Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm, first released in 1979, is one of the most beloved cult movies in the horror genre. The movie introduced audiences to Michael Baldwin and Reggie Bannister, and character actor Angus Scrimm terrified audiences by bringing the Tall Man to life. Phantasm went on to have three sequels with a fourth in post-production and influence a generation of filmmakers.

But fans of the franchise know that it’s hard to find a good copy of the original film. While its sequels are more easily available, the original is a challenge to come by in any condition. Good thing Bad Robot and Paramount Pictures have teamed up with Coscarelli to change all of that by restoring the film from the original negative for a 4k print! You can see the first image from the remaster below.

In addition to working with Bad Robot on the restoration, Coscarelli has been producing the fifth film of the Phantasm franchise, Phantasm: Ravager with David Hartman at the helm. While a teaser trailer was released online almost two years ago, we haven’t seen or heard much more since. Although Ain’t It Cool News, who shared the first photo from the 4k restoration, mentioned that the audience at BNAT in Austin, TX got to check out some footage during the 24 hour movie marathon. There’s no release date for the restoration of the original cult classic, but something tells me it won’t be too far off from when Ravager finally makes its debut.

In the meantime, you can enjoy another project that J.J. Abrams has been working on, a little movie called Star Wars: The Force Awakens c on Friday, December 18, 2015.

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H/T: Ain’t It Cool News
Featured Image Credit: DeviantArtist bloodedemon

Clarke Wolfe writes Horror Happenings for Nerdist every Sunday. You can follow her on Twitter @clarkewolfe.