If your childhood was akin to mine and you grew up in the 1970s infatuated with horror movies, chances are there were a small handful of films that left an indelible impression on you. For me, the seminal movies that necessitated sleeping with the lights on after viewing them, were Alien, The Amityville Horror, and a certain low-budget scarefest that was not only frightening, but about as bizarre as horror flicks came in those days.

The film, a decidedly B-movie affair with no-name actors and egregiously cheesy effects, saw its protagonists being hunted down by a villain known only as The Tall Man, dodging flying silver spheres with knives projecting out of them, and cruising around in a prime example of Mother Mopar’s Golden Era rides.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the movie I’m referring to is 1979’s Phantasm, and the car in question was a lightly modified, black 1971 Plymouth ‘Cuda hardtop.

With an estimated budget of just $275,000, Phantasm managed to rake in over $22 million dollars during its theatrical release, on its way to becoming a legitimate cult classic with the advent of home video. Owing to this unimagined success, Phantasm became a franchise, spawning four sequels.

Each of these films featured two of the main actors from the original film, A. Michael Baldwin and Reggie Bannister, as they attempt to thwart The Tall Man’s evil machinations while rolling in a ‘Cuda. The version of the car changed from picture to picture though, and it was in the third film, Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, in which my absolute favorite iteration of the big, bad fish was used.

In this month’s edition of Rob’s Movie Muscle we’re gonna have a look at that car, a raucous 1970 Plymouth Hemicuda Convertible. So off we go!

Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, like all the Phantasm films, was an auteur effort by self-taught filmmaker, Don Coscarelli, who wrote, directed and produced the movie.

Growing up obsessed with horror flicks in Los Alamitos, California, Coscarelli began making short movies as a teen, and by the age of just 19, became the youngest director to ever have a film distributed by a Hollywood studio, when he sold Jim, The World’s Greatest, his first full-length feature, to Universal Pictures in 1975.

Another feature, a comedy called Kenny & Company, followed in 1976, and saw Coscarelli and actor A. Michael Baldwin, one of the stars of the Phantasm series, team up for the first time.

For the next two years, Coscarelli focused on conceiving of and writing the script for the first Phantasm film, as well as securing the $275,000 he felt he needed to produce it. Coscarelli ultimately sourced the funds from family and family friends. By doing things in this manner, it afforded him complete artistic freedom, free from the typical interference most filmmakers receive from studio executives, venture capitalists, and the like.

Thus, decisions on all facets of the production process, such as casting, locations, wardrobe, and production design, was entirely up to Coscarelli alone. This naturally extended to the selection of the hero’s car, and enabled Coscarelli, a rabid muscle car fan, to pick the perfect protagonist’s vehicle. The car he ultimately chose had its roots firmly planted in his high-school years in the early-1970s.

“When I was in high school, there was a kid who was a year younger than me who somehow bought one of those cars and would drive it through the parking lot,” the director once recalled in an interview. “I would stand there with my friends, and we would salivate over this car. It was a beautiful 1970 Plymouth AAR ‘Cuda in Sassy Grass Green with a white interior. It was really hot with the blacked-out fiberglass hood and pistol-grip shifter. He’d roar out of that parking lot.”

Years later, while penning the screenplay for Phantasm in a cabin up in the mountains, Coscarelli remembered that ‘Cuda.

“I was cobbling together this horror movie,” Coscarelli said, “and for some reason, I thought, ‘oh, the brothers will drive one of those ‘Cudas! It will give me a chance to get my hands on one!’”

And so it was the older brother in the movie, Jody (played by Bill Thornbury), would drive one of Mopar’s finest.

“Back in the day, the price of those cars dropped because the price of gas started to go up and the insurance costs were too high,” the director remembered. “We bought it off a kid in Los Angeles who wanted to get rid of it. We cleaned it up, fixed it up, and then it became this icon in the movie.”

The car used in the first Phantasm movie was a 1971 ‘Cuda that originally left the Plymouth factory painted in FC7 In-Violet purple with a white interior, and a 340-cube V8 mated to a four-speed manual transmission powering it.

Prior to filming, the ‘Cuda was resprayed in X9 Formal Black, and had its interior reupholstered in black vinyl. Subtle blue and gray pinstripes were applied to the car’s flanks, 440 Six-Pack callouts were added to the sides of the hood scoops in a blatant case of upbadging, and leaded rear fender flares were tacked on to accommodate Cragar SS chrome wheels shod with ultra-fat rubber. A tinted sunroof was fitted as well.

For Phantasm II, released in 1988, Coscarelli decided to stick with a black ‘Cuda, but upped the ante by switching to a ’71 Hemicuda hardtop.

Once again, though, all wasn’t as it seemed, as the “Hemicuda” viewed on-screen consisted of four 318 cubic-inch V8-equipped cars dressed up with Hemicuda logos, Cragar SS wheels, a partial pinstripe down the side, and no driving lights under the front bumper.

This subterfuge of substituting a pair of basic Barracudas for a Hemicuda, can be spotted by any knowledgeable Mopar aficionado, as the picture car once again sported the dual scoop hood, whereas all real 1971 Hemicudas came equipped with the factory Shaker hood in either Argent Silver or flat black.

Come Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, Coscarelli decided he wanted the ultimate ‘Cuda for the film, and bequeathed the character of Reggie with a 1970 Hemicuda convertible, one of the rarest muscle cars of the entire Golden Era. I, for one, was overjoyed to see this, as the ’70 convertible is one of my all-time favorite muscle cars, mainly because of its subtler trim compared to the ’71, with dual instead of quad headlamps, and a less flashy grille treatment.

Since 1970 Hemicuda ragtops were already quite valuable cars at the time of filming in 1993, a clone was once again used instead of having a real Hemi car absorb the rigors and traumas of production.

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In one scene, we get a glimpse of that Hemi and the Shaker scoop being placed on top of it. (Photo courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment.)

A triple black convertible, the picture car did indeed feature a non-original 426 Hemi “Elephant Motor” with its dual four-barrel Carter carbs on display in one sequence, when Reggie works on the motor and replaces the (correct) Argent Silver Shaker hood scoop.

On close examination, we can see that the Phantasm III ‘Cuda features driving lights, chrome bumpers, 15-inch factory Rallye wheels, white “Hockey Stick” stripes with Hemi callouts, a “Go Wing” rear deck spoiler, and dual body colored exterior mirrors. Inside, the car sports a wood rim steering wheel and a Hurst pistol grip shifter atop the four-speed A-833 tranny.

We see quite a bit of the ‘Cuda throughout the movie, to the extent that one might say it’s almost its own character in the film. The camera lovingly covers its every contour, and although there is no high-speed action featuring the car, there is one fairly decent burnout, and the glorious sound of that Hemi punctuates the soundtrack in every scene it is in.

While Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead is no Exorcist or Shining in terms of its scares nor its cinematic quality, for anyone devoted to Hemi E-bodies, the movie is quite literally a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. There really is no better depiction of a ‘Cuda in any film I’ve seen.