Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994)

Phantasm III is very much like Phantasm II, but a little better if only because the original Michael is in it. But not for very much. Many of the other elements were in II and frankly, you could skip II and go right to this one and not have missed one thing.Not a big-budget series of films, this seems like one episode of a weekly TV series, where they are on a road trip looking for the Tall Man. Their mission: to explore strange old mausoleums, to seek out new death and decimated civilizations, to oldly go where they have gone before.Each new entry apparently requires a new style of sphere (I'd like to see the "action figure" for those!) and new quirky characters. The Tall Man remains creepy but that may get diluted because of his indestructability. There is no real ending for this movie, obviously set up for yet another sequel. I'm hoping they are setting up Michael to be an eventual successor to The Tall Man. But the story has to end somewhere.That said, it is a decent waste of 90 minutes, not all that scary.

The original Michael's back, and so's Jody in this second sequel to Phantasm. To be honest, it's more of the same, but that doesn't mean it's no good. This time, Reggie's got two new sidekicks (a tough kid and an even tougher chick) and he's out to track down the Tall Man, who has kidnapped Michael for some reason. Once again, it's not too easy to describe the plot, as it's basically Reggie and Michael getting into scraps with the Tall Man, who says 'Boooooyyy' a lot. There's the usual fighting dwarfs and zombies, flying spheres, and unanswered questions. There's kind of some sort of plot regarding what happened to Jody, but the ending leaves things open for yet another sequel. Will we get our answers there? I suppose it doesn't really matter, as these films pretty enjoyable no matter what happens

Why did it take me so long to get into the "Phantasm" films, as just in the last two months I got around to seeing the first two films and now the third entry. So far I've enjoyed every one. While I found the quality of this entry not match the previous two, still it's an entertainingly non-stop ride in the quest to stop the Tall Man. It pretty much follows on from the previous edition, capping off that had just transpired. The road trip continues through small rural towns, where an almost apocalyptic feel is crafted. Nonetheless the adventurous tone is there, but it's leaning more for comic humour and flat-out action (in a way similar to the second entry), over the tripped-out atmospheric spookiness.It's Reggie Banister's show and there's nothing wrong about that because he makes for a likable heroine that's easy to root for. A. Michael Baldwin isn't in it as much (which the chemistry between Mike and Reggie isn't as prominent) and Bill Thornbury reprises his role in rather an innovative manner. Two new ragtag characters find there way in to help out Reggie; played by Gloria Lynne Henry and Kevin Connors. These two bring biting persona's. Angus Scrimm in Tall Man mode is as menacing as ever - in appearance and the voice --- "It's time now BOY". Director / writer Don Coscarelli keeps the unique vision alive, where his handling seems more focused (especially the writing) and complete, but competently staged with enough flair and panache in numerous sequences. After the last film was produced by a film studio, this entry would go back the low-budget independent roots. The unconventional story isn't as complicated, but this clip show is always on the move and is tension grabbing in its varied ideas. The lively special effects and make-up FX were effectively executed, where it becomes more and more a centre piece with the lethal flying spheres, dimension portals and the legion of dead serving under the Tall Man.

Phantasm III (1994) * 1/2 (out of 4) Reggie (Reggie Bannister) and Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) are again looking for the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) who is (once again) going from town to town killing everyone. This time the two have the help of a 8-year-old boy, a tough black chick (Gloria Lynne Henry) and Mike's dead brother Jody (Bill Thornbury). This third film in the series takes a giant leap into the territory of horror/comedy as we get a lot of slapstick bits but in the end both elements fail and the final product is another disappointment. I'm really not sure why this series is so popular outside of the atmosphere of the first one and the gore of the second, this third entry has very little going for it. Once again Bannister manages to be entertaining in terms of his dramatic style and I must admit that his comic timing got a few laughs. Scrimm is once again back of the Tall Man and he fits the the role perfectly. Both Baldwin and Thornbury, members of the original film, are back and both are decent but nothing great. The gore this time out doesn't come anywhere close to the previous film and even the classic sphere isn't used as nicely as the previous films. I'm really not sure why the director decided to cut out the red stuff while adding more laughs but that's exactly what happened. The movie runs out of gas around the hour mark and this here makes the final thirty-minutes rather hard to take and the screenplay really doesn't give us too much.