10 Horror Movie Answers Fans Had To Wait For

10. The Tall Man's Origins - Phantasm IV: Oblivion

In Don Coscarelli's sci-fi boogeyman flick, Mike Pearson discovers the local undertaker, The Tall Man, is a supernatural being who turns corpses into his minions.

What makes Phantasm's recurring antagonist so intimidating (apart from Angus Scrimm's chilling performance) is how the limitations of his powers are unknown. Almost every time he appears, The Tall Man displays a newfound ability, such as super-strength, mimicry, telekinesis, or size alteration. On top of that, he has the ability to summon Sentinel spheres designed to bore through the skulls of their targets.

The big question is, who (or what) the hell is this guy? Is he a sorcerer, a demon, or a ghost?

As has been explained in Phantasm IV: Oblivion, The Tall Man was an innocent mortician called Jebediah Morningside during the American Civil War. Desperate to understand what lies beyond death, Jebediah built a machine to travel through dimensions, and upon entering another reality, Jeb was reborn as an entity beyond time and space. With his godlike abilities, The Tall Man was driven to create a vast army to help him conquer all of reality.

Though The Tall Man was disturbing from the get-go, learning that his power is virtually boundless and unquantifiable makes him scarier than ever.