The Tall Man is back! So is Reggie; the greatest ice cream truck driver known to man. We can't forget Mike, but why does he look so different? It's Don Coscarelli's sequel to the cult classic, Phantasm. It takes the Aliens route; it's more action-packed, than horror. It makes no sense, but that's part of the charm. Phantasm II is a highly debated movie among fans of the series. Why was Mike recast? Should we blame Mr. Coscarelli? Is that really Reggie's hair, or is it the worst hairpiece ever?

I love Phantasm. It's one of my favorite movies. The Tall Man is one of my favorite villains. Reggie is one of my favorite heroes. I think I figured out…

Ups the ante in true sequel fashion with more guns, updated spheres, flamethrowers, more jawas, more empty graves, weirdo sexual escapades, and more explosions—culminating in a less abstract and more mainstream action horror road movie that still manages to focus on a boy dealing with familial loss albeit a different approach, and turning ice cream man Reggie into REGGIE BANNISTER: ACTION STAR. 

This was one of my most rented movies back in the day and I Love the Raimi Elm Street mausoleum nightmare funhouse vibes at play here, it’s very 1988 without being a pop culture suckoff session or bloated lore bellyache, this is definitely the most mainstream of these movies but it works to its advantage, hell… even bootleg…

There’s a ton of cool lore around this sequel. Studio pressure forced director Coscarelli to re-cast the original’s star, “Mike”. Brad Pitt auditioned for and did not get that part. The biggest budget for the franchise allowed legendary special effects guys Nicotero and Kurtzman to sign on. The original movie’s unsung star - a shiny flying sphere of death - was going to get more screen time (and the tagline!). It’s quite a story before even getting to the film itself.

Picking up right where Phantasm left off, we follow the exploits of Reggie and new Mike as they reunite eight years later and attempt to track down The Tall Man. This is a solid sequel, bigger and far more…

I think I’ve only seen this one once or twice before, but lemme tell you that poster is forever etched into my memory. I remember when this came out on VHS, my video store (Video Review in Greensboro, NC aka the greatest video store ever) had this poster prominently displayed in the front window for quite a while and man it was just a beautiful thing. It was scary to me as a kid, but I also loved it and it’s one of my clearest early horror memories. Wonderful times.

The movie itself is also really great, even if it’s not quite as amazing as the first one. It lacks that disjointed, surreal style of the first, but then it…

Following on a staggering 7 years later from the first one this one somehow ramps up the craziness a lot more than the first while also losing some of the clear trademarks of the first film. From what I hear what’s lost was due to studio interference it definitely relies less on the dream segments of the original and feels more focused on action and that’s incredibly evident straight from the start. 

It’s seems to focus more on a road movie element which takes up about half of the runtime and the latter half is a return to the basics a fun corny horror with the tall man again being the best part of the film. Just so many random…

this is like badlands if malick had the guts to include michael bay-tier explosions, quad-barrel sawed-off shotguns, homemade flamethrowers, door-breaching mausoleums and abandoned domiciles rainbow six-style while shimmering metallic music plays in the headphones of you and your horny best friend fighting a guerilla war against the esoteric fae legions of alchemical embalmers.

i wish every horror film was like this, there is nothing extraneous here except the simple fight of two weird dudes vs. the slave-masters of the demoniac realm and their servitors. it is the eerie-ethereal material of a french symbolist novel colliding with the vital musculature of the american pulp tradition. the tall man is like lovecraft's nyarlathotep, he is an entity that has existed before humanity…

Phantasm zum Zweiten!

Erleben wir im ersten Teil, ein mitentdecken der Figuren um diesen Tall Man und seiner Welt des Obskuren, kehrt Teil zwei das Entdecken um, aus dem Erleben des Albtraumes, wird das Bewusste konfrontieren damit, sprich, der Gejagte wird zum Jäger.

Mit einem Zeitsprung von sieben Filmjahren und tatsächlichen neun Jahren, beginnt „Phantasm 2“ mit einem guten Einstieg einer neu etablierenden, weiblichen Figur, die, einmal näher an den Zuschauer herangeführt, mit den stärksten Szenen weitergeführt wird. Wahrlich originell, obwohl so was von „einfach“, fängt Don Coscarelli das direkte Geschehen seines ersten Filmes ein, erzählt den sonst typischen Horrocat, weiter und aus, was zumal den Einstieg nach neun Jahren Abstinenz sehr dienlich ist, die Fans des Originals abholt.

Nach…

Tall man: “You think when die, you go to heaven? You come to us!”

Mike has been incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital following the events of the last film.
He is released and immediately returns to Morningside Cemetery to see if he was right. Digging up graves to find empty coffins.
The Tall Man was using the bodies.
Reggie joins Mike and they hit the road to track down the Tall Man and put his wicked deeds to an end once and for all.

This sequel comes nearly a decade after the release of the first film.
Universal bought the distribution rights for the film and hired Don Coscarelli back as writer and director.
Returning to the cast we have…