 Most
people know actor/singer Reggie
Bannister from his recurring role
as badass ice cream man Reg in
the cult favorite
‘Phantasm’ films (4 to
date) by director Don
Coscarelli. In addition to
a couple early films the director
has also featured him in
‘Survival Quest’ as
well as last year’s
‘Bubba Ho-Tep’ (with
Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis).
Back
in the 1960s Reg wanted to be a
singer and during that time was a
member of the popular Greenwood
County Singers. However, fate
intervened and Reggie left the
Billboard charting band for
mandatory service in Vietnam. At
the time he was issued his draft
notice the band was playing in
Lake Tahoe with Andy Griffith and
Roy Clark! But fate had other
things in mind for Reggie. It was
during his military service that
he met Don Coscarelli…who
started directing films once he
returned home to the U.S.
…and the rest is
phantasmagoric history.
‘Phantasm’
(1979) put Reggie Bannister on
the map horror-wise and in the 25
years since the release of the
original he has staked his claim
with other genre favorites such
as ‘Wishmaster’ (as the
pharmacist), ‘Silent Night
Deadly Night 4: Initiation’
(as Eli and costarring with Maud
Adams and Clint Howard),
‘That Little Monster’,
‘Thicker Than Water’,
‘Cemetery Gates’,
‘The Demolitionist’ (as
the warden), ‘Absence of
Light’ (opposite Tom Savini
and John Berryman), ‘Song of
the Dead’ (in which he
{GASP} plays The President of the
United States!!!!), and several
others.
As
a recording artist the guitar
playing singer-songwriter has
released 5 solo albums to date
and has even made a couple of
videos ‘Land of The
Free’ and ‘Love
That’s Gone’. He is
also Vice President of Production
Magic Inc. Together with his
partner Gigi Porter, the company
can provide crew, cast, location,
or FX --- for any live event, TV
or film project. The man is a
horror convention favorite and
has even guest starred on
‘L.A. Law’. And to top
of it all off Reggie Bannister is
also a very cool guy – after
all, he agreed to this interview.
Owen:
Hey Reggie, I know as a
musician actor you have had some
of your music in your films...but
I was curious if you have written
songs about your film characters?
Reggie: The
only tune I've written about a
character I've played in films is
"Have You Seen It,"
which is featured in the roll-up
at the end of "Phantasm
Oblivion." I
originally wrote it for my CD
"Fool's Paradise,"
which I recorded in '96. The
lyrics reflect Reggie's wearied
determination to find and
confront the Tall Man once and
for all. It's a hard rockin'
epilogue to the whole series.
Owen:
I love the 'Phantasm'
films -- what's your take on the
direction the series is taking?
Reggie:
I think we're all getting deeper
than shit into the Tall Man's
world, trying to navigate through
it with some kind of impunity. In
other words, we're trying to find
out as much as possible about it
without getting our asses kicked
to bad. I think it's a great
direction that leaves open
endless opportunity to explore
any number of scenarios. In that
way, it takes on a life of it's
own, constantly growing,
changing... realities folding
together. It's great stuff!
Owen:
What is the freakiest
thing to ever happen when filming
a Phantasm movie?
Reggie:
I've told this story before - but
we were shooting a scene in a
cemetery/mausoleum in Compton
late one night. The scene had to
do with me and the resurrected
Jody witnessing the tall Man
talking to Mike through what
seemed to be a glass paneled
crypt. As the Tall Man
finished talking and walked away,
the glass panel suddenly becomes
solid marble. I rush up to the
crypt, puzzled as to what has
taken place and reach up to touch
the surface of the stone and just
as I did, a huge crash of thunder
shook the building. The skies
literally opened up with a deluge
of rain and then hail as thunder
and lightning rocked and lit up
the property. I mean, it all
happened the second I touched the
marble. I held it together to
finish the scene but we were all
totally tripped out. You see, it
was "Lord Of The
Dead" and the first
time Angus, Bill, Mike and I had
ever worked on the same scene
together. Hell, it was the first
time Bill, Mike and I had worked
together since the original
picture! Yeah, I'd have to say
that was pretty freaky.
Owen:
This may hint at my FX
ignorance...but how do you guys
get the ball fly and has the
technology of that changed with
FX technology?
Reggie:
In the seventies when we started
all of this, there were only
basically two ways of making an
inanimate object appear to fly.
The two techniques was either 'in
camera' or super-imposition. In
camera means you've actually
rigged the object to something
that makes it look like it's
flying so that you get the shot
organically. Like in the first
picture, when the bug comes
flying out of the sink. They
rigged the bug on nylon fishing
line so that when it 'fly's' it
goes right in front of the
camera. In super-imposition, you
film the object, a ball, just
hanging against a black screen.
Then you can film let's say, a
mausoleum wall with the camera on
a dolly being pushed parallel to
the wall. Then, in the photo lab
they super impose the image of
the ball on the image of the wall
flying by. Mostly, the ball FX we
use are in camera even though now
CGI is available. As I think
back, I believe that the only
time we've used CGI was in
Oblivion for the sphere swarms in
the prologue montage. We've used
fishing poles and ladders. Balls
mounted on plexi-glass and then
mounted to the camera lens, we've
even just thrown balls down
mausoleum halls... it all works
pretty well.
Owen:
How much of Reggie, the
Ice Cream man, from the Phantasm
films your own creation and how
much has been scripted that way?
Reggie:
Don Coscarelli is a lot of fun to
work with. The character he
created for me in
"Phantasm" is great
just the way it's scripted but,
because the lines are already
cool it inspires me to sometimes
want to extrapolate on what's
already on the page. Don is
always willing to listen to ideas
for either dialing in or
expanding dialogue. There have
even been times when he would say
"You know, I'm not crazy
about this dialogue...what do you
guys think you'd say here?"
So, I'd have to say that the Reg
character as it has developed
over the years has been a
collaborative effort.
Owen:
Is a fifth installment of
the series planned?
Reggie:
I know that we'd all like to
shoot another picture sooner than
later. There's a new script
written so we'll all just cross
our fingers, toes and balls and
hope that it happens.
Owen:
Some of your other great
films are 'Wishmaster', 'Silent
Night Deadly Night 4', 'Dead
Things', 'Cemetery Gates',
'Absence of Light', etc.
Are you drawn to the genre or are
you offered mostly genre roles?
Reggie:
I'm both drawn to it and mostly
offered roles in genre flix. The
genre, as I'm sure you've
noticed, is very healthy these
days. This year alone I've worked
on three genre pieces and a
sci-fi fantasy called "The
Ghastly Love Of Johnny X,"
with Will Keenan and Kevin
Macarthy. I'm scheduled for work
on a zombie flick in December and
will be working on two pics
scheduled to shoot in January and
April next year. There are other
projects formulating but I can't
really get into them here.
Owen: I
hear you are also playing the
president in the flick 'Song of
the Dead'. Tell me about
that...did you incorporate your
own political slant into the
role?
Reggie:
"Song Of The Dead"
is a zombie rock opera so, I not
only get to play the president
with dialogue, I also get to sing
the part. I really didn't have to
slant anything as the role
already had the slant built in.
This is a smart story with great
dialogue and songs all written
and directed by Chip Gubera. And
yes, there is a cabin in the
woods inhabited by a functional
family (now that's scary), a
dysfunctional boyfriend and a
serial killer. And oh, those
zombie hordes. I'm tellin' ya',
you can't beat this picture with
a hammer.
Owen: So
where is your heart when it comes
to the arts --- is it an even
split between music and movies?
Reggie: My
heart lies with the art form that
can convey and mean the most to
humanity. If you had asked me
this question in the '70's or
earlier, I would have said hands
down that music was the highest
art form on the planet because
people listened and we gave it to
'em. They ate it up and wanted
more. In the '60's music was the
driving force of change in the
world. Now, it's more like simple
entertainment. Very few artists
are writing significant lyrics
couched in beautiful chord and
lead patterns. Film is now the
stronger medium for
socio/cultural comment and I am
fortunately, working more now in
film than ever. Musically today,
I play small venues generally as
a solo act. It's always great to
play as long as someone really
wants to listen.
Owen: What
scares you in real life?
Reggie: George
W. Bush
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