Phantasm II

1988 Directed by Don Coscarelli

The ball is back!

Mike, after his release from a psychiatric hospital, teams up with his old pal Reggie to hunt down the Tall Man, who is at it again. A mysterious, beautiful girl has also become part of Mike's dreams, and they must find her before the Tall Man does.

James Le Gros Reggie Bannister Angus Scrimm Paula Irvine Samantha Phillips Kenneth Tigar Ruth C. Engel Mark Anthony Major Stacey Travis A. Michael Baldwin Irene Korman Troy Fromin Katie Carlin June Jordan Ed Gale Phil Fondacaro

Alternative Titles

Phantasm 2, Phantasma II. El regreso, Das Böse II

science fiction horror thriller action

97 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Todd Gaines ★★★½ 41

The Tall Man is back! So is Reggie; the greatest ice cream truck driver known to man. We can't forget Mike, but why does he look so different? It's Don Coscarelli's sequel to the cult classic, Phantasm. It takes the Aliens route; it's more action-packed, than horror. It makes no sense, but that's part of the charm. Phantasm II is a highly debated movie among fans of the series. Why was Mike recast? Should we blame Mr. Coscarelli? Is that really Reggie's hair, or is it the worst hairpiece ever?
I love Phantasm. It's one of my favorite movies. The Tall Man is one of my favorite villains. Reggie is one of my favorite heroes. I think I figured out…
Review by Hollie Horror ★★★ 7

One of the most disappointing things about Phantasm II is that it feels more like a later sequel in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, shifting the focus from the saga of an extradimensional undertaker and his crushed corpse slave army to Coscarelli possibly having a checklist of the things needed to cater to what the masses were Cravening at the time (which would be a result of this being a studio film made nearly 10 years after the original with 10x the budget).
In an opening scene that looked as though it was ripped directly out of NOES 3: Dream Warriors, we're introduced to the Kristen-clone who, along with being plagued by nightmares, has a telepathic link to Mike…
Review by pd187 ★★★★ 9

lmao how weird is a series where THIS is the normal/sellout movie? universal execs 100% degayed it tho (why does the tall man only fuck guys in the 1st one??) & never realized how the sequels "horny reggie" routine was prob cuz studio focus groups worried audiences thought he wanted to fuck the unrelated teenage boy he drives around & hangs out with in motel rooms (reggie is a friend to all children, like gamera) but once you get over that its not the 1st one "slick 80s wannabe-raimi nightmare-feddy mucus-melt" is a p good genre to be in
Review by Tony the Terror😼🏳️‍🌈 👻 ★★★★½ 9

I think I’ve only seen this one once or twice before, but lemme tell you that poster is forever etched into my memory. I remember when this came out on VHS, my video store (Video Review in Greensboro, NC aka the greatest video store ever) had this poster prominently displayed in the front window for quite a while and man it was just a beautiful thing. It was scary to me as a kid, but I also loved it and it’s one of my clearest early horror memories. Wonderful times.
The movie itself is also really great, even if it’s not quite as amazing as the first one. It lacks that disjointed, surreal style of the first, but then it…
Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★★ 4

An amazing sequel complete with all the bells and whistles! Bigger and better than the Original in every way imaginable!
If I was any more satisfied than I am now.. I'd be lighting a cigarette and rolling over and asking Don Coscarelli if it was as good for him as it was for me!
Review by <Todd> ★★½

"Damn... it's not a dream" - The Girl,
- Daily Horror Hunt #23 (25/31): boxd.it/5m5ve
Who names their daughter Alchemy?
Mike gets out of a psychiatric hospital, pairs up with Reggie and goes looking for the Tall Man. I am a huge fan of the original Phantasm which is weird and wonderful with a fun story and spectacular visual effects that are diverse and interesting. The Phantasm world has a lot of potential and a scary and creative villain. This sequel is a tale of good visual effects but incredibly boring script. The movie is fun to look at when stuff is happening but grinds to a complete halt when the dialogue is going... I almost fast forwarded through some parts.
Review by Jayson Kennedy ★★★

The bee's knees for many who dislike the first, the Tall Man's re-emergence after nine years is a big contradiction. Working with Universal, director Don Coscarelli made concessions, but there's a good chance none of the sequels would've happened without the studio's prompt. Flush with millions and determination to spawn a theatrical franchise imparts a vastly larger feel worlds away from the 1979 film.
There's a trade-off with the first's inventiveness replaced here with fun expansions on its groundwork. The Tall Man's corpse farming has stretched well outside of Morningside. Cloaked dwarves alone won't do so gravers join in to assist the workflow. Bannister's Reggie shifts to a primary; becoming a ladies' man and bolting together his iconic quad shotgun…
Review by Matt Winfield ★★★★ 2

”You think that when you die you go to heaven, you come to US!”
MAN, I'm totally on board with the direction this series is going. If the rest of the sequels are just ”The Adventures of Murderin' Mike and Radical Reg” I'll be so dang happy, cause this one was awesome! Sure, it loses a bit of that ethereal dreamscape atmosphere, but the world-ending stakes laid out here just give off such a vibe. A much more grander, epic feel moving forward. Going from one rotting corpse of a town to another, armed to the fuckin' teeth (Chainsaw! Flamethrower!! QUAD BARREL SHOTGUN!!!), while stuck in a constant battle with the Tall man and his minions of hell. The stakes…
Review by DirkH ★★★★½ 1

Don Coscarelli is a goddamn genius.
Not only has he managed to make the exact same film in the guise of a sequel, but he also managed to make it more entertaining and more bizarre than the first one. It follows all the rules of sequeldom perfectly. Let's have three orbs! More dwarfs! A longer 'worst sex scene ever'! And let's make even less sense than part one!
For me it is impossible not to fall for the ridiculousness of it all. Perfect silliness.
Review by Slig001 ★★★★

Despite coming nine years after the original, Don Coscarelli's sequel to his original horror film follows on exactly in the same vein. The story picks up immediately where the first film left off; and then cuts to some years later. Mike has apparently spent some time in a mental hospital but now he's released and back on the tail of The Tall Man. Once again, the film forsakes logic in favour of delivering pure fantasy horror. The gaps in coherency are more than covered by just pure entertainment. The film basically doesn't stop from the first moment. It's a maelstrom of cobbled together weapons, creepy dwarves, murderous spheres, dueling chainsaws, Angus Scrimm, alternate universes, explosions and more. Phantasm 2 really goes the extra mile! Very much a worthy follow up to one of the most imaginative horrors of the seventies.
Review by YI JIAN ★★★★ 7

Phantasm II just might be Don Coscarelli's masterpiece. In this sequel, not only will he fulfill your appetite for nonsensical nonsense, but you'll also have to make room for supper. We have lots of metal ball mayhem. Gas mask wearing grave diggers! The Tall Man! A chainsaw standoff! What's not to love? I've spent the first hour of the film waiting for Reggie to use his quad-barreled shotgun and I have to say, he certainly did not disappoint. Shooting that scene in slow motion had my eyes turning into hearts.
I am floored by Coscarelli's passion and vision. If this film's a dream don't wake me up. Let's hope the next two installments are just as good.
Hoop-Tober After Party Film #31
Thank you, Cinemonster!
Review by Bob McCully ★★★★

Don Coscarelli's sequel to his 1979 masterpiece is an obnoxious product of late 80's excess. The kind of bratty flick that could easily smoke cigarettes outside the school gymnasium with Elm Streets 3, 4 & 5. I love it.
Picking up directly where the first entry finished off, we have Reggie warding off hooded minions in Mike's house leading to a massive explosion as they both get away. A warning sign that in true 80's horror sequel fashion, this one is gonna bring the A.C.T.I.O.N.
We then fast forward 7 years to James LeGros now playing a grown up Mike catching up with Reggie and ready to travel across the many highways of the US of A in search of the…

Recent reviews

Review by lknzn ★★★

Nothing is ever as it seems! Reggie the ice cream man is back and together with Mikey they fight the good fight against the Tall Man and his gang och minions! This time around there's no doubt this shit's for real and even bigger than Reggie and Mikey even thought. Boooooy are you all in for a ride!
Review by zj_smith ★★★

I'm not sure if they needed the dueling chainsaws stolen from Motel Hell, but overall I had more fun with this than the first Phantasm. Trades the artistic imagery from the original for 80s excess.
Review by MikeOriginal ★★★

A fun sequal and a bit more straight forward.
Not as feverish as the first one, but good and entertaining.. boooy.
Review by pablodriver ★★★

j’ai légèrement préféré cet opus. le scénario est moins délaissé, le tout est plus soignée et moins bordélique sans délaisser les trucs dégueu et le côté série b. pas mal
Review by mr.kismet

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

It was fun discovering the callback that Panos Cosmatos made to this movie in Mandy with the chainsaw battle.
Review by Jo De Mey ★★★½

In the Pantheon of horror franchises, Phantasm is very much the "oh yeah, I heard of that film" series, it's recognisable, but often more by genre fans, and not as much pop culture.
Part of the reason might be that these films have a slightly higher entry threshold than let's say Halloween or Nightmare on Elm street, knowing the villain alone won't make you able to easily just jump in at any given entry.
If this film sets the mold for the series, it expects you to be roughly familiar with all it's main players, as the film takes about 5-10 minutes to set up it's story, and pretty much moves into what would be the second half of the…
Review by Scott Jones ★★½

Marks for hunting the Tall Man with a quadruple-barreled shotgun and a hat that says "Boogie Down".
Review by Smarter ★★★★

You truly never know what is going to happen next in these bizarre films and I truly appreciate that.
Watched w/ Rafe
Review by orinow ★★★

pościg za "Wielkoludem i zmienne szczęście w zmaganiach między światami, "formalnie i wizualnie poprawny a nawet ciekawy, żenujące latające kule i szmira w kwestii metafory...
The first film's protagonist, Mike, recently released from a mental institution, recruits Reggie and some new friends in an effort to defeat the villain Tall Man.
John Kenneth Muir states that, like many horror films of the 1980s, Phantasm II shifted its focus to guns. Sequels in the 1980s were required to be bigger, gorier, and have more firepower than previous installments. The theme of "bigger is better" means that everything is upgraded: a quadruple shotgun, golden spheres with increased weaponry, a chainsaw duel, and the nature of the Tall Man's death. Muir states that…
Review by marciodrosa ★★★

Assim como no primeiro, não vejo muito sentido em praticamente nada que vai se desenrolando na narrativa. Parece que os eventos simplesmente... vão acontecendo. Um dos maiores exemplos disso é o Homem Alto: nunca parece claro se ele quer matar ou poupar os personagens, se faz um ou outro de propósito ou sem querer.
Ainda que não seja visualmente tão marcante quanto o primeiro, o filme até continua bonito e novamente gostei da trilha sonora. E, de modo geral, eu estava curioso pra ver como a história prosseguiria (ainda que tropeçando) e se nota que Don Coscarelli parecia estar se divertindo em dar continuidade a sua "saga", agora muito mais influenciada por Evil Dead. E ainda que não seja tão criativa quanto nas nojeiras, a influência é óbvia - e só a espingarda (de cano quádruplo) de cano serrado, as motosserras e o nome de Sam Raimi aparecendo em um easter egg já tornam isso bem explícito.
Review by Dankstin Memeswell ★★★½

Viewed on: DVD
I've just kind of accepted this film for what it is now. It doesn't have the unique dreamlike quality of the first film, but it does have an ample amount of action horror goodness, and there's also more of Reggie's sexy ass skullet.
Review by jimmyoc ★★★½

In going bigger, Phantasm II has removed much that made the first unique. Studio interference ensured that the surrealism, both in look and narrative, was dropped in favour of more action - guns, chainsaw fights, flamethrowers - creating a road-movie sequel that could so easily be lost amongst a plethora of 80s horror.
Whilst the studio requested that Coscarelli drop the dream sequences and Michael Baldwin as Mike, he was allowed to keep Reggie Bannister’s charismatic “bald, middle-aged, ex-ice cream vendor,” Reggie (who he even gives a bizarre and laughable sex scene to), and Angus Scrimm reprises the terrifying Tall Man, his chrome sentinels still stalking and enacting violent and inventive death, his crushed corpses still skulking.
Much of what made Phantasm distinctive - its fantastical and bizarre ambiguity - is gone, yet Coscarelli is a horror auteur who still creates something weird, inventive and more out there than most mainstream studio horror.