FANGORIA #33 (FALL 2026): CRYSTAL LAKE, GODZILLA, CRAMPTON, BANNISTER & LOBO

Fangoria #33 (Fall 2026) creeps from the crypt, with two covers: one celebrating Crystal Lake (subscription edition) and the other, Godzilla Minus Zero (newsstand edition), each sharing the same superb, monster-sized contents. 

Of the bracketing material, one will find revealing looks at Clayface; V/H/S Mixtape; Whalefall; Beware Buiuna; No One Will Save You; and Black Zombie. Readers will also spend time with Scream Queen Barbara (Re-Animator/From Beyond) Crampton; Tony Timpone's "Starlog Memories;" The Academy Museum's upcoming Horror Exhibit; and experience a heartwarming tribute to Phantasm's Reggie Bannister (God rest his soul). 

As a terrific supplement, the issue features Michael Verrati's article on my buddy, Mr. Lobo. Verrati has done an exemplary job covering the ubiquitous, horror host's twenty-five-year career. Indeed, Mr. Lobo deserves the commemoration, and let's face it, his fame is still on the ascent. This avid article represents just another significant part in what will propel it to even higher heights.  

Fangoria #33 (Fall 2026) is now in full circulation, so why not seize a copy to flavor to your Halloween?

https://www.fangoria.com/crystal-lake-fangoria-33-subscriber-cover/ 

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FLY HIGH, REGGIE BANNISTER

You made Phantasm's Reggie, the ice-cream man, iconic in the annals of horror-fantasy, having starred in all five chapters of Don Coscarelli's famed franchise, along with co-authoring the novel, Phantasm: SurVIval with your talented and supportive wife, Gigi. 

Some don't realize that you were also a remarkable musician/singer, a member of the noted, 1960s folk group, The Greenwood County Singers, with your catchy tunes featured in three of the Phantasm films. 

You figured even further into Coscarelli's early queue with Jim the World's Greatest and Kenny & Company (two of the best coming-of-age movies ever to emerge), and later with the director's Bubba Ho-Tep (based on a Joe R. Lansdale's tale, where Elvis Presley and "JFK" combat a cowboy-garbed mummy), and we should also keep in mind Coscarelli's ambitious, communal pilot, Survival Quest, which you were more than happy to enliven. 

In addition, you made the rounds in The Ghastly Love of Johnny X; Wishmaster; The Demolitionist; Primitive; The Rage; Last Rites; Cemetery Gates; The Obsidian Curse; Metal Man; Not Another B Movie; Satan Hates You; Sawblade, Carnies; Walking Distance; Up Against Amanda; Little Monster; The Quiet Ones (aka Hush); Small Town Saturday Night; Bloody Bloody Bible Camp; One for the Road (an epilogue to Salem's Lot); Silent Night, Deadly Night IV: Initiation; The Mangler Reborn; The Final Curtain; Fallen Angels; Seasons; Text; and Journeyman. 

I fondly remember meeting you at a Fangoria convention in the early 1990s, where you strolled over and chatted with my friend, Ken, and me. You were down to earth, just the way one would expect you to be, and I might add, a welcome breath of fresh air compared to certain other celebrities who thought it fine to be aloof. 

You meant a lot to me, Mr. Bannister, and I believe that everyone in the horror community would claim the same. Your passing is heartbreaking. After all, gents like you are so few and far between. Indeed, you had a tough time of it during the last few years, but you endured it with courage (no doubt tapped from your Vietnam days). You've now left your pain behind to find your place in Paradise. God bless you, my fearless, fiend-fighting, ice-cream man. Your warmth and incomparable talent shall never fade. In fact, it's destined to fly high forever and a day!

An Alternate Reality #13: Trippin' with Phantasm V...

Don Coscarelli's "Phantasm" series is one of the richest in horror-film history, combining thrilling, traditional genre elements with ongoing hip, surrealistic twists. The original film is an indisputable classic (one of the best of '79...hell, of the entire '70s), and its sequels are pretty damn enthralling, to boot. 

Alas, the guns-a-blazin' "Phantasm II" didn't fare as well as Universal Studios had anticipated, leaving its follow-ups, "Lord of the Dead" and "Oblivion", down the direct-for-home-viewing route. However, that doesn't make those sequels any less significant among fans (i.e., open for more), and thanks to Coscarelli's tenacity, they now have their "final chapter", which this time expands the series' inherent alternate-reality components to a whole new level.

Despite its elevation in weirdness, "Phantasm V: Ravager" (directed by David Hartman, who co-wrote with producer Coscarelli) remains a traditional, family affair: made, that is, by the lifelong bond of Coscarelli, Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister and the late Angus Scrimm. That Coscarelli's performers and their related characters still resonate is as important to this ambitious chapter as are its warped, zigzagging avenues. 

Our beloved, ice-cream-man-turned-hero, Reggie, for example, continues as the series' central hero. He's comparable to "Evil Dead'"s Ash, skipping through time (and the possible membrane-theory consequences of it) to track down his beloved Mike (Baldwin) and battle the shape-shifting, zombie-dwarf-making Tall Man (Scrimm)'s invasion. 

More than in prior chapters, that invasion bounces frequently from past, present and Mad Maxian future. As the "Slaughterhouse Five" complexities deepen, Reggie even finds himself diagnosed with dementia in various hospitalized segments, accompanied not only by visiting Mike, but in one instance by a sickly chap who resembles none other than the Jebediah Morningside: the Tall Man's original form. Such sanity-questioning interludes give "Ravager" its strange, sentimental allure.

Despite its many trippy transitions, Reggie somehow finds the mettle to battle on, sometimes in two places at once and even as the Tall Man dispatches both small and large silver spheres (otherworldly drones, if you will) to track and slay the opposition. This makes the odds of success for our 'Cuda-drivin' everyman slim, but that's what we want. Gloom and doom, after all, distinguishes the "Phantasm" universe.

To help Reggie tackle his mind-bending obstacles, folks from his past, like Mike and Jody (Thornbury), meet him at the intersections, with the former rising to the occasion, just as he did in the original. This makes the movie markedly nostalgic, but then so does Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave's symphonic reprise (rekindled by Christopher Stone), as well as an inviting reappearance by the Tall Man's seductive disguise, the Lady in Lavender (Kathy Lester), and a cool, extended cameo by "Lord of the Dead'"s no-nonsense Rocky (Gloria Lynne Henry). 

Though there are ample, old personas to please, this sequel isn't without new ones. There's the attractive Dawn (Dawn Cody), who for a time acts as a potential romantic interest, but of course, can romance ever prevail in a "Phantasm" film? Incidentally, Daniel Roebuck fans will be pleased to catch him as Dawn's Bulgarian farmhand, Demeter, and Stephen Jutras offers memorable, comedic spunk as the ass-kicking Chunk.

"Ravager" also gives the saga an cohesion of sorts to its dream-within-a-dream scenarios, though at the same time, like Chris Nolan's "Inception", leaves the door open for further speculation: a trait that (like its shimmering spheres; dimensional, vibration rods; and haunting music) has typified the series. 

As a continuation (and a possible last hurrah), "Ravager" should resonate among fans as much as "Force Awakens" in its mythological extrapolation. Though it may have sidestepped wide distribution, that this low-budget entry even exists is a celebratory wonder. Like its previous chapters, "Ravager" saturates the soul with its strange splendor: an uncommon triumph when so many current horror movies tend to be either arrogantly overblown or (as with many "lost footage" flicks) painfully dull. "Ravager" at least proves, when it comes to stirring a sturdy atmosphere, old friends remain the best choice.