The movie phantasm.....?

Question

well im looking through the questions posted on here about the movie phantasm and none seem to talk about this. I was watching phantasm 2 last night and it was kinda cheesy, but actually pretty scary with the weird graveyard crypts, the flying spheres of death, the tall man, and lots of weapons. I was wondering though what gave the tall man his powers? you see in the end of the second one he was creating an army of those little midget guys in his crypt when they opened up a door to his world. Well when they looked inside his world it was like a parallel dimension of some sort. Was that where tall man came from is that dimension?

Answer 1

Angus Scrimm rocks!

From Wikipedia:
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Relatively little is known about him. Once upon a time the Tall Man was a kind-hearted soul named Jebediah Morningside, and he was experimenting with inter-dimensional travel. After perfecting the device that would allow him to travel between worlds, he stepped through the gateway. Upon his return he was no longer Jebediah, but the cold and evil being known to Mike and Reggie as the Tall Man. It can only be speculated that while in a different dimension Jebediah's body was possessed by another intelligence, or that his physical likeness has been assumed by some otherworldly, evil entity while killing off the original man. It might also be that his experiences changed him radically.

It is unclear exactly what the Tall Man's purpose is. The dwarf-like creatures he creates from the bodies of the dead serve him in our world, and he also transports them back to his own dimension. It is possible that he uses them as slave labor for his own world, while it has also been theorized that he uses them in in his assaults against the living and other dimensions, and now in a planned conquest of Earth. So far he has not revealed any grand schemes for world conquest, and he tends to plunder only small, out-of-the-way towns; he is never shown invading large cities.

The Tall Man possesses considerable psychic powers. On numerous occasions he has shown the ability to levitate objects and people without physically touching them, merely by twitching an eyebrow. He is able to invade the minds of his victims, and also to cause them to see images and hallucinations. He seems to be able to control the actions of the Sentinels, though in Phantasm II Mike was able to use one of the deadly spheres to attack him (which had no effect on him). The Tall Man also has tremendous physical strength. In the original film he lifted an entire casket by himself, and the effort seemed to cause him no strain. In the second film he flung Liz across a room after holding her by the throat.

In addition to the abilities listed above, the Tall Man is also seemingly immortal. Though it is possible to temporarily "kill" him, he is able to return in only a matter of moments. Throughout the series the Tall Man has been blown up in a car, embalmed with acid and consequently - because of the following circumstances - burned, frozen, and dropped down a mine shaft, and has always easily recovered. It should be noted, however, that in Phantasm III it was revealed that when one of his physical bodies is destroyed another exact duplicate enters our world through his dimensional gateway. Whether this is the same being or another separate entity is unknown.

Added to his powers of resurrection is the ability to regenerate, as he has been shown to regrow lost body parts. He also has some sort of clawed worm or parasite inside his head, which was shown in Phantasm II. In one the following films, his hands were actually "scissored" off when he attempted entry back into the Earth dimension in pursuit of Reggie and Mike, and the dimensional space-gate's "tuning forks" were deactivated by Reggie. The disembodied hands then proceeded to launch their own attack, but were destroyed thus demonstrating the horrific persistence of their master, The Tall Man.

Though it has thus far been impossible to permanently kill him, he can be hurt. The Tall Man has shown a great aversion to cold (it has been revealed that the dimension he comes from is very warm), and this was used against him in part III. He also has a weakness to certain pitches of sound. In part IV Mike was able to temporarily paralyze him using a guitar tuning fork.
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Answer 2

You should watch the original from 1979. The Tall Man shrank the dead people and made them servants. I was always under the impression that he was from the other dimension.

Part two wasn't all that great. Part three was better. I haven't seen part four but I am excited they are supposed to be making a part five to be released next year.