October Horror Challenge 2017 #82: "Phantasm II"

I sure waited a long time to finally watch this movie. I've wanted to see it since it came out almost 30 years ago, but I've never gotten around to it. Good thing this year's horror challenge has inadvertently turned into the challenge where I watch all the movies I've always meant to watch.

The original Phantasm was one if those rare horror movies I actually got to see when I was a kid. I wasn't supposed to watch it, but I was resourceful, and it lingered in my subconscious long after it was over. I could totally picture myself as one of the kids discovering an ancient evil and trying to fight it. Plus the tall man and his creepy floating silver sphere that drilled itself into peoples' heads was SO CREEPY but also SO COOL! Who could forget that?

This sequel picks up where the first left off, with Mike from the first movie now a mental patient still haunted by the events of the first movie and the terrifying figure known as the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). Mike enlists his friend Reggie to help him find and defeat the Tall Man before he can finish carrying out his evil plan.

This movie doesn't beat around the bush, it jumps right into the action, with the Tall Man coming after Mike and the others who know about his existence. He comes after Reggie too, which prompts Reggie to join in the fight against him (nice job, asshole, now even more people want to fight you).  Along the way, they pick up a girl hitchhiking who has appeared in Mike's dreams, so they know she's in danger. We also follow the story of another young girl from Mike's dreams who is being targeted by the Tall Man. It seems all the Tall Man's victims share a psychic connection, or at least the ones he's specifically targeting and tormenting do.

The Tall Man's tricks are pretty nasty here. Besides the metal sphere, he also reanimates corpses that drip bodily fluids and walk around doing his bidding. He seems to be able to manipulate reality too, since he can leave behind apparitions that are real flesh and blood and use them to send messages to those he's haunting. Plus Angus Scrimm has such a presence on his own that just seeing him lurking around stalking people is creepy on it's own without any special effects. It's rare for a sequel to be even half as good as the original movie, but this one might even be better. I'm so glad I finally got to see it!