrote the story on which Coscarelli's Bubba Ho-Tep was based. As the tale opens, Ellen is driving on the eponymous twisty and remote road in the middle of the night, when she takes her eyes off the road for a moment and plows into another car. Waking up a short time later, she goes to check the other car, and finds a trail of blood leading to the side of the road. She calls out to see if anyone needs help. It's soon apparent that someone does, and that someone is Ellen. There's a gruesome giant of a man (John De Santis) dragging another girl up toward the road, and Ellen quickly realizes that her life's in danger. She flashes back to the training she received from her boyfriend, Bruce (Ethan Embry), a survivalist who brought her to live with him in his cabin in the woods, and bullied her into learning how to defend herself. She runs into the woods, and sets a trap for the madman, injuring him, but this only seems to spur him on. Eventually, he catches up with Ellen and brings her back to his lair. There, she meets a demented elderly man in a wheelchair named Buddy (Angus Scrimm, the Tall Man from the director's Phantasm films), who explains that the madman must like something about her to let her live so long. Looking about the creepy abode, filled with the eyeless corpses of previous victims, Ellen can see for herself that her chances of surviving are not good. But she's determined to use everything Bruce taught her and get through this terrifying night. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Originally telecast right after Super Bowl XXXVII, "Phase One" was the most controversial and talked-about episode of Alias' second season -- and not only because of the notorious segment in which star Jennifer Garner appears clad only in a skimpy bra and panties. With Sloane (Ron Rifkin) having disappeared, SD-6 has a new head man in the form of Anthony Geiger (Rutger Hauer). The CIA orders Sydney (Garner) and Jack (Victor Garber) to get into Geiger's good graces so that they can find out his plans. But Geiger, whose feelings toward the Bristows are nowhere near as affectionate as Sloane's, would just as soon fire them both -- and even worse, since he has taken a peek at Sloane's confidential files on the mysterious Server 47, he is now armed with information that could result in the deaths of both Syd and Jack. The episode is climaxed by the abrupt and wholly unanticipated death of one of the series' most likeable characters -- thereby hurtling the carefully established Alias second-season story line into an entirely different direction. The CIA takedown of SD-6 in this episode also changes Alias' plot structure forever, eliminating the double-agent aspect of Sydney's actions and allowing her and Vaughn (Michael Vartan) to finally be together. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In Vienna on the trail of "The Man," who may or may not have information pertaining to her late mother, Sydney (Jennifer Garner) is unexpectedly reunited with her ex-lover, fellow SD-6 agent Noah Hicks (Peter Berg). Meanwhile, Syd's father, Jack (Victor Garber), consults with CIA psychiatrist Judy Barnett (Patricia Wettig) about his nagging premonition that his wife (and Syd's mom) may still be alive. And what of the Rambaldi Prophecy -- and who will crack the secret behind that prophecy first? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Taking time off from tracking the terrorist who plans to blow up an international seminar in São Paulo, Sydney (Jennifer Garner) reluctant agrees to play private eye for her roommate, Francie (Merrin Dungey), who suspects that her boyfriend, Charlie (Evan Dexter Parke), is seeing another woman. Meanwhile, Syd's father, Jack (Victor Garber), grimly prepares to reveal a terrible secret to his daughter. And Will (Bradley Cooper) tries to unravel the mystery of "Kate Jones," the last person to see Syd's fiancé, David, alive. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this fantasy tale for the whole family, three children discover the home of an elderly clock builder holds an amazing secret -- he possesses a collection of clocks that control the past, present, and future of the entire world. When one of the children is mistakenly transported into the past, it's up to the other two to rescue him and prevent the future from going astray. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The beautiful vampire from space who starred in her own successful comic book series comes to the screen in this adaptation produced in part by Roger Corman and Forrest J. Ackerman. The planet Drakulon is populate by a race of vampires who are able to feed on the rivers of blood that flow naturally from Drakulon's oceans. But Vlad (Roger Daltrey) is an especially vicious blood-drinker who prefers to attack and kill others in order to satisfy his appetites. Vlad's appetite for violence leads him to kill the High Elder of Drakulon (Angus Scrimm), and Vlad, realizing he may have gone to far, flees to Earth to avoid capture by the authorities. The High Elder's daughter, sultry Vampirella (Talisa Soto), travels to Earth to capture Vlad and bring him back to Drakulon to face justice. On Earth, Vlad has become well-known rock singer Johnny Blood while slaking his thirst with a growing number of unfortunate victims in his spare time. Vampirella finds tracking him down harder than she expected and she soon enlists the help of modern-day vampire hunter Adam Van Helsing (Richard Joseph Paul). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The original 1987 Munchies was a PG-rated horror spoof about a monster with an insatiable appetite for junk food. Though public domain was not forthcoming, a sequel, titled simply Munchie, came out in 1991; this time, the title character was an invisible imp who helped unpopular kids learn how to cope. Both films were chock-full of such TV icons as Harvey Korman, Dom DeLuise, Loni Anderson and Arte Johnson. The 1994 Munchie Strikes Back, starring Lesley-Anne Down and Andrew Stevens, eschewed the "scare" elements altogether and was geared strictly for the kiddie trade. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A loose sequel of the 1987 Munchies film, this movie turns the tables by offering the travails of a good Munchie (voice by Dom DeLuise). Found in an abandoned mine by a young boy (Jaime McEnnan), the creature offers to make all of his dreams come true, including help with bullies and bad grades. ~ John Bush, Rovi

A disparate pair of vampiric brothers tussle for the possession of their father's powerful bloodstone in this violent horror outing that was shot on location in Transylvania. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The "Tall Man" and his strange little Killer Sphere return for a second round in this sequel to the 1979 cult favorite. Mike Pearson (James LeGros) is still plagued by memories of the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), an evil mortician who has risen from the grave and bleeds embalming fluid -- and tried to kill him as a boy. Mike has been a patient in a mental institution for the last decade, insisting that the Tall Man is real; he still appears in his dreams ten years after their first encounter. When Mike changes his tune and says that the undead undertaker was merely a hallucination, he is finally released. However, Mike and his best friend, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), are actually out to find the Tall Man and put an end to his habits of grave-robbing and draining people's bodies with his flying brain-juicer. As they search for the Tall Man, Mike encounters Liz (Paula Irvine), a woman who has also appeared in his dreams, and she claims that she too has been pursued by the Tall Man. Phantasm II was followed by a third installment in 1994, and a fourth in 1998. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Phantasm is a surprisingly artful and imaginative horror film, an impressive film for 23-year-old director Don Coscarelli who worked with a miniscule budget to create a small masterpiece. When Mike (Michael Baldwin) spies some sinister Jawa-like creatures stealing corpses from the local cemetery, he and his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) explore the mausoleum, where they find that the mortician (Angus Scrimm), a towering, emaciated figure with superhuman strength, has somehow bridged the gap between Earth and the afterworld and needs fresh corpses. Among the tools of his trade is a flying Swiss army pinball that bores into the skulls of its hapless victims then extracts their brains. Their allies die off one by one, until only the brothers are left to defend humankind against the nefarious "Tall Man" and his army of shrouded dwarves. While the film does contain a fair amount of graphic violence, the gore is never gratuitous and, relative to other movies of its day, is used rather sparingly. The effects are fantastic as is the highly stylized direction; the result is a memorable chiller with more than its share of genuine shocks. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi