Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead a 1994 horror film, a sequel to Phantasm written and directed by Don Coscarelli. The film starred Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man, Reggie Bannister and A. Michael Baldwin. Filming wrapped up in mid 1993 but sat unreleased for over a year before being released directly to VHS.
This film, for the first time, refer to the dwarves as "Lurkers", the gas masked grave diggers as "Gravers" and the spheres as "Sentinels".
Plot
Immediately after his apparent demise in the previous installment, a new Tall Man emerges from the interdimensional gate. During this time the hearse driving Liz and Mike carries on and explodes. Reggie, who is still bloodied from being attacked by the Tall Man, rushes over to find Liz's corpse being devoured by a Lurker. The Tall Man then appears again, apprehending Reggie and an unconscious Mike but leaves when Reggie threatens to blow them into pieces, stating that he wants Mike in one piece.
Taken to a hospital, Mike has a Near death experience, in which his brother Jody appears and tells him to stay away from the light. Mike walks on, recognizes the Tall Man ahead of him and wakes up. Just as Reggie arrives, Mike is attacked by the nurse but fights her off. A sphere emerges from her head and crashes out through the window. Back at home, Jody appears again to warn Mike but so does the Tall Man, who fights off Reggie and Jody (by now transformed into a sphere) and draws Mike through the gate with him.
The next morning, Reggie (with Jody's sphere) go to Holtsville, which turns out to be deserted. Reggie is captured by a three looters who lock him in his car's trunk and drive on to another house. There they are attacked and killed by a little boy called Tim, who also releases Reggie. After they have buried three looters in the yard, Tim tells Reggie how the Tall Man took his parents and how he escaped. In the morning, Reggie and Tim find the three graves empty and the pink hearse gone. Setting out to find the Tall Man, Reggie wants to leave Tim with a woman looking after orphans but the boy hides in the trunk and comes along.
Reggie enters Holtsville mortuary and is confronted by a sphere. As he is about to blast it, he is assaulted and handcuffed by two black young women, Tanesha and Rocky. Reg tries to warn them but Tanesha is killed by the sphere and breaks Rocky's weapon before Tim appears and shoots it out of the air with his pistol. The three join forces and drive on, looking for a town called Boulton, which contains a large mortuary. On their way the come across a convoy of hearses and follow them.
As they camp outside, Jody's sphere floats over to Reggie. In a dream, Jody appears and leads Reggie to the Tall Man's lair, where Mike is imprisoned in a small cell. The two free him but the Tall Man reappears and pursues the three. Jody is transformed back into a sphere and Reggie awakes. Jody appears again, opens another gate and Mike emerges. The Tall Man tries to emerge as well but Reggie manages to shut the gate just as he was about to reach through, cutting off the Tall Man's hands. They manage to fight off the small monsters into which the hands morph, and also the pink hearse containing the three looters.
They reach Boulton mortuary, where they come across a cryonics facility, which reminds Mike of a scene which suggests that the Tall Man dislikes cold. While Reggie, Rocky and Tim are separately attacked by the looters, Mike consults with his spheric brother, who explains that Tall Man is amassing an army to conquer dimensions. He also shows him in a dream what the Tall Man does with the dwarf creatures he has created from the dead: he removes the sapient part of the brains to create the spheres, turning the body into a drone and the mind into a killer. The Tall Man senses their presence and before they can leave, throws Mike off his feet. Surrounded by dozens of spheres, the Tall Man reaches for Mike, who wakes up and finds himself strapped to the table. The Tall Man grabs and subdues Jody's sphere and welcomes Mike. Soon afterwards, two of the looters wheel in Rufus and Henry wheel in Tim. Mike tries to give a message to the boy, saying "There are thousands of them", but is paralyzed by the Tall Man.
Rocky meanwhile manages to shake off her attacker and goes on to fight off Reggie's attacker. Cut free by Jody's sphere, Tim runs into the remaining looters who are however killed by Jody's sphere and the suddenly appearing Reggie. The threesome crash into the embalming room, where the Tall Man meanwhile has begun operating on Mike. Rocky impales the Tall Man with a spear dipped into liquid nitrogen, causing his flesh to begin melting. Rocky and Reggie lock him into the refrigerator room. A golden sphere breaks out of his head, crashes outside and chases through the corridors. Surprised by the golden sphere, Reggie catches it with a plunger and is still overpowered by it. With the help of Rocky and Tim, he locks the sphere into the nitrogen tank.
In the meantime, Mike climbs from the table and sees yellow blood issuing from his wound. He looks into a mirror and sees a golden sphere in his own head, concealed by a flap of skin. Just after the Tall Man's sphere has been dumped into the nitrogen, Mike appears, showing golden eyeballs, complaining of the cold and walking outside. Reggie chases after him but Mike warns him to stay away. Jody leaves as well, telling Reggie that they'll be in touch.
Reggie suggests searching the mortuary but Rocky leaves. Reggie and Tim go back inside and Tim reports that Mike said that "There are thousands of them." Unbeknownst to them, dozens of spheres are hovering above them. In the next room, Tim finds the poles of the interdimensional gate and the nitrogen tank overturned. He goes back to find Reggie pinned to the wall by the spheres. Tim tries to get his gun but the Tall Man appears, as Tim is pulled outside through a window.
Cast
DVD release
An unrated version of the film was released in 2007 by Anchor Bay Entertainment, featuring slight changes from the original video cassette and theater releases: The death of the character Tanesha is extended. There are additional screams, blood flow, and more shocking reactions by Reggie and Rocky.
External links
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The Phantasm series |
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