The first sequel takes place ten after the events of the original PHANTASM.  A. Michael Baldwin is replaced by James Le Gros (POINT BREAK) due to an ultimatum by the studio (it was either Mike or Reggie).  Le Gros does a good enough job here, but there's not as much for the character of Mike Pearson as there would be in the following two films.

For some time now, Mike Pearson has been couped up in a mental hospital due to his raving about the Tall Man and his army of the undead pillaging the graveyards of the country.  But for even longer, Mike has had a link to a young woman named Liz.  He sees her in his dreams, and Liz sees Mike and the Tall Man in her's.  She can feel the Tall Man coming closer, coming to take away her great grandmother and father along with every body buried in the cemetery there.

Meanwhile, Mike gets released from the hospital, but only to go back to digging up empty graves in order to prove to Reggie that all he says is true.  Reggie soon becomes a believer when his house goes up in flames, just as Mike said it would.  The unlikely heroes take to the road, following the Tall Man's path of dead, abandoned towns whose graveyards have been left with nothing but empty plots.  Reggie & Mike put together a small array of makeshift weapons that THE EVIL DEAD's Ashley J. Williams' would be proud of.  The Tall Man knows they're tracking him, and leaves many disturbing traps for them, to keep their pursuit hot.  By the time Mike & Reggie catch up to the Tall Man, he's already setup shop in Liz's hometown, and has taken her great grandparents.  A local priest is desperate to end the Tall Man's sacrilege, but he has no idea what he's up against.  Reggie & Mike soon find Liz and join forces with her along with a mysterious female hitchhiker.  Together they vow to destroy the Tall Man once and for all.

"PHANTASM II" is a better made film than the original, but doesn't quite add anything to the PHANTASM legacy.  It just basically brings it up-to-date, and sets our heroes on their epic journey into the unknown.  The effects are FAR better.  From the makeup to the flying sphere effects and more.  The acting is on-par, maybe a notch better than the original.  Though, the sense of surrealism that was quite prevalent in the first film is mostly absent here, and in all truth, doesn't fully return until the fourth film "PHANTASM: OBLIVION".  We do have more characters to work with, the story flows much smoother, and taps just a tad bit deeper into the mysterious world of the Tall Man.  Simply put, "PHANTASM II" could've done with a bit more exploration of the mythology and the mystery that is PHANTASM.  We get gore, we get action, we get some fun characters, but actual horror?  Not really.  It's a fun flick, and it's worth it just for Reggie alone!  I mean, catch his scene with one of the gravediggers who actually looks a GREAT deal like the killer from "MY BLOODY VALENTINE" (a great, classic early 80's slasher).  But there's far more to come, and much, much more to be revealed in the following two films without sacraficing the fantastic action OR effects!

It's true what many fans say.  "PHANTASM III" is the BEST sequel, yet!  "LORD OF THE DEAD" brings together all the best elements of the strange and surreal world of "PHANTASM", and does it with a style that is striking.  Coscarelli got it just right with this one.

We pick up just EXACTLY where the first sequel left off, but this time, James Le Gros is gone and A. Michael Baldwin is brought back as Mike Pearson.  We quite quickly find that Liz has been killed and decapitated by the Tall Man's minature minions.  Reggie pulls a grenade on the whole lot of them, but the Tall Man wants Mike alive for a special purpose that remains a mystery throughout the film.  The Tall Man and his snarling dwarves retreat, calmly as Reggie & Mike move on to recooperate at the nearest hospital.  While Mike lays, sleeping in the hospital bed, he has a vision of a blinding white light, and of his long dead brother: Jody (Bill Thornbury).  Jody tells his little brother that it's not his time yet, and sends him back to the world of the living.  Though, waiting there is another of the Tall Man's various minions.  The Tall Man may want him alive, but he's not gonna let them fall short of his trail.  Reggie saves Mike, and they head back out on the road.  While on the late night streets, Mike sees Jody standing on the roadside.  Mike forces Reggie to hit the brakes on the undamaged Hemicuda (don't ask me to explain THAT plot hole).  The heroic pair soon discover that Jody was taken by the Tall Man, and transformed into an alien form:  one of the flying sentinel spheres.  But the family reunion doesn't last too long as the Tall Man eventually locks onto Jody and locates Mike & Reggie.  It's no battle as the Tall Man easily disables Jody in his sphere form, and knocks Reggie unconscious.  Mike is taken captive to a hidden lair inside another mortuary.

Reggie then goes out on his own, trying to follow the Tall Man's path of small, murdered towns.  Along the way, he encounters a trio of cooky, unsavory looters and a resourceful young boy named Tim (Kevin Connors) who dispatches of the three.  Tim tells Reggie of how the Tall Man pillaged his cozy little town, and ultimately, took his parents from him.  Timmy chooses to tag along on Reggie's road adventure.  In the next town, they meet Rocky (Gloria Lynne Henry).  A sexy, ex-soldier who returned home to find that it was no longer her home.  The Tall Man had been there, by the fact that the group was just attacked by one of his sentinels, he can't be far ahead of them.  And so, the trio move onward to find the Tall Man, rescue Mike, and do whatever they possibly can to destroy the ultimate evil that does not allow the dead to rest.

This third installment is far beyond what "PHANTASM II" was even attempting to be.  "PHANTASM III" boasts some fantastic cinematography, great direction from Mr. Don Coscarelli himself, some fine action, and some genuine erieness, creepiness, and fear.  The story is very fleshed out here, in that surreal fashion that only "PHANTASM" can offer.  Also, it's just SO much better having A. Michael Baldwin in the role of Mike Pearson than James Le Gros.  Baldwin's version is much more focused, mature, and definitely more intelligent than action-oriented.  It's a natural, logical evolution for his character.  The first film had everyone being very inquisitive by the mystery that lies before them whereas "PHANTASM II" was more about destroying the mystery than trying to solve or understand it.  "LORD OF THE DEAD" goes back to more of the themes introduced in the original "PHANTASM".  Attempting to learn more about who and what the Tall Man is.  Attempting to discover the secrets that have been so shrouded in mystery all this time, and "PHANTASM: OBLIVION" would devote a great deal of its story to probing into the answers.

As for "PHANTASM III"?  It's great, great stuff, the first, true sequel to the original film.  In fact, it's an amalgamation of the two films that came before it.  It incorporates the mysterious, surreal elements of the first film (in fact, we get one scene that's a DIRECT link to it involving Reggie), and it incorporates the action and fun elements of "PHANTASM II".  Angus Scrimm just owns the screen every time he appears on it, and it is truly the most creepy, most erie portrayl of the Tall Man in the series, yet!  If you choose any one "PHANTASM" sequel to pick up, it's for certain this one.

You want some answers?  Well, you can have them, but you'll only uncover deeper, more disturbing questions in the process.  That's what "PHANTASM: OBLIVION" sets out to do.  Give you some long awaited answers, but no great mystery will leave you without even further questions to ponder.

"PHANTASM: OBLIVION" was to be a much different film, but Don Coscarelli didn't have the budget to make that film, and so, made one more story to build up to the ultimate, final showdown between good and evil:  "PHANTASM'S END" (then, titled "PHANTASM 1999").  Though, much of THAT story is touched upon here with several small scenes and references to what is to come.  The scale of this fourth installment is smaller, yet bigger.  It's smaller in the fact that we haven't as many characters to follow.  Reggie is pretty much on his own as the Tall Man's various minions and traps hold him at bay while the Tall Man himself attempts to sway Mike into joining him.  Though, it's bigger in scale by the fact that we're dealing with time and space, and through that, discovering more layers to the mystery of "PHANTASM".  And of course, it wouldn't be a "PHANTASM" flick without an exploding car (stay cool, the 'Cuda stays safe & damage free).

We view the final moments of "PHANTASM III" at this film's start.  Reggie pinned to the wall by the sentinels, and Mike running off.  Eventually, the Tall Man leaves Reggie alone while he persues Mike into the desert wasteland known as Death Valley.  Reggie tries to follow in the 'Cuda, but the Tall Man continues to unleash his demonic minions to halt him.  Meanwhile, the Tall Man gives glimpse after glimpse to Mike as to what the mystery of "PHANTASM" is all about.  Travelling through time and space, through flashbacks and visions of the future, it all begins to slowly unravel to uncover even more dense layers to the mystery.  We learn of how the Tall Man came to be, or more specifically, who he once was - Jebediah Morningside.  In the mid-1800s, before the American Civil War, Jebediah was a mortician who has enamoured with the mysteries of the universe and the links between life and death.  And a startling discovery is that, just perhaps, Mike & the Tall Man met in a previous life.  This all sets the stage for what will be the final, apocalyptic showdown between good and the ultimate evil.

I am glad of what this movie is - an answer.  After "PHANTASM III", I believe some answers were neccessary.  The evolution of the story required some deep digging, and we get it here.  Surely this feels like little more than a prelude, a prologue to the REAL story, but Don Coscarelli had little choice.  Either make the intended story with the restrictions of an insufficient budget, or do a different story suitable to the budget.  It prefer the latter.  Coscarelli wants to end "PHANTASM" the right way, and the way it deserves to end.  What that ending will be is still unknown to us, but sooner or later, it will be revealed.  "OBLIVION" is as polished as "LORD OF THE DEAD" was, but while the story spans a great range, its scope is greatly focused.  We really only have, as main characters, Mike, Reggie, Jody, and the Tall Man.  It's the core of the story, and it simply sheds all the excess weight to give us what's the most important elements of the PHANTASM legacy.

All the action and special effects are done extremely well, and I believe we get our FIRST CGI sentinels with this entry (and they look FABULOUS).  The cinematography is very well done with great shots of the barren Death Valley that really bring forth memories of the "STAR TREK" episode "Arena" (and the subsequent reference of it in "BILL & TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY").  The vast landscape of emptiness is presented well here, and is practically a metaphor of the potential future of the world in the Tall Man's hands.  The acting is the best of the series, and the humor is quite toned down.  The entire tone of the film is rather grim and dark.  Delving into this dangerous enigma that Mike & the Tall Man take us into truly is vintage "PHANTASM".  The surrealism is at its peak here as we get some erie flashbacks to the original film that mostly include DELETED SCENES!  And how Coscarelli weaves them into this story is uncanny.  How the two come together would make you SWEAR Coscarelli had all this planned back in 1978 when he shot it!

All in all, this is a very different "PHANTASM" sequel.  The action is at a minimal, but we DO get some explosive moments with Reggie.  The focus here is the unravelling of the connection between Mike & the Tall Man.  What secrets are buried in the past, and frightening looks into what the future holds.  The ending IS a frightening cliffhanger that leaves our heroes in perilless and unknown situations where they remain to this day.  This is quite well-made, and really goes right back to the first film in a great many ways (literally and figuratively).  It doesn't quite live up to what "LORD OF THE DEAD" was, but it moves the story into the logical direction.  I can't wait to see the conclusion of all this in "PHANTASM'S END"!