10 Scrapped Horror Movie Sequels Much Better Than What We Got

While not as popular as the Nightmare On Elm Street or Friday The 13th films, Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm franchise has a loyal phan-base which grows all the time. And even though every movie seems to provide more questions than answers as to what exactly is going on, each new installment is always met with anticipation.

Which is why people went nuts when Phantasm’s End was announced in the late 90s to be written by Oscar winner Roger Avery. Sadly, it never came to be.

Also known as Phantasm 1999AD, this proposed final film in the series would have taken us into an apocalyptic landscape where only New York and Los Angeles have survived, with everything in between a wasteland called The Plague Zone where series villain The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) resided.

The plot followed protagonist Reggie (Reggie Bannister) as he joined forces with a group of survivors (one of which was to have been played by fan favorite Bruce Campbell) to rescue his friend Mike from the clutches of The Tall Man and put an end to his reign for good.

The main issue that turned this project from possibility to pipe dream was budget. The script was reported to be huge in scale, and even with a proposed 5 million dollar budget, the risk/reward for a franchise that many non-horror fans were even aware of was just too high for producers.

Even though some of the ideas from this unmade screenplay appear in 2016’s Phantasm: Ravager, this was little consolation to the diehards who to this day still lament the loss of what may have been the most epic film in the franchise.