The great Reggie Bannister passed away this week, so I wanted to revisit this classic horror film that he is most associated with. They say writer/director Don Coscarelli wrote a rough screenplay for this film based on a nightmare he had as a teenager. That makes sense, as this film certainly plays out like a dream. The plot doesn’t always make sense; characters come in and out of scenes without explanation, and numerous moments just seem to exist on their own, outside of reality, or even this film.

In my review of the DVD boxed set and in my Letterboxd thoughts on my second viewing, I note that the plot doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But that’s not entirely true. There is a certain logic to the story; it just isn’t spelled out for you.

An alien, taking the form of a Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), pretending to be a mortician, is enslaving the dead, shrinking them down to size and sending them to his home planet. When he realizes that a young boy named Mike Pearson (A. Michael Baldwin) has seen him at work, he aims to kill him, his brother, Jody (Bill Thornbury), and their pal Reggie, the ice cream man (Reggie Bannister).

That’s basically the plot, more or less. And maybe it’s not exactly correct. The film isn’t big on explanations. And this doesn’t in any real way explain what makes this film so much fun to watch.

There are some wonderful visuals in this film. There is a scene where the ice cream truck crashes, and it is backlit at night, and it looks like a million-dollar movie. There is a moment when Mike is lying in bed, but then it turns into a grave with the Tall Man standing behind him, and these corpses come out of the grave and grab him. That turns out to be just a dream, but it is still effective.

At one point, our heroes go into this room filled with these strange little barrels, and two metal rods stick out of the floor. It is a simple set, but the way it is built and the way the scene is set, combined with the music, makes it utterly creepy.

Angus Scrimm is wonderful as the Tall Man. He has just a few lines, but the way he looks and stands and actually says those lines is iconic. Then there are these little people dressed in robes that make them look like Jawas from Star Wars.

I haven’t even mentioned the silver balls. Those freaking silver balls are the thing that everyone remembers from these movies. They fly through the sky with two blades sticking out. When they get you, they stab you in the head, drill into your skull, and blood sucks right out.

All of this is so strange and original; I just love it. None of it really gels together. It does feel like Coscarelli took these disconnected dream images and tied them all together. There are little oddities as well. Like, why is Reggie an ice cream man? He drives around in an old-school ice cream truck and even wears a cute little uniform. There is one moment where he pulls up to the Pearson house and starts jamming on acoustic guitar with another guy. I swear Coscarellit must have just known some dude with an old ice cream truck, and Bannister must have wanted to show off his guitar chops.

It is that kind of film. One where a guy had this idea for a film and really wanted to make it. So he gathered up the money himself, got some friends to work with him, and just went for it.

Somehow it works.