Horror's Hallowed Grounds: Phantasm By: Sean Clark
Phantasm
By: Sean Clark
During a screening of his second film Kenny & Company writer/director Don Coscarelli got the inspiration to make a horror film. The inspiration came from the audience’s reaction to a scene where two young boys are inside a makeshift haunted house in a neighbor’s garage. A man jumps out of the darkness with a monster mask on and the entire audience screamed. This reaction gave Coscarelli a great deal of delight and left him craving for more.
He thought back to a terrifying dream he had as a teenager about running down endless white hallways being pursued by a flying metal sphere. It was from this idea that Phantasm was born.
Filming began in 1978 with a modest budget of $300,000. It has spawned three sequels and most recently the franchise was purchased by New Line Pictures to make a proposed new trilogy of films.
Of all the HHG pieces I have done up until this point, this was by far the toughest. The locations are spread all over California with the furthest locations being over 500 miles apart. It was indeed a challenge but, and I believe you'll agree, well worth the effort. There are so many locations used in this film, so much so that I'm going have to to break this up into two parts.
Our first location will be Tommy’s Funeral. The chapel where the funeral takes place is the Memorial Chapel at Forest Lawn located at 1500 E. San Antonio Drive Long Beach, California; formerly known during filming as Sunnyside Mortuary.
Below is the front of the Memorial Chapel at Forest Lawn. Oddly enough a few years after making Phantasm actor Reggie Bannister was going through the classifieds in the local newspaper in his hometown of Long Beach when he came upon a job offer at a flower shop. He went down to the location to apply and it ended up being the flower shop at Sunnyside Mortuary. He got the job and ended up working there for a few years before Phantasm II came around and his acting career really began to take off.
Reggie Bannister’s mother and father Evelyn and Horace Bannister had cameos in the film Phantasm during Tommy’s burial scene. Reggie’s father played the priest and his mother was one of the services attendees. They have both since passed away and currently reside at Forest Lawn in Long Beach as does Reggie’s grandparents.
In the next scene it cuts to them taking Tommy’s casket out of the hearse in the middle of the same graveyard that we see Michael riding his motorcycle through just before and later in the film.
This is also the graveyard where Tommy is killed by the lady in lavender in the very beginning of the film as well as where Jody goes with her later in the film. All of this was filmed in Chatsworth Park North in Chatsworth California. All of the tombstones were props rented for the film.
Next Michael heads over to the fortune tellers house. The fortune teller’s house is a private residence located at 22840 Calvert Street in Woodland Hills. Today it looks almost exactly as it did in 1978. I love the fact that the front yard is still just dirt and weeds.
The interior of the fortune teller’s house was filmed at Don’s parent’s home on Bixby Hill Road in Long Beach. The exact address is not known and the Coscarelli family no longer reside there.
Their home was also used as the interior of Reggie’s home at the end of the film in the famous fireplace scene.
Dunes Bar, where Jody meets the lady in lavender, was shot at an actual bar in Sunset Beach. The exact address is unknown and the bar has long since been torn down.
The casket room at Morningside was actually the casket room at Sunnyside Mortuary which is now Forest Lawn, the same location as Tommy’s funeral. The casket room is in the same location but was completely remodeled about seven years ago. The only thing that looks the same today is the doors leading in and out of the room.
Just so you know the casket room at Forest Lawn isn’t open to the public without an appointment. I really stooped to new lows in what I had to go through to get in there to get these photos. It really isn’t worth going through filling out all the paperwork and such for you departed loved one just to get a glimpse of a room that doesn’t look much like it used to anyways. My advice is to pass on this one.
Also at Forest Lawn is the cemetery where Michael stands over Jody’s grave at the end of the film.
The area where the Tall Man chases Michael and falls into the Mine Shaft and where Jody pushed the boulders down on top of him was filmed near the corner of Rinaldi Avenue and Corbin Avenue in Porter Ranch, directly across the street from the World Vision Church. It is very close to the Tampa Avenue exit off of the 118 freeway. You can park in the parking lot at 11200 Corbin which is a two-story commercial office building. If you park there the area is right over the iron fence of the parking lot. There really isn’t any distinguishing markers to recognize because a great deal of brush has grown in. This location is for the die hard Phantasm junkie only.
Our next location is the Hanging Tree. This tree is seen briefly in the original Phantasm while the Tall Man is chasing Michael just before they reach the mine shaft.
However there was footage shot for Phantasm that was cut and later used in the fourth film in the series, Phantasm: Oblivion, of the Tall Man being hanged from this tree.
It is really hard to believe that this tree has stood on this vacant hill for over 25 years. There was a bulldozer nearby and it looks as if there is some development beginning to happen in this area. The hanging tree is located just off the 101 freeway at the Kanan Road exit near the corner of Kanan Road and Agoura Road in Agoura Hills; you can’t miss it.
There is also a road just behind the hill where the hanging tree is located called Cornell Way off of Kanan Road that may have been used for some of the shots of the Hemi-Cuda driving around. I’m not 100% on this but here are a couple of shots to leave us all guessing.
Next we go to a residential street in Sherman Oaks California. This is the street where Michael is chasing after Jody as he takes a leisurely ride on his bicycle.
Michael begins his chase at the corner of Roblar Road and Stansbury Avenue. The street Michael is running down is Stansbury Avenue.
There was another scene shot for Phantasm that wasn’t used in the film but was later used in the fourth installment, Phantasm Oblivion. It is a scene where Michael jumps on the back of Reggie’s ice cream truck and steals an ice cream. It appears that if this scene had not been cut from the original Phantasm it would have taken place right as Michael gives up chasing after Jody. He spots Reggie and then runs after the ice cream truck.
If you look closely Michael jumps on the ice cream truck as it is driving away from Roblar Road on Stansbury Avenue.
Then as Michael jumps off the truck is actually now heading in the opposite direction back towards Roblar Road.
Next we go to the antique shop where Michael goes with the two girls and discovers the old photo of the Tall Man.
The exterior of the antique shop was filmed on Main Street in old town Brea. Sadly this entire street was leveled years ago and completely rebuilt. The interior of the shop was filmed in an actual antique store at 8620 Melrose in Hollywood. Today it is a modern clothing store called Avedon and looks nothing like it used to.
Now we head to the small town of Julian, California. This is the one location that I don’t understand why they used in the film. It is about 150 miles from Los Angeles up in the mountains and really could have been shot just about anywhere. But for reasons unknown to me Don Coscarelli chose this out of the way town for this one scene. This is the scene where Michael sees the Tall Man walking down the street in front of Reggie’s Ice Cream parlor and the Tall Man stops to feel the cold of Reggie’s ice cream trucks freezer.
Where you see the Tall Man begin to walk down the street is just in front of 2104 Main Street. You can actually see the address in the film. Also, if you look at the first photo of the Tall man walking you can see a white gate that is separating a walk way between the two buildings. As you can see in the current photo that gate is now gone.
The Tall Man stops in front of Reggie’s Ice Cream parlor, which is today the Julian Café and Bakery located at 2112 Main Street. It doesn’t much look like it did in the film. The rock work in front is now gone and they have added an awning.
There was also a deleted scene in the film where Jody pulls up in the Hemi-Cuda and heads into work at a bank. That bank is just across the street down and down a bit.
Also in the deleted scenes we get to take a look inside of Reggie’s Ice Cream parlor. The interior was shot at another location about 150 miles away. This location is Fosselman’s Ice Cream Company located at 1824 West Main Street in Alhambra just about two blocks away from little Tommy Doyle’s elementary school in John Carpenter’s Halloween.
Going to this location is a trip because it really hasn’t changed that much at all. The signs on the wall behind the counter are exactly as they were in the film. While I was there I had myself a banana split and all I can say is that it rocked! You can check out their website here.
Now we venture to another world...well al least that’s what it is in the film. The Tall Man’s planet was shot at the Santa Fe Dam located at 15501 East Arrow Highway in Irwindale. The dam is part of an 836 acre recreational area that is open to the public every day from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Next we go to the Pearson residence. The house is located just down the street from the city of Brentwood, made famous by the O.J Simpson trial. Just two miles away is O.J. Simpson’s former home at 360 North Rockingham Avenue which has since been torn down and replaced by a Mediterranean-style mansion. The condo where Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman were murdered is only two and a half miles away. The condo at 875 South Bundy Drive (now changed to 879 South Bundy); Brentwood has been renovated beyond recognition.
The Pearson home is a private residence located at 1232 Corsica Drive in Pacific Palisades.
Only the exterior of the house was used in the film with two small exceptions. Just inside the front door was used when the Tall Man grabs Michael and carries him out to the hearse.
Also when Reggie enters the house and walks down the hallway to be startled by Myrtle the house keeper. That hallway was also used at this location.
The rest of the interiors of the Pearson home were filmed at a private residence in the San Fernando Valley. The exact address is unknown. The house was leased to serve double-duty as the location for where the brothers lived and also to house members of the production crew. The living room, stairs, kitchen, garage and Michael’s bedroom were filmed at this location.
Now we go to our final location from the film, Morningside Mortuary. This one location in the film was shot in several different places. In part one of our look at Phantasm we covered the graveyard, chapel, and casket room. Now we will cover the rest.
First is the entrance gate to Morningside, which is located at the corner of North Lake Avenue and East Loma Alta Drive in Altadena. It is an entrance to a park like area.
After visiting several mausoleums in the area it was determined that, for the large number of action sequences, which included gunplay and the use of a lot of blood, it would be impossible to film in a real mausoleum. Consequently, Mark Scott Annerl, an award-winning designer and high school friend of Coscarelli's, was hired to design the Phantasm Mausoleum. A warehouse was leased in Chatsworth California to serve as the interior of the mausoleum. Since the budget was tight, a single hallway was constructed with an eight-sided rotunda (nicknamed "the octunda") on one end and two intersecting halls in the middle. Also constructed was the space gate room, which was connected at the end of one of the hallways. The design allowed for numerous passes through the same hallway from different entrances which would give the illusion of a very expansive mausoleum. They moved statues and redressed the hallway to make it appear different when needed. A really cool fan created floor plan can be found at the official Phantasm website here.
The construction crew was led by Marc Schwartz, who also worked on the camera crew when construction was completed. Schwartz's experience was in regular construction, not set construction, so consequently the set was built very solidly.
This warehouse was also used for the shots where Michael is driving along with the two girls in the VW bug and is attacked by dwarves.
This is also where Reggie’s ice cream truck was discovered turned over. The production crew used a forklift to turn over the truck for the scene.
Lastly we take a look at the iconic building that served as the exterior of the mausoleum, the Dunsmuir Mansion. Dunsmuir House was built by Alexander Dunsmuir, who came to the Bay Area in 1878. The elegant mansion was built as a wedding gift for his beloved Josephine in December 1899. Tragically, Alexander became ill and died while in New York on their honeymoon. Josephine returned alone to her new home where she resided until her death in 1901.
In 1906, the estate was purchased by I.W. Hellman Jr. who worked for Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco, as a summer home for his family. They dubbed their estate Oakvale Park. By 1913 the mansion was remodeled to accommodate the growing Hellman family and their acquisitions from European travels.
The Hellmans enjoyed the estate together for fourteen years until Mr. Hellman died in 1920. Mrs. Hellman kept the estate, where her children and grandchildren came for long summer days, until the late 1950's. During the Hellman era the landscaping at the northern end of the estate was developed, and the swimming pool and Dinkelspiel House were added to the estate.
The estate was purchased by the City of Oakland in the early 1960s with the intent of using the grounds and mansion as a conference center. The latter did not prove feasible and a non-profit organization was formed in 1971 to preserve and restore the estate for the public benefit. For many years, the non-profit group and the City jointly operated the estate.
In June 1989 an Agreement was entered into between the City of Oakland and the non-profit Dunsmuir House and Gardens, Inc. whereby the City gave the non-profit full responsibility for funding, operating, promoting, preserving, restoring, developing and improving Dunsmuir House and Gardens Historic Estate. The 50-acre estate is to be used as an educational, historical, cultural, and horticultural resource.
The Dunsmuir House mansion has been designated a National Historic Site by the United States Department of the Interior and both the mansion and the Carriage House have been designated Historic Landmarks by the City of Oakland.
There are windows near the ground level on the outside of the house that lead into basement style rooms as seen in the film but I don’t believe these were the same ones used in the film unless the bottom part of the house has since been remodeled.
While we were there we all got a bit of a chill when we saw a horse drawn carriage pass us on the grounds very similar to the one we see the Tall Man riding in the film.
As far as I know none of the interior of the Dunsmuir was used during filming. This location has been used for several other films, including Burnt Offerings and So I Married an Axe Murderer.
This location is strange because it is the middle of Oakland and not in the best of areas. When you enter the estate it feels like you have walked into another world.
The Dunsmuir is open to the public for tours. Check their website for details.
The Dunsmuir House and Gardens is located at 2960 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland, CA. 94615. For more information you can also call (510) 615-5555.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Horror’s Hallowed Grounds. I would like to thank Guy Thorpe for his help in finding some of the key locations in this article. Until next time the hunt continues!
