Review of Phantasm II

The balls are back better than before and so is Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man in Don Coscarelli's bigger budgeted follow up to his 1979 indie hit. Reggie Bannister returns in his signature role but James LeGros replaces Michael Baldwin as Mike, a move that didn't go down well with fans. It's a lot gorier than its predecessor and has a higher body count too. In one scene a mortuary assistant is cremated alive, in another a flying sphere bores into an unlucky guy and exits through his mouth. Despite this the movie goes out of its way to be fun and entertaining. Reggie gets laid in unusual circumstances and spends a large portion of his screen time involved in chainsaw duels, it's a bit of a nod to the Evil Dead movies (one in-joke even features some cremated remains being bagged up and labelled as belonging to a certain Mr Sam Raimi). This is a surprisingly decent horror sequel that builds on what was started in the first movie, and works as a gore filled piece of 80's horror with a premise unlike any other in the genre.