PHANTASM 3: LORD OF THE DEAD IS DOA

Mike and Reggie's quest to vanquish the Tall Man hits a snag when Mike is kidnapped by The Tall Man and Reggie is left to give chase. Along the way, he encounters some of the most annoying and insufferable supporting characters to ever assault your eyeballs.

This film sucks. Reggie (Reggie Bannister) and Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) aren't bad-asses anymore, and more often than not are caught with their pants down. the nun-chuck wielding Rocky (Gloria Lynne Henry, who can't act her way out of a paper bag) and sharpshooter Tim (Kevin Connors, who is an annoying kid that the film basically tries to turn into the new Mike) are pretty bad as new members of Mike and Reggie's team. There's also a gang of thieves that are insufferable and act as secondary antagonists for our group. The film does Reggie a disservice by making him incompetent and constantly in the mood for love (He's always trying to bang Rocky, and it's pretty embarrassing for him).

It's nice to have A. Michael Baldwin and Bill Thornbury reprise their roles as Mike and Jody, respectively. Unfortunately, they aren't in the film much (for one, Jody spends pretty much the entirety of the film trapped inside one of The Tall Man's balls), and both are given little to do. Surprisingly, Bill Thornbury is the coolest one here.

Angus Scrimm is back once again as The Tall Man, and he does a significantly better job than he did in Phantasm 2. He gets to say "BOY!" again, and is imposing and freaky. The film does go for a more odd, surreal tone (with plenty of nice, creepy, surreal visuals) that is closer to the original Phantasm.

Unfortunately, the ending feels very slapdash. Phantasm 3 doesn't really feel like it had an end destination in mind, and comes across as uninspired for the most part (despite an explanation for the dwarves, the balls, and The Tall Man that makes some sense).

In the end, Phantasm 3 is an enormous disappointment that wastes it's talented returning cast and the good will the series had built up till now. I'm going to have to say this one is a hard skip.

1.5 STARS