Don Coscarelli is 72 years old today. He was born on 17 February 1954.
I’ve been meaning to write a long article about Coscarelli’s career. There is one thing about his films that I have never seen discussed. He focused a lot on big brothers. His films are filled with guys doing the kinds of things they learned from their big brothers. He understands what young guys find cool (or at least did until the internet turned most of them into incels and right-wing trolls).
Phantasm includes a great example of this. Jody locks Mike in his room in an effort to protect him. But Mike wants out so he can join the fight. So Mike uses a shotgun shell, a thumbtack, Scotch tape, and a hammer to blow the door open. In my experience, that’s what big brothers do. It’s almost definitional.
We see this in Coscarelli’s first two films, Jim, the World’s Greatest (with Craig Mitchell) and Kenny & Company. But films like John Dies at the End also include it. For example, John creates a baseball bat covered in Old Testament verses with large nails sticking out.
As far as I know, Coscarelli has no brothers. But I’m not talking here about literal brothers. I’m talking about a kind of male culture and bonding between men — a kind people rarely talk about but that is mostly very positive. As it is, Reggie in the Phantasm franchise plays the role of Mike’s brother even though he technically isn’t.
To celebrate Don Coscarelli’s 72nd birthday, let’s watch Kenny & Company. Other than being a low-budget independent film, it isn’t especially psychotronic. But you can see clearly how this film leads to Phantasm. And it is full of the kind of “cool guy-culture” that I’ve been talking about. It also happens to be a very enjoyable film.
Don Coscarelli by Kevin Winter via Entertainment under Fair Use.