31 Days, Day 30: PHANTASM 3 Now Available from Well Go USA
Mike and Reggie are back… and this time it is the “actual” Mike. I never mentioned it in my prior review (of Phantasm 2), but the studio swapped out actors to play Mike and it was nice seeing that awkward teenager again, now as an awkward adult. On top of getting the original Mike back, we get another familiar face… Jody. Remember him? He was the older brother that I forgot about when watching part 2. After getting the band back together, we pick up right where we left off. All the Spheres and ghouls are back, but this time we get the addition of a badass lady and a tolerable kid to tag along. This is (by far) the goofiest of the bunch, but still continues to stay true to the series.
Here is a brief Synopsis:
Mike and Reggie continue to hunt the mysterious Tall Man, discovering along the way that the invasion has already begun.
Just like part 2, Lord of the Dead doesn’t just rehash the prior movies. Coscarelli seems hellbent on continuing to world-build and extend the Tall Man mythology even further. By the end of the movie it is clear that this story holds more sci-fi elements, than horror but in a way that doesn’t betray what we have come to love in the first two films. The settings can start to get a little dull by this sequel, but they are livened up with even more evil Spheres that become characters unto themselves. What isn’t great is some of the goofiness that plagues this movie. The worse part are the first couple of bad guys that we come across early in the film. In what seems to be an attempt to lampoon Home Alone, we get some really stupid scenes between bumbling crooks and a trap setting kid. This very 90s scene is not the worse thing, but just feels out of place with the rest of these movies. To be honest, that is the worse thing that I can say about this film. It may not be the best of the bunch, but it is still one hell of a ride!
You can now grab Phantasm 3 and 4 on Blu-ray from Well Go USA.
