What's a Special Edition? It's a series where I review one of my favorites. These are films that would appear in my Top 50 or so (if I endeavored to compile such a list). My goal is to write a Special Edition Blood Capsule once every couple of months. We'll see how that goes!
PHANTASM II (1988)
I have a vivid memory of watching Phantasm II on TNT's MonsterVision. It was love at first sight, and that's in spite of the fact that it was edited for content. This was actually my introduction to the Phantasm series. At first, I wasn't a vociferous "phan" of the 1979 original. I've grown to appreciate it over the years, but for my money, Phantasm II is the ticket. It's basically the original on steroids. I should recuse myself by stating for the record that it's not phlawless (okay, I'll stop doing that...probably). The pacing becomes laborious at certain points. None of these movies are free of what I call "Benadryl scenes," but this one is still the most lean/mean. James Le Gros is perfectly acceptable as Mike. He was chosen for cosmetic reasons, but he turns in a solid acting job. I'm putting the cart before the hearse (ha!). Mike and Reggie hit the road in a bid to slay The Tall Man. If you haven't seen Phantasm II for some mystical reason, I won't bore you with a play-by-play breakdown of the plot. Besides, you wouldn't believe half of it anyway.
Technically, this is a Universal horror film. Don Coscarelli wasn't fond of receiving studio notes, but to be honest, I think that feeding his surreal visions through a mainstream filter facilitated the script-to-screen process. It couldn't have hindered the film. Little details like the ubiquitous narration only gave the story a measure of forward momentum. Thankfully, Phantasm II takes the "more is more" approach. The gore is goopy, the action is kicked up a notch, and of course, it wouldn't be a Phantasmal experience without sexual alchemy. Yes, there is a character named Alchemy, and yes, my brain is working overtime to find the right pun to bring it all together. If you're curious, my second favorite of the lot is Phantasm: OblIVion. I have weird opinions when it comes to this franchise. However, the majority seems to enjoy Phantasm II as much as I do. Go phigure.
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