Anecdotes From Angus Scrimm


I have to honestly say that one of the best things about making this retrospective and The Phantasm Archives would be talking to the people who make the films I admire. Angus Scrimm, in particular, is a wonderfully kind gentelman in that he not only participated in this retrospective but gave me a surprise phone call at work to say he was doing so!
On Working With Bruce
"When I first met Bruce I thought he was being chilly towards me. But then I realized it was because I was a villain and he was the good guy. I remember during the struggle our characters had near the end; Bruce choreographed that entire fight scene. I had a double for long shots, a stuntman named Butch, a Texan, who played me but I had to do the close-ups. Bruce was so very patient with me during that sequence and as I recall, I only fell once (laughs) and the stuntman caught me!"

On Working With Steve
"Steve Barnett was a joy to work with; a really wonderful guy. He was a director who knew what he wanted and more importantly knew how to get it."

On The Location
"I remember in Eagle River, Wisconsin, where we shot the picture, everything, all the stores closed very early so we all became very acquainted with the local supermarket. The Wisconsin crew were all very nice people, very professional."

On Going Straight To Video
"There was a falling out of some sort and the film was held up for a while in litigation with RCA Columbia who was putting money into it. By the time it was over, there was no interest in a theatrical run and it went straight to video. It wasn't widely seen and vanished not long after that which was a shame. I really thought it was a good movie."

On His Overall Experience*
"It was shot in the Spring of 1990. Fangoria magazine contracted to produce three films. Christopher Webster, who produced the Hellraiser pictures, went into partnership with Steve Jacobs and Norman Jacobs, the publisher of Fangoria and Starlog, to do them at Christopher's studios in Wisconsin in the woods around Eagle River. Fangoria’s editor Tony Timpone was consultant, and their first film was Mindwarp. They signed Bruce Campbell of the Evil Dead pictures for the hero and they cast me as the villain. Marta Alicia, Elizabeth Kent and Wendy Sandow were the leading ladies. We all went to Eagle River, where Kim Hix had constructed a huge interior set of an underground community, the Crawlers, presided over by an evil "Seer." Steve Barnett directed.

It's a very valid film about a world which has suffered the consequences of rain forest devastation, destruction of the ozone layer, greedy atomic waste disposal, poisoned rivers and seas--an uninhabitable world with dregs of deformed humanity still struggling to survive. Except for a privileged few sealed off in a safe, remote, ideal community, from which one reckless girl decides she wants to escape to see what life is like outside. It’s gory, violent, literate, witty, articulate."

*The text appearing under the last heading is excerpted from Todd Mecklem's 1992 interview with Mr. Scrimm. It can be found in it's entirety over on The Phantasm Archives. The other four headings of material are from our conversation with Mr. Scrimm.


Angus Scrimm as the nefarious Seer in Mindwarp.
(Photo courtesy Steve Barnett)