First up is a lively audio commentary with director Don Coscarrelli, and actors Angus Scrimm, Michael Baldwin and Bill Thornbury. This commentary is a lot of fun as the four guys obviously get along with one another very well which leads to some good natured moments of humor scattered in between the anecdotes and factual information that is delivered during the discussion. With the director and three performers on the track you get a good idea of what it was like on set in front of and behind the camera and as such, this turns out to be a pretty well rounded look at the making of the movie. This commentary is the same one that graced the laserdiscs and the domestic MGM release in North America as well as the AB UK release.

Also included here is a re-edited version of the Phantasmagoria documentary that Nucleus Films made for the Anchor Bay UK boxed set. Chopped down to thirty-five minutes (from it's original ninety-eight minutes running time) so that it covers only the making of the first movie, it's still an interesting and comprehensive look at how the picture was put together and what everyone's part in making that happen was. It would have been nice to see the entire full length documentary included here, but it isn't.

Phantasm Actors Having A Ball starts off with an anecdote from Kathy Lester who talks about the lavender dress, then features little stories from Michael Baldwin, a singing Bill Thornbury, and of course, Coscarelli himself who speaks about the Dwarves and how they differ from the Jawas. It's just short of five minutes and it uses material from the full length cut of the Phantasmagoria documentary.

The Phantasm 1979 Interview is a vintage television interview with Coscarelli and Scrimm in which they appear on a talk show and discuss the film. Scrimm gets very theatrical here and hams it up in a big way while Coscarelli plays it a little more straight as he talks about what inspired him to write the story. He talks about how he likes to build up the audience to scare them and make them scream and then how the natural response to that is laughter. It doesn't cover a lot of what isn't covered in the other documentaries or on the commentary but at twenty-nine minutes long it's quite detailed and it's interesting to see and hear the actor and director's take on the material from around the time that it was made as opposed to in retrospect. We've seen this on the MGM and AB UK discs, but it's nice to have it here.

Scrimm is also the star of a Fangoria TV Commercial (0:44) in character as the Tall Man. Watch in terror as he pulls a stack of Fangoria magazines out of a coffin in his mausoleum! The Angus Scrimm 1989 Convention Appearance is an amusing document of his induction into the Fangoria Hall of Fame. At roughly ten minutes it's a lengthy document of Scrimm interacting with his fans as he talks about his relationship with The Tall Man, switching in and out of character at will and amusing them many fans who have shown up to pay tribute to the actor. Again, both of these we've seen before, they're not new, but it's good that they're here.

Up next are nine deleted scenes that make up roughly ten minutes with their combined running time. These have been seen before, not only on the laserdisc releases but more recently on the MGM Region One disc and the AB UK release so they'll be familiar to a lot of viewers but there are some nice moments in here, including the infamous 'you think you go to Heaven?' line from the Tall Man and Reggie's food fight scene. There's a keen outtake clip of Angus Scrimm laughing that surfaces in here as well.

One of the coolest extras on this disc is the home movie footage. Almost twenty minutes in total, this is 8mm material that was shot on the set while the movie was being made. It plays here with some narration from Coscarelli who explains to us what it is we're watching and gives us some nice background information on what we see in this material. This was also present on the MGM release in North America and the AB UK disc. Some of the footage is in pretty rough shape but it's interesting to check it out nonetheless.

Rounding out the extra features are a couple of television spots, the film's original theatrical trailer, the theatrical trailer for Phantasm III, trailers for other Anchor Bay DVD releases, animated menus and chapter stops.

Missing from this release and keeping it from getting a five star rating in the extras department are the Angus Scrimm introduction that was on the other two releases, and the two musical bits that were included on the MGM disc.

If you don't already own the Region 2 boxed set from Anchor Bay UK, consider this disc a must own and even if you do already have that set in your collection, this new release is still worth a look. The transfer is fantastic and the audio is great. The extras are plentiful and interesting and really leave no stone unturned when it comes to documenting the making of the movie. Phantasm itself still holds up remarkably well – it's just as creepy as it was when it was made years ago and time hasn't hurt the film in the least (fashions not withstanding!). Highly recommended.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.