Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead

I wish Me had brain power to explain why these films so far just work when they’re comprised of so many stupid elements. A middle aged bald man with a pony tail is an action badass. The villain is a tall man with silver balls.

The third film in the "Phantasm" series amped-up the campy horror/action/comedy of the second, while also returning back to more of the confusing "Tall Man" mythology and familiar faces of Coscarelli & company's original 70's cult classic. However, while this gives the movie a bit of mixed bag/oil-and-water feel at times, the movie continues the series in an entertaining way for fans of the franchise, in addition to cementing "Reggie" well on his way to "Burt Gummer" status.

By the third installment, it seems like Coscarelli is hitting his stride. It strikes a nice balance between action/horror and weird experimentation. I'm sure people will judge me for rating this one higher than the first two, but I honestly love this one the most. It's basically the music video for "Today" by Smashing Pumpkins turned into an "Evil Dead" movie with a bunch more weirdness thrown into the mix, what's not the love?

This has more humor, sex and gore than the first two films in the series and it does drag in places but it's still lots of fun and moves at a fast pace. Not quite as good as the first two but still better than most horror franchises.

Coscarelli wasn't completely out of juice yet. Overall it seems like a bit of a compromise, with a kid character that was clearly capitalising on the success of Home Alone and a black female diversity hire. Visually it's arguably stronger than the second installment, despite costing less, and while the humour is hit and miss, it's somewhat amusing to watch Reggie's many attempts to get laid fail for one reason or another. The return of Baldwin also hits the right nostalgic notes.

For this, Coscarelli recycles the most crowd-pleasing elements from his earlier films -- original cast members Baldwin, Bannister, and Thornbury, those ever popular flying silver spheres with the retractable spikes, the malevolent Tall Man (Scrimm) and his hooded mutant-dwarf minions (or "lurkers"), elaborate morgue sets, furtive glimpses into a demonic dimension, and even Bannister's trusty four-barrelled shotgun. Still, this adds up to considerably less than the sum of its parts.

Perhaps the most forgettable entry, which isn't helped by the franchise entering its arbitrary subtitle phase. Note to self - it's the one with the slingshot kid and nunchuck lady, in case "Lord of the Dead" doesn't exactly jog the memory of which Phantasm this is.

A few good moments, but fails to live up to the first two.

Surprisingly watchable for a third in this unique horror franchise.

Fun, but so are lots of things. If you liked the previous ones, this one won't really be too painful. Also, if you liked them, you can pretend they ended at 2 and it would be about the same as if you had seen this one. It does have a certain 90's cable charm to it, most similar to the Warlock movies, if I had to place it.

The funniest in the series

51.500

It took awhile for this movie to really get going as I almost turned it off because it was getting so boring. But the last half hour of this movie really picks up and then we're off. Not to much tension, but it did help that the action at the end really picked up the pace. A couple of humorous moments also helped a little bit as well to keep me interested, but I got some mixed feelings about this movie.

Somehow the magic is gone in this one (there might be a correlation between the amount of Evil Ewoks shown and the quality of the entry) despite some extremely ridiculous new elements (A at you there, Kevin McAlister and Nunchuck Girl).

Weak sequel to the classic series. This one had it's moments though. Lol at the black girl with nunchuks!

"Don Coscarelli outdoes the humor of John Hughes in what feels like a more honest version of the gleeful sadism in Home Alone." - Jeremiah Kipp

Ridiculous.

Not as good as the previous two, but still fun. And the hilarity quotient is a bit higher, mostly unintentionally.

46.500

Part 3 And Still Okay

Not a terrible sequel, but also not a great one, either. Thinking back, I can't remember much about the plot here, even though I saw it a couple weeks ago.

I preferred this to the 2nd film, although it’s not on par with the original -- or that good film in general. Story is much more coherent and it’s apparent that even with a clearly smaller budget, Coscarelli & co. are able to follow their vision better this time around. The new characters feel unnecessary, but at least they don't stand out as badly here and it’s nice to see A. Michael Baldwin back as Tommy.