Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994)

I love this movie so much

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Redundant and unnecessary.

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Phantasm III was almost like the previous film, except it was more comedic than it's predecessor. I'd say the best parts of the film were when Reggie kept trying to unsuccessfully bed Rocky. The two worked well together.

I have seen the first and second Phantasm films. I loved the first one and only mildly enjoyed the second one...so I was expecting to feel equally cold about the third film. Fortunately, I was wrong...it was MUCH better than I'd expected.Like the second film, this one begins with some flashback scenes. It also, like the second one, shows that the ending you THOUGHT you saw isn't exactly what happened...and somehow Reggie survived in order to keep fighting The Tall Man. However, Mike IS gone...and he only appears in the film as more of a guest star. And, surprisingly, the dead Jody (Mike's brother) manages to appear in this one!! Considering the second film featured 'Faux Mike' (another actor playing this part), having the real Mike and Jody, even in small parts, was welcome. However, what REALLY was welcome were the two new players--Tim and Rocky. They were, by far, the best thing about this film. So naturally, they do NOT appear in the next two movies in the franchise!!Basically, this film is much like the first two--with Reggie driving about the country fighting zombies, orbs and the like. This time, however, he's got some strange helpers...a tough-as-nails lady and a child who is like Kevin from Home Alone if he was merged with Rambo!!! Oddly, another helper is a 'nice' orb containing Jody...why manages to help them here and there!The bottom line is that there is a lot of new addition to the film-- needed new additions in order to keep it from getting stale. And, combined with a little bit of Mike and Jody, it makes this one a winner. You just have to see Tim, the little boy, in action...what an unlikely and cool super-hero!!

Phantasm III is very much like Phantasm II, but a little better if only because the original Michael is in it. But not for very much. Many of the other elements were in II and frankly, you could skip II and go right to this one and not have missed one thing.Not a big-budget series of films, this seems like one episode of a weekly TV series, where they are on a road trip looking for the Tall Man. Their mission: to explore strange old mausoleums, to seek out new death and decimated civilizations, to oldly go where they have gone before.Each new entry apparently requires a new style of sphere (I'd like to see the "action figure" for those!) and new quirky characters. The Tall Man remains creepy but that may get diluted because of his indestructability. There is no real ending for this movie, obviously set up for yet another sequel. I'm hoping they are setting up Michael to be an eventual successor to The Tall Man. But the story has to end somewhere.That said, it is a decent waste of 90 minutes, not all that scary.

Picking up where part II leaves off, Mike (Baldwin) and Reggie (Banister) barley escape the Tall Man (Scrimm) and go into hiding. A silver sphere catches up to them but it is somehow Jody (Thornbury) Mike's dead brother from the original. Jody warns them that the Tall Man is coming for them and they need to hide out. In a thrilling scene the Tall Man captures Mike and takes him away. Reggie, through urging from Jody, heads out to find Mike. Along the way he picks up a couple of side kicks including Timmy (Kevin Connors) and a tough chick named Rocky (Gloria Lynne Henry). Eventually the group meets up with Mike and helps him to escape. The Tall Man in this movie seems obsessed with keeping Mike. He seems to have other plans for him, but in the tradition of the Phantasm series we never find out why. It's nice to see Bill Thornbury as Jody being worked back into the series even in this bizarre way and A. Michael Baldwin returns as Mike after his absence in part II. Mike's character gets taken by the Tall Man so early on we lose him for half the movie. So instead of the preferred Reggie & Mike teaming of part II Reggie is teamed up with lesser characters. Still Phantasm III has some scary moments and others that are truly bizarre. The gore is up to par all though not quite as showy as the impressive Part II's set pieces. The cast is comfortable with their roles and once again Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man is impressive. Series Director and creator Don Coscerelli chooses to show the audience the Tall Man more in this one but never cheapens him. Fans of the series will roll right along with this not even trying to explain some of the weird mythology at work here. Part III is the most unbalanced of the series and newcomers will be thoroughly confused. The conclusion is pure cliffhanger with Mike possessed by a sphere the Tall Man has put into his brain and Reggie pinned to the wall by a dozen spheres. Coscarelli knows how to make a small budget look bigger than it is, and all though the scares are a little more spread out in this segment, Part III has some great moments fans of the series should enjoy.