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Anchor Bay presents Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead. Written by Don Corscarelli. 91 minutes. Not Rated. Originally rated R for violence and gore, and for language and sexuality. Originally released in 1994.
Directed By:
Don Corscarelli
Cast:
Reggie Bannister. Reggie
A. Michael Baldwin. Mike
Bill Thornbury. Jody
Gloria Lynne Henry. Rocky
Kevin Connors. Tim
The Film:
When one thinks of classic horror series’ titles like Nightmare On Elm Street and Friday The 13th are easy marks. Unless you’re a horror aficionado the Phantasm series might be a little outside your reach. However the Phantasm films have something those other films don’t: main characters you actually care about and a somewhat cohesive plot in each installment.
This, the third film in the series, picks up right where the second one left off with our heroes Mike (A. Michael Baldwin reprising the role after not appearing in the second one) and Reggie (Bannister) are hot on the Tall Man’s (Scrimm) trail. When Mike is kidnapped, Reggie ends up teaming with a young boy named Tim (Connors) who puts the Home Alone kid to shame and Rocky (Henry), a chick who’s weapon of choice is nunchucks. This film even has the return of Mike’s dead brother Jody who has taken the form of one of the Tall Man’s deadly silver balls.
Because it is a horror film you get many of the genres cliché elements, but Coscarelli uses them instead of abusing them. Many characters show up only to be killed, seemingly just to push the gore level and raise the death count. Until half of them show up later as zombies! Coscarelli also adds more humor to the film this time around. Perhaps realizing how cheesy the whole thing is he’s embraced the idea and is running with it. At one point Reggie fires his modified four-barreled shotgun into a tree and several of the Tall Man’s lurkers fall to the ground dead.
As the story of Phantasm continues, The Tall Man has kidnapped Mike with plans to make him evil. The Tall Man is also making his way around the country laying waste to every small town he comes across. Reggie and the gang’s sole focus here is to find and rescue Mike before it’s too late.
Phantasm fans are excited because this is the first time this movie has been released on DVD. Now all they have to do is release part 2. While this film is nowhere near as good as the original it’s still an enjoyable horror film and makes for a good edition to the series. Plus, the death scene pictured below has been fully restored. Originally it was cut down to obtain the “R” rating being considered to gory.
The silver ball takes another victim.
The DVD:
The Video:
The film is presented in widescreen 1.85:1 and is enhanced for 16×9 TVs. The quality of the film here is pretty good. The image is clean so all the gore jumps right off the screen.
The Audio:
The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and original 2.0. The sound is fine. Phantasm has one of the greatest scores and you’ll be humming it long after the film is over.
Extras:
Audio Commentary with A. Michael Baldwin and Angus Scrimm: This is a pretty entertaining commentary. Baldwin and Scrimm have a great rapport and keep the energy high. Scrimm is a surprisingly kind sounding man that almost seems to take away from the creepiness of the Tall Man. Also, Baldwin is not shy about saying how frustrated he is about not being cast in part 2.
Phantasm III: Behind-The-Scenes: This little montage is footage that was shot during principal photography. There is no interviews or narration to explain anything. It’s just the footage of the shoot. Not all that interesting.
Deleted Scene: This so called “scene” is all of ten seconds long and appears to part of some chase scene with the Tall Man. Huh?
The Inside Pulse
The Tall Man is one of the greatest horror villain icons and to see this film finally on DVD only adds to his legacy. Sadly the extras here are pretty slim, the commentary being the only really worthwhile one.
