Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're gonna continue the "Phantasm" series by taking a look at the sequel that came out in 1988, which is appropriately called "Phantasm II".
Now, in case you didn't read my review for the first "Phantasm" movie, I said that it was a really fascinating film and I could see why it gained it's cult status as one of the more recognizable horror franchises of all time. However...I personally didn't wound up loving it. I thought that the movie felt a little convoluted at times, the acting was a little bit shaky, and the ending is still something that I'm rather conflicted at. Still though, I was able to recommend it enough for fans of horror movies who may have never had a chance to see that movie yet.
So with that being said, it brings me to it's sequel. And before I actually talk about what I know about this particular entry, I do want to make mention about how spaced out these sequels are. See, in case you weren't aware, the first movie came out in 1979. And then fast forward to 9 years later, in which we get "Phantasm II". Then the third movie came out in 94, the fourth movie came out in 98, and the fifth entry came out *way* later on, which I'll get more into once we reach that fifth movie.
But anyway, I bring this all up, because usually, horror movie franchises would wait about a year or two before releasing another sequel. It happened with "Nightmare On Elm Street", it happened with "Friday The 13th", it even happened to "Puppet Master". All those horror franchises would usually pump out a sequel within a year or so. But the "Phantasm" series is a rather interesting story here because, like I said, the second movie didn't come out until 1988, and then nothing for a few years afterwards. Which makes me wonder if it was even originally planned to make "Phantasm" into a franchise at all, or just leave it as a standalone movie?
Now, I obviously don't have the answers to those questions, as I'm mostly just theorizing here. Regardless, we did get this sequel 9 years later. And the only thing I can really tell you about it is that the guy who directed the first movie, Don Coscarelli, is back in the director's chair for this sequel, as well as being the writer, too. Beyond that, I don't know what the plot is to this thing, but I am hoping for it to be just as interesting as the first movie was. I actually do want it to be better than the first movie, but I won't really know that for sure unless I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Phantasm II".
10 minutes later
So Michael, who spent 7 years in a psychiatric ward after the events of the first movie, finally gets out. And what is the first thing that he does? He goes straight back to Moriningside Cemetery with a pick-axe. What exactly is he gonna do with it, I don't know. But setting that aside, Michael certainly has his priorities straight, if that's what the first thing he does after finally getting his freedom back, you know what I mean?
10 minutes later
OK, I have a question I want to ask here. So, all of the bodies at Morningside Cemetery were basically just gone by the time Michael first started digging up graves. He and Reggie are at another cemetery, and all of the bodies in these graves are gone too. Now, I kinda have an idea as to what the Tall Man's plan is involving all of these missing corpses, but what I am really sorta curious about is that if someone else discovered all of these bodies missing from their graves, wouldn't they report about this already? I'm asking this because there is a gap hidden from between Michael discovering the missing bodies at Morningside Cemetery to them finding the missing bodies at this cemetery. It makes curious as to how long these bodies have been missing, and why no one else has spoken up about it from before Michael and Reggie got there. I know it sounds like I'm putting a little too much thought into this, but it is something I'm still curious about.
13 minutes later
So, the pastor just stabbed a knife into the dead guy's body. Um...why? I mean, I *may* have a theory as to why he did that, but it just seems kinda odd to me, you know?
16 minutes later
OK, that's sorta different. I've never seen someone suction a corpse's blood from out of their body and into a blender of sorts. Granted, I'm not sure how common that is, if it all, to do that to someone's corpse after they're deceased, but I will say that it is sorta creative.
7 minutes later
Well, guys, if there is one thing I can say with absolute certainty is that the metal sphere is still awesome, and I'm happy to see it in back action again, this time taking a pastor's ear before going for the head. So, at least it's stepping up it's game a little bit.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Phantasm II", and it ends almost the same way as the first movie did. Not totally sure what to think of that, but I'll save my thoughts on that for later. I'm gonna go ahead and shut the film off here...all right. So, hmm...where to begin here...? Well, I did say earlier that I wanted the film to be as interesting as the first movie was, and I did get that. I was also hoping for it to be better than the first movie, and...well, that's gonna be a bit of a challenge to answer that point.
Why don't we start with the writing. And specifically, I want to start with a problem that is gonna potentially be a deal breaker for some people who are curious about this movie. The problem I'm referring to is the movie's pacing. This movie has some of the *slowest* build-up I've ever seen from a movie in quite a while. And I'm not kidding about that, guys, either. This movie feels like it takes *forever* just to get itself rolling. Now, I want to clarify and state that it's not the entirety of the movie that is plagued by this pacing. It's mostly during the middle portion of the movie in which the pacing starts to become an issue. Because, quite literally, almost *nothing* happens. I can see that the movie was trying to do something of interest, but most of that is either jump scares, or it feels like it was trying to build up to something, but nothing comes from it. It just felt like the plot was taking a backseat to all this, while the movie was trying to boil something of interest. Unfortunately though, it's just a really slow boil. And normally, guys, I don't mind it when a movie takes it's time, but there's a difference between building something up and just having a ton of padding, which this movie unfortunately suffers from a lot.
Let me try to back all this up first, so that you guys can get an idea as to what you're getting yourself into here. The first act of the movie actually continues with where the first movie left off from, where Mike, after spending 7 years in a psychiatric ward, reunites with his guardian, Reggie, who was Jody's friend from the first film. And Mike goes back to Morningside Cemetery to find out that all of the corpses at that cemetery are all gone. And when he finally is able to convince Reggie to join him on his quest to defeat the Tall Man, the two journey together and search for him and kill him once and for all. I'll get more into this in a second. On the other side of it, you have Elizabeth, who was the blond-haired girl that was briefly in the first movie, as she gets more involved in the plot here shortly after her grandmother gets taken by the Tall Man, or possibly his little Jawa-dwarfs, as she later reunites with Mike and Reggie in their quest to stop the Tall Man from reanimating the corpses that he has taken from all of these cemeteries so that he can turn them into Jawa-dwarfs. Yeah, that was a thing in the first movie that I didn't bring up because it didn't really make a whole lot of sense there. At least here, I can kinda grasp the concept a little more, but the motivations are still rather vague to me.
Now with that said, I will say that, at least when compared to the first "Phantasm" film, this one feels a little more coherent with it's storytelling. Granted, there a couple of things here that still don't entirely make sense, but you could still follow it, if you give the film a chance. And that's where I have to bring up the movie's pacing again, because the first act of the movie has all of the stuff involving Mike and Reggie gearing up to go and look for the Tall Man, while the third act of the movie is where things start to actually get rather interesting. But the middle portion of the film is where the movie's pacing starts to become an issue. Because with the main plot involving Mike and Reggie, it felt like a road trip film, and a rather dull one too. But then again, road trip movies aren't something I'm a big fan of anyways. And with Elizabeth, it involves her grandfather dying and her grandmother being taken away, which causes her to get more involved with the story. But like I said, most of that felt like it took too much time into boiling something up, only for it to not have a whole lot of payoff. Well correction, there *is* payoff that happens in the movie, but most of that doesn't happen until near the end of the third act, and I'm even including one other character named Alchemy, who Mike and Reggie meet during their little road trip. And she felt more like a backseat to the plot until near the very end. So her character felt ridiculously under-utilized here.
Speaking of which, let's talk about the characters next. Being that this is a sequel, we of course get most of our returning characters. Mainly, I'm talking about Mike, Reggie, Elizabeth, and the Tall Man. The Tall Man, I can give a pass to on this, because his character is, more or less, the same as it was in the first movie. Elizabeth felt really fucking shallow, personality wise, and her character doesn't really get explored enough, other than she forms a relationship with Mike. Mike is kind of a mixed bag here. On one hand, he feels kinda flat and boring, but what sorta saves it is the relationship he has with Reggie. It feels like the two really have some decent chemistry with each other, and you do feel like you care about them as they go on their quest together. The relationships they form with Elizabeth and Alchemy is something that you're not gonna give a fuck about, but between Reggie and Mike, the development there works pretty well if I do say so myself.
But otherwise, guys, the writing here, while definitely a step up from the first movie, is plagued by the incredibly slow pacing, which could definitely be seen as a deal breaker to some people. Mind you, it is still rather interesting to follow, assuming of course you can overlook the really slow pacing. However, I'll get into all that in a second when I get to recommendations. Let's talk about the acting next. Now, aside from Mike's actor being replaced, most of the other returning cast members I mentioned a moment ago reprise their roles here. Most of them do a decent job, with the biggest standout being Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man. He, once again, nails this performance, despite the fact that he doesn't have a whole lot of lines in the movie. The only one who feels kinda flaky is the actress playing Alchemy. At times, her performance in this movie feels somewhat phoned in. That said, she doesn't have a whole lot of lines in the movie either, so it's not something that you're gonna take a huge notice from. Still though, I felt like it was worth mentioning, in case you were curious. So yeah, the acting here is mostly decent from our cast.
Special effects in this movie are definitely really good. If you'll recall my review of the first movie, I mentioned that about half of the effects in that thing looked goofy and weird as shit. However, despite the low budget that the first movie had going on, I still think the effects there had enough of a charm to where I could overlook the goofy-looking effects. This thing ditches those effects, and goes for the more gory-looking effects and you actually get to see the make-up effects on the dwarfs faces this time around, and they actually look pretty good here. Blood effects are also here, too, and they're just about as good, if not slightly better than the first movie. So overall, I can say the special effects here are pretty good for what they are.
Camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mix is mixed mostly well, with one or two exceptions of an actor's dialogue at the beginning sounding a little muffled by the loud music going on. It's a minor nitpick, but still. The music here is, once again, on the level of knowing when to use it and when to be either silent or atmospheric. And it's great stuff. So at least on that end, this movie is perfectly consistent with it's lack of music.
Overall, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Phantasm II"? I can, as long as you're able to overlook the rather glacial pacing that the movie suffers from the middle act. I know I've already beaten a dead horse on this subject, but I seriously cannot stress enough about this film's pacing. It really is either something that you'll get use to, or you're not gonna like at all. Myself personally, I was able to get use to it, but that's more of a personal preference, really. That said, the film is still good enough to where it's worth viewing, especially if you really enjoyed the first movie. And for myself, I'm really curious to see where exactly you go from here from a sequel that didn't come out until almost a decade later? I don't know yet, but I'm hoping to find out within a couple of weeks. In the meantime, however, I'm gonna continue my October tradition by watching a bunch of horror-related movies, and I'm gonna continue that with "Puppet Master 2", seeing as how I watched the first one at the beginning of the month. So I'm gonna go do that next shortly after I get done typing this review up.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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