My boyfriend, Liam, is a Phantasm fanatic. He’s an avid collector of the films’ memorabilia, has all the movies memorized, and was the reason I first saw the sequels. Shortly after we started dating, we set aside an entire day to binge them all and, for our first anniversary, I commissioned a piece from an artist friend of ours named Mal Semmens (malsemmensart on Instagram) to commemorate that day. It’s currently framed above our television.

Last year, Reggie Bannister’s wife, Gigi, announced that Reggie isn’t doing too well. He’s suffering from Lewy Body dementia and Parkinson’s disease, and she invited fans to send him letters. Liam wrote to him, explaining how important Reggie is to him and how much he loves the movies, and included a print of Mal’s artwork. Then, this morning, Gigi made another post, directing people to Reggie’s GoFundMe… and in it, he’s holding our print (pictured below). I can’t even begin to put into words what this means to us.

I didn’t grow up on the Phantasm movies like Liam did, but I love the films and I know how impactful they have been for so many people - especially those who saw them when they were young. I adore Reggie Bannister and I know how important he is to the horror family. I’m not normally one to push folks to donate money because I know how broke we all are, but if you have a few bucks to help out with Reggie’s hospice care, I’ve included the link in this post. They’re 82% of the way to their goal.