Having already exhausted all the horrific and action-adventure possibilities of his Phantasm series, writer/director Don Coscarelli falls back on mystery-sapping exposition for Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, a direct-to-video catastrophe that continues the story of Mike (Michael Baldwin, returning to the role after James LeGros’ turn in the first sequel) and Reggie’s (Reggie Bannister) fight against the otherworldly Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). With Scrimm’s gaunt ghoul intent on capturing Mike (for reasons left unexplained), the heroic duo are joined by the ghost of Mike’s dead brother Jody (Bill Thornbury), who’s been turned into one of the Tall Man’s blood-draining spheres. If that weren’t ridiculous enough – and trust me, it’s plenty ridiculous – Reggie also eventually teams up with nunchaku-wielding, Grace Jones-wannabe Rocky (Gloria Lynne Henry) and sharp-shooting kid Tim (Kevin Connors), the latter of whom has been repelling the Tall Man’s undead minions since his parents’ death via Home Alone-style booby traps in his abandoned home. After a few tepid murder scenes, all of these dorks meet up for a final confrontation in which Coscarelli’s ho-hum cliffhanger takes a backseat to his hilarious dedication to ending each Phantasm with a character being pulled backwards through a window. More often than not, however, Phantasm III isn’t as funny as it is lame.
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