Phantasm II

As someone not raised on a lot of horror "classics", but instead their generally bigger/dumber sequels, this "bigger means better" 80's studio sequel to the unique 70's independent surrealist horror, is admittedly, right up my alley. So when Coscarelli & company were pushed away from making surrealist Italian horror to more of an interdimensional not-"Evil Dead II"(1987) I was quickly on board with "Reggie" remixing "Ash" and fully support him becoming the "Burt Gummer" of the "Phantasm" series.

The series of diminishing returns actually has a fun first step away from the original. It's a great bleak world they travel around in. Phantasm seems determined to grab you from behind and I'm sure someday it will, when you least suspect it (unless you love the first one, than you kind of will expect it).

As would become standard for the series, Coscarelli fleshes out the mythology a little bit more with each installment. The first movie is a classic, and the vast majority of horror series never reach anywhere near the quality of the initial installment, but this is an anomaly, it's a blast of a movie for anyone who can dig the absurd. Call it surreal, if you like, but I prefer more pedestrian words, like ridiculous, or zany, and that's the stuff that runs through my veins.

All the artistic flare of the first is gone and the new characters suck. But I came for Reggie and Reggie delivered. Can a movie be carried by a guy's cool uncle strapping shotguns together, picking up chicks in his Barracuda, and getting into chainsaw fights? (hello Panos Cosmatos) Almost yes. Kind of.

I actually enjoyed this one more than the first.

I can't wait to watch this remastered. I'm rewatching all the Phantasm films as part of a Sunday marathon. While not quite as fun and creepy as the original this holds it's own by delving deeper into the movie's mythology. My wife also noted the fact that the TV Show Supernatural seems to have ripped this film franchise off.

Needed more Tall Man funk and a whole lot more "Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooy!"

Fine here's some money just stop talking about bald men with 4 barrels of hot lead and tall men and their silver balls.

Phantasm's virtues (e.g. an odd dreamlike tone, striking visuals etc) compensated for its obvious deficiencies, especially in writing and acting, even if the performances were generally agreeable. The sequel, however, is much closer to a generic 80's horror film, and while the production upgrade is evident (i.e. more sphere related action) it trades in the scrappy homemade charm of the original for predictable horror beats and arbitrary plotting that is more messy than surreal.

Like its model, this, while operating on a lower plane, works less on a logical than on a filmic fever-dream level, but most of the original chill is gone.

A slight step up in production quality somehow makes this inferior to the original. The creepy atmosphere is still there, and it's still a good movie, but it's just not as novel. The action and the humor really take center stage and make this one worthwhile.

Neither better nor worse than the first one

Better than I remember the other sequels being. The movie lags during its first half but comes into its own midway through, when all of the characters link up. It certainly isn't as good as the original, and lacks the dreamlike tone that made that film so great to watch. Bannister seems to have a lot of fun with his role, LeGros does well enough as Mike, and Angus Scrimm is great as the Tall Man (Though he gets too little screen time). Props to Universal for finally putting this out on DVD.

Reggie is the fucking best

takes the surreal creepiness of the first one and chums it up in a blender with Evil Dead 2 and the result is a plotless ball of gruesome scenes with good special effects and nothing else save for angus scrimm who will always being amazing as the tall man. i give it more points than i should because i still love seeing all the phantasm elements at play -- the tall man as mentioned, the dwarves, the balls, and the gore was excellent.

It wasn't a dream. I watched (endured) the whole thing. At the very least, I should have got up and grabbed myself some more popcorn.

Is this a movie worth seeing? No, it's not! Did I really waste my time watching it? Is it a dream? No, it's not. I guess the joke is the end-of-the-movie line from the old commercials, which sadly, although they came out in 1988, I remember like it was yesterday.

Tongue in cheek silly sequel. Has it's moments though.

Really quite good horror with a lot of suspenseful moments in the film. The Tall Man is one freaky villain without really doing that much, it's all in his presence. The spheres are so brutal and unique methods of destruction, very inventive.

The worst in the series, but still pretty good

75.000

For likely budgetary reasons the movie doesn’t keep the awesome pace of the first half hour (there’s a parallel universe where Coscarelli came into Spielberg/Lucas money / the PHANTASM series was canonized as Ewoks movies and cinema as such is pure brilliance as a result) but it’s hard to impossible to not love this.

Has most of the features I look for in an 80's horror. Imaginative, fun, and self-aware without being smarmy.

Wow, this was pretty retarded. The four barrelled shotgun was lame. The only jugs shown in the movie were from a broad with a 12 year old boys chest, and what the hell was with those shiny ball shits going after the tall man's own minions?! ::shakes head:: When the tall man went recruiting these simpletons, I wonder if he wrote on the bottom of the application "WARNING: Death may occur if you get in the way of my shiny balls." Still, it wasn't a complete waste. =P

Hilarious

Fun, gory sequel.

the best Phantasm movie.

Totally rules, way bigger and goofier than the first a la Evil Dead.

Unfortunate sequel but amusing in places.

Good sequel with one of my favorite 80's horror actors Reggie Bannister. Talked to him at last year's con he's realy cool & friendly.

Pretty good sequel with the FOUR-barreled shotgun. Good fun if a bit incoherent like its predecessor.

75.000

Not Bad Sequel

I actually prefer the sequel over the original. I think it works better as an action movie because it allows it to not feel as flawed due to the campiness.

Disappointing. Where _Phantasm_ was an original, this shows that Coscarelli has been adversely influenced by all of his imitators. The result is a textbook of modern horror movie cliches: you could cut the movie into random chunks, reassemble it, and have pretty much the same thing.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the original, but I appreciated it for it's dreamlike mood and overcoming it’s limited budget. This sequel is done on a bigger budget, and it feels like a big compromise. The script is a mess; there's hardly any plot - it's like a greatest hits compilation of scenes from the original with new characters added in hope of larger audience. There are some fun and gory scenes especially in the 2nd half, but as a whole the film is quite disappointing.