The Nightmare Continues

Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm is a very strange movie. It functions kind of like a monster movie, but one that ends up mashed against a sci-fi film, all before becoming this strange, dream-like journey where you can’t even trust anything you saw in the preceding runtime because the ending changes everything. With a story like that, and a film that ends so unpredictably, how exactly are you supposed to make a sequel?

That was the exact question Coscarelli had to try and figure out. His first film in the series came out in 1979 and it was a solid hit that way over performed its budget (made for $330k, and brought in $22 Mil at the Box office). From that point forward he had studios sniffing around, all but demanding he make a sequel. The only problem was that Coscarelli considered his story closed. The ending of the first film tied everything up. He had no reason to revisit, he thought, and no way to break the story, especially as the years went past and the actors began to age.

Eventually, though, his brain clicked around and he did figure out a continuation. He figured he could start the sequel right where the previous movie left off, with heroes Mike and Reggie packing up to take a road trip off to see the countryside and get away from town. But instead of a peaceful trip out, they’re immediately attacked by the weird, alien dwarves that the Tall Man would make, and then… well, that road trip they had planned would take a decidedly different turn as the movie went on. And thus, Phantasm II was born.

After the heroes are attacked at Reggie’s house, the film skips ahead seven years. Mike (now played by James LeGros in this film and only this film) has spent the last few years in an institution with the doctors trying to help the guy break himself of the “delusion” of the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), the dwarves, and how his brother Jody died. Except Mike doesn’t stop believing and knowing that the Tall Man was out there, plotting the theft of the dead to make the army of angry dwarves. Mike tells the doctors what they want to hear, and is convincing enough to get released, giving him his freedom to go off and chase the Tall Man once more.

He just needs the help of his brother’s best friend, Reggie (Reggie Bannister). The only problem is that Reggie has forgotten all about their previous adventures, thinking it was just delusions inside Mike’s head. But when the Tall Man blows up Reggie’s house, killing Reggie’s niece and mother in the process, he quickly comes on board. The two arm up and hit the road, going from wasted town to wasted town as they follow the Tall Man’s path of destruction across the U.S., all so they can look for a way to finally stop the ghoul and put to rest all of the dead he’d captured along the way.

In many ways Phantasm II plays to the strengths of the first film. It’s not an exact copy of that story, but it does hit many of the same beats, easing audiences back into the story of the Tall Man, how evil dwarves, and the strange, silver balls that fly around and kill people. Onto that is added a dream-like story with plenty of narrative twists and turns that keep the audience guessing, and you have a film that stays true to the original Phantasm while still giving viewers everything they want from a sequel.

Probably the most controversial decision of the film is the recasting of Mike. Although Coscarelli fought to bring back original actor A. Michael Baldwin to play the character for the second film, but production studio Universal put their foot down, wanting a different actor for the lead role. Eventually James LeGros was cast for the role, and he’s not bad. He’s fine, all things considered, and handles his part well. But it is notable that the director got Baldwin back for all future films of the series, showing that even if LeGros was fine in the role, Coscarelli really wanted his films kept “within the family”, so to speak.

The greatest strength Phantasm II has is that it continues to keep the audience guessing about what’s going on, what’s real and what’s fake, and what the characters can truly expect. Opening with Reggie forgetting all their adventures (twice, technically) and thinking Mike made it all up helps us to doubt what is real right from the outset. Thus, whenever something strange happens, like a body disappearing from a morgue right in front of a character, or a girl one of them knows appearing as a hunched-over monstrosity, you wonder if anything you’re seeing is really happening.

It was weird and twisted enough that I even wondered if the plotlines I was watching, one following Mike and Reggie on their road trip and another following Mike’s friend Liz (Paula Irvine) were even on the same timeline. I assumed Liz’s story took place months earlier, and when it was revealed halfway into the film (so not a major spoiler for a forty year old film) that she was in contemporary time with Mike and Reggie, I didn’t feel like it was a cheat. I liked the fact that the film kept me guessing and left me wondering what was going on. It’s hard to find a horror movie that can really do that.

It is, of course, a horror movie, so there’s also plenty more gore. The one silver ball from the first film comes back, and this time is joined by two more (although we only see a second, the Gold Ball, fly around). These things are still effective little murder machines, and the film delights in providing buckets of blood and other fluids whenever these orbs attack. There’s also some solid dismemberment, one guy that gets melted, and plenty of other icky gore to entertain and thrill. Overall a solid output for this horror cheapie.

But I swing back to the story more than the gore. This film has a distinct vibe to it, even more than the first film, a strangeness that keeps you guessing. In a way it reminded me of Stephen King stories, books that take what you expect and divert hard, all while telling creepy tales of small towns. Phantasm II has a very King-esque quality to it, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It’s weird and strange, very dream-like, and it keeps you invested in the story just to see where it goes next. The film doesn’t skimpy on the strangeness, wearing it like a badge of honor, and that makes the film better.

As with the first Phantasm, I’m sure there are people that won’t like this sequel because it’s so strange, so odd, so weird and different. That’s why I liked it, though, even more than the first film. And if this is the way the series is going, I’m definitely in for the rest of the franchise to come.