Phantasm 2

Alternate titles : The Never Dead Part 2, Das Bose 2.

Tagline : "The Ball is Back!"

Nine years after the original and they FINALLY got round to making a sequel. Several years on from the evnts of the first film, young Mike Pearson (played this time by James LeGross) has spent most of this time at a mental institution, after the authorities didn't believe his story about graverobbing tall men, killer spheres and zombie dwarfs.

After finally getting released, he meets up with his old friend Reggie (played once more by Reggie Bannister). Believing that the Tall Man is still harvesting bodies from unsuspecting funeral parlours, Mike tries to convince him to go on the road with him and help hunt him down. Reggie initially refuses, but after an encounter with the Tall Man's minions, quickly agrees.

Loading up with home made flame throwers and some awesome 4-barreled shotguns, they follow the trail of destruction the Tall Man has left in his wake and aided by a strange girl named Liz (Paula Irvine), another victim of the Tall Man who appears only in Mike's dreams, they're lead to the small town of Perigord, where the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm reprising his role) has been busy setting up shop.

Since his arrival, more than half the towns population have mysteriously died. The local priest knows that the strange funeral director is somehow behind the spate of mysterious deaths, but only manages to get himself killed when he tries to stop him.

Mike and Reggie finally manage to hook up with Liz in person, and together they attempt to stop the Tall Man once and for all, battling more zombie dwarves and flying spiked spheres in the process, along with gas masked grave robbers and demonic embalmers, before a final confrontation with the Tall Man himself.

A very worthy sequel to the original, with all the elements that made the first film so great. If you liked the original Phantasm, you'll enjoy this equally as well.

Overall Marks : 6/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Alternate tag lines "For ten years the secret of Perigord Cemetery has remained a mystery. Now the ultimate evil is about to be revealed". "Terrifying - Relentless - Unstoppable".
• The Director wanted to use original actor A Michael Baldwin for the role of Mike, but as he wasn't a full time working actor the studio forced him to recast, as they felt he wouldn't be up to the job, despite the fact he was willing to reprise the role.
• The films budget was $3million.
• The name on the bag in the crematorium, which the caretaker pours the ashes into, is marked "Sam Raimi". A jokey reference to the director of "The Evil Dead" films.
• Two scenes where trimmed during pre-production to avoid getting an NC17 rating in the US. The scene where the priest is killed by the flying sphere was originally much gorier, and showed blood spurting out of the back of the ball as it drilled into his skull. Also, when the "gold" sphere accidentally kills the caretaker in the casket room, there as originally more blood.
• The studio had wanted to recast the roles of The Tall Man and Reggie, but the Director successfully fought to keep the original actors
• Brad Pitt was one of several actors to audition for the role of Mike, but the Director eventually chose James LeGross.
• Though we see 2 houses blowing up in different parts of the film, Mike's and later Reggie's, only one house was actually blown up and the 2 scenes were filmed simultaneously on different sides of the house.
• Several scenes were excised from the final print for pacing or continuity reasons. After Reggie's house blows up, Mike says "We could die trying to find him" to which Reggie replies "Hey, we gotta go sometime". The scene where Reggie torches the "Liz" look-alike in the abandoned mausoleum was originally a dream sequence. During the scene where they are sleeping in an abandoned mansion there was a sequence in which Mike and Liz had a telepathic love scene. After the scene where they drive away in the hearse, there was a scene showing a new Tall Man emerging from the space gate and throwing the body of the dead Tall Man back through (this was later used for the intro to part 3). When Alchemy starts peeling off her facial skin in the hearse, originally she peeled off more skin revealing it was the Tall Man in disguise, but this was cut because the Director thought it looked too fake. All these scenes turned up in a bootleg workprint version that was circulating in the US in the late 80's/early 90's, along with the 2 extra gory scenes that were trimmed. The workprint version runs about 20mins longer than the original release, although this version has no funeral scene after Reggie's house blew up. These alternate scenes were included as extras on the Special Edition Blu-Ray.
• The US TV version heavily trimmed all the violence, and replaced some of the swearing with alternate dialogue. In addition, the woman's body in the abandoned mortuary had a sheet over it and Alchemy kept her top on during the sex scene with Reggie.

Other Recomendations

A-Z REVIEWS | REVIEWS INDEX | HOME