Starring: Reggie Bannister, Michael Baldwin, Angus Scrimm, Bill Thornbury, Gloria Lynne Henry, Kevin Connors.
Director: Don Coscarelli.
Two down, two to go. I'm not nearly as familiar with the latter two films in the franchise. I honestly don't think I've seen them that many times. Hell, I might have only seen Part Three one time before. All I really remember about it was that they brought the original Mike back(Michael Baldwin), and there was a kid in it somewhere? I think I might remember the ending, too. But Coscarelli made more, and I'm gonna watch more.
Hey, according to the cast list Bill Thornbury is back, too. I don't remember him appearing again in the franchise. Guess I was wrong.
We pick up where the previous film left off: Reggie is injured(but not as badly as he seemed to be) and bounced out of the hearse, Liz and Michael aren't dragged out by The Tall Man, though, as Liz is immediately found dead in the exploded hearse(the first of what is sure to be many explosions, since this is Phantasm) and Reggie is once again battling midget monks and rescuing Mike. I think this is the one where the series officially recognizes Reggie as a hero of the story. Mike may be magic or whatever, but Reggie is more capable.
The Tall Man is one cold dude, though: He holds up Liz's severed head and smiles at Reggie. More evidence of Mike's larger connection to TM, though: "I don't want him in pieces" he growls, and backs away when Reggie doesn't blink at the idea of blowing himself and Mike up to keep them away from the guy. Then we see Tall Man sitting in a room full of candles in an absolutely gorgeous piece of set design.
Having Michael Baldwin back is actually kinda nice: for one thing it provides continuity, and another thing is that he has more of a sense of vulnerability. That vulnerability makes more sense under the context of weird psychic kid. He doesn't appear to be around for long, though: Jody shows up as one of the balls, tries to protect Mike and fails. "Why do you want me" Mike finally asks, before he's whisked away and we go no information. Damn you, Coscarelli! But it puts Reggie back on the road, and we're off.
Yeah, I do not remember a lot of this: Reggie getting kidnapped by Scorcese rejects is not something I remember. Like, at all. Or the house with all the Home Alone from hell booby traps, either...though THAT does seem slightly more familiar. Unlike Kevin from the admittedly horrific aforementioned children's movie, this kid is all about murder, systematically wiping out our fairly cartoonish criminals in short order. The sequence is a little weird, but it shows Coscarelli doing what he does best with these movies: mash-ups of some favorite non-horror genre elements. Why not Home Alone?
We also get a flashback sequence that demonstrates another familiar element from the series: other people weren't just waiting around doing nothing until Reggie shows up. Tim witnessed his own freaky events leading up to the present(which included straight up murdering three admittedly bad people). There's a nice apocalyptic world building continuity to Phantasm. The Tall Man has been a problem for a LOT of people across the country. We just happen to be following events from the perspective of just a couple of those people, and those people are(for Reggie's part in particular) just some assholes from Oregon.
We pick up a third member of our strange little crew in Rocky, a lovely young Black Woman and Army Veteran. Reggie Bannister does some excellent hammy acting when he tries to bed Rocky...who then handcuffs him to the bed and goes to sleep. There's some unintentional creepiness to the scene, really, but Bannister keeps it fun enough. He's got strong comedic chops.
More little clues: in a dream, Reggie witnesses Mike in the clutches of The Tall Man. The Tall Man tells Mike to "use his mind." Weird. Reggie somehow manages to save Mike in the dream, which allows Jody to open a gate and Mike falls out. Then Reggie closes the gate and The Tall Man's severed hands become weird Lizard creatures. This series is so damn weird.
There's an information dump, but it's kind of stuff we already knew: The Tall Man compacts the body for slaves and tosses the brains into the balls as weapons. We don't get much more than that before Reggie is attacked by a zombie( which is something of a new addition to the canon, but it makes sense in a way: I mean, what else would the Diggers and stuff be if not zombified corpses). Interestingly enough, though: The Tall Man can sense Mike, even in a dream. Then Mike is told he has made his way back to where he started, and that his journey is complete. Wait, what? Mike has "lived in this flesh construct long enough?" I don't remember this at all! Oh, wait, maybe...there's a vague memory of a ball inside Mike's head, come to think of...yeah, here it is. I don't think we ever find out the why or how of that, though...but hey, my memories of this one were thin enough, who knows how part four will come across.
"Be Patient, Reg. We'll be in touch." Thanks, Jody. It's not like we wanted some answers or anything...
Final Thoughts: It's fun. There's some awkwardness stemming from being a third installment: the new characters don't quite land as well as they should, some of the comedy falls flatter than previous installments. But, as another entertaining genre mash-up, it's still a lot of fun.
Final Rating: Two and a Half Stars.
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