Director: Don Coscarelli
Writer: Don Coscarelli
Stars: James Le Gros, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm
Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes
Link: https://amzn.to/36FfLFQ
Synopsis
A girl reads the original Phantasm story from a very well-illustrated notebook. We see the last few minutes of the original film again. Reggie and Mike are ready to leave on an extended trip, but the Tall Man comes for them…
This time, we see Reggie come to the rescue when they grab Mike. Reggie gets cornered, so he turns up the gas and waits for the house to explode. It’s hard to tell that the scenes with Mike are done with a body double since the actor had grown up by the time the sequel was produced. We see from the girl’s notebook that the girl has visions of Mike, who we see is now grown up.
Mike wakes up in the Morningside Psychiatric Clinic. He looks like a completely different actor. It’s been seven years since the events of the first film. He convinces the doctors that he now realizes that all that stuff was in his imagination.
As soon as he gets out, Mike starts digging up graves that turn out to be empty. Reggie tells Mike it was all in his imagination. Mike knows the Tall Man is calling to him to come. As Mike and Reggie return home, Reggie’s house explodes, killing his entire family. Now, Reggie wants revenge as well. They raid the local hardware/gun shop and build new weapons. Not because they need to, just because they look cool.
The two return to the Morningside cemetery, where all the graves are not only empty, but are nothing but open holes. The mortuary itself is all boarded up, but they cut their way inside. Mike finds a corpse on the table, but when he looks away, it’s gone.
They find Liz in the basement, tied up. She’s got the Tall Man growing out of her back, so they blast her with the flame thrower. Reggie explains that this wasn’t really Liz, just a creature. One of the Tall Man’s calling cards – with a message to come get him if they dare.
We cut to the real Liz, going to her grandfather’s funeral at the Perigord Cemetery. She opens a door that leads to a long mausoleum hallway. She hears some strange sounds in there. She checks to make sure she’s not dreaming this time. Mike wakes up; he knows Liz’s in danger, so he and Reggie hurry toward the town. The priest, Father Meyers, stays behind at Liz’s grandfather’s funeral, and he looks really nervous. He stakes the dead man through the heart. Liz’s runs into the Tall Man; yes, he’s there now. That night, both Father Meyers and Grandma get visits from the dead grandpa.
Mike takes a nap in the car, and when he wakes up, Alchemy, the girl he saw dead in the morgue, is sitting in the back seat. Mike wants to leave her behind, but Reggie’s got a little crush on her already.
Mike, Reggie, and Alchemy get to Perigord and they try to get a room, but the whole town has moved out. They chainsaw this door open as well. Meanwhile, Liz is stalking through the cemetery looking for her grandma. Liz watches a mortician embalm a body.
Father Meyers opens a tiny coffin, which attracts the attention of the Tall Man. The little coffin opens and the spheres come out to play. Meyers tells Liz that the Tall Man is harvesting the entire town. The ball cuts his ear off, and then comes back to finish the job. Liz finds her grandma, who is now an evil dwarf. Liz falls into a grave where Mike is hiding while wearing a gas mask for no discernible reason.
Mike and Liz have a happy evening together, while Reggie and Alchemy do the same only with more energy. Reggie and Mike investigate a noise downstairs while the Tall Man throws Liz into the back of his hearse. There’s a brief car chase, and their car explodes. They walk to the mortuary and once again, break in. Meanwhile, the mortician tries to put Liz in the crematorium, but he’s a wimp, and she shoves him in instead.
Mike, Liz, and the other mortician fight, but the balls get the mortician instead. The golden ball has lasers and can blast through doors! Reggie battles one of the gas mask men, chainsaw-to-chainsaw.
Mike captures one of the spheres and uses it to open the portal room in this mausoleum. The trio enters the portal room and does battle with the Tall Man. Mike and Reggie end up in the other dimension while the Tall Man tries to embalm Liz. Mike shoots the ball at the Tall Man, but it doesn’t have much effect. The three work together to embalm the Tall Man.
Meanwhile, Alchemy finds the hearse outside and hot-wires it as an escape route. Reggie sets fire to the funeral home, and they all drive away. It’s all good they find out this isn’t the real Alchemy…
Commentary
Brad Pitt auditioned for the role of Mike, and yet they gave it to this guy. This was also the lowest-budgeted film Universal produced in the eighties. Well, all I can say is that it’s not the worst sequel I’ve ever seen.
It takes the Tall Man, dwarves, and sphere from the original and adds new spheres, evil morticians, and the unexplained gas mask men.