PHANTASM II
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: PHANTASM II is a parasite of a film that does nothing to advance the director's planned trilogy and only exploits the popularity of its predecessor. It panders to a teenage audience by making a teenager the only thinking character and by throwing in bits of other recent successful films. The parts of the film that are coherent enough to make sense don't; it's all spectacle and no characters or logic. Rating: -2.
Nine years ago there was a revolution of sorts in horror films brought about by advances in makeup technology. The idea of prosthetic makeup meant that you could show things on screen that could only be shown poorly on screen--if at all--in the past. If you wanted to show a man turn into a werewolf-monster on screen, you did not have to resort to pieced-together double exposures that had been the best way to handle the effect since the 1940s. Pneumatic air bladders and mechanical effects allowed realistic- looking transformation effects on screen. With a concentration on new effects technology many low-budget horror films were made in a race to show the public new sights and effects. Artistically it was a disaster, as many of the films had little to offer but visual effects, many of which were intended to gross out the audience. For every CAT PEOPLE or THE HOWLING, there were a dozen films that were purely a waste of time with no concepts behind them, no artistry, and a generally weak script. Somewhat above average was Don Coscarelli's PHANTASM. It sold itself on a gross-out special effect (a sort of flying drill best not described), but all the strange things happening at the film's mortuary--some not frightening, but very strange for a horror film--turned out to make sense in terms of a more interesting science fantasy premise. Coscarelli has said that PHANTASM was only the first part of a trilogy that would expand on the initial premise. PHANTASM II is the second film. By the looks of it, it may be the last.
Thematically, it is hard to believe Coscarelli is planning a trilogy because PHANTASM II does not advance the story at all. There is virtually nothing, certainly nothing of value,that is in the sequel that was not in the first film. Mike, who was a boy in the first film and is nineteen in this film (now he is played by James Le Gros) returns with his adult sidekick Reggie (played by Reggie Bannister) to play Rambo at whatever mortuary the Tall Man (still played by Angus Scrimm) has currently set up shop in. Since Mike is now nineteen, they have to add a sex interest for him and so they crudely add Liz (played by Paula Irvine) by claiming that for years she has been psychically linked to Mike and now they are finally meeting. Clever plotting!
PHANTASM II is a very poor piece of storytelling. It assumes the viewer has seen the first *and* remembers it. After nine years, it was not easy. Even with a liberal piece of re-used footage, much of the film is incoherent and does not explain what is going on.
Unlike the first film, PHANTASM II very consciously attempts to appeal to a teenage audience. All the good ideas come from the teenager, who apparently is the only character who thinks. There is a conscious effort to infuse the plot with heavy handweapons--sawed-off shotguns and flame throwers--popular with a teenage audience. There are also more visceral special effects. The first film pretty much contented itself with showing mustard-colored blood. PHANTASM II's effects of showing creatures coming out of human bodies and machines burrowing in are state-of-the-art in an effects technology that has really taken a wrong and regrettable turn. That these effects should change so much, yet the scenes connected with the premise of the film are so unchanged, leads one to really question Coscarelli's values.
The script for PHANTASM II contains a wide variety of logic flaws. The characters get their high-tech weaponry by building it themselves one night when they break into what is apparently a hardware store. For reasons unexplained no alarms go off. Among the goods they apparently get in the raid are shotguns and hand grenades. I guess you really *can* get all your hardware needs at your True Value Store! When they are all done, being basically honest, they drop a wad of money in the till. That leads one to wonder about the need to break in at all.
We have all seen in swashbucklers the classic tense swordfight scene in which the bad guy has the good guy down and raises his sword over his head for the last stroke and while the sword is up, the good guy uses the opening to go for the stomach and win. PHANTASM II has the identical scene with chainsaws. Only one problem: the scene makes no sense with chainsaws. A broadsword needs some momentum to cut; a chainsaw does not. There is no reason to pull back a chainsaw so that your last stroke has more momentum.
One of the characters is in a villain's control at one point. The villain is about to pop her into a crematorium oven. For no reason other than to build tension, he starts doing other crematorium chores instead. Then when her turn comes, he puts her on the roller track leading to the oven and walks away. He then is surprised to find out she just rolled herself off the track to avoid the oven.
There is more, and worse, to say about PHANTASM II. But suffice it to say that Coscarelli probably ruined his chances at a trilogy, and certainly a lot of public interest in that trilogy, by turning out such a bad excuse for a film. The biggest horror fan I know fell asleep on PHANTASM II and later said she was glad she had. But if you have a nice comfortable bed at home, there's no reason to go and see this film at all. Thinking about the film I am tempted to lower it to a -3 on the -4 to +4 scale, but I will settle for the -2 I gave it in the theater. The only reason I said so much about a film I would rather forget is that I had a boring car ride from Massachusetts to New Jersey and I had to fill the time somehow.
Mark R. Leeper
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