31 Days of Halloween - Day 22 - movie

Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead (1994) picks up right where the last one left off (even though 6 years have lapsed between when the films were made. This time A. Michael Baldwin returns as Mike. After waking from a two year coma, Mike is abducted by the resurrected Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) and Reggie (Reggie Bannister) sets off to rescue him. This time he has some help in the form of Mike's dead brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) now in the form of one of the Tall Man's spheres, and Tim (Kevin Connors) an orphaned kid with a penchant for weapons, and Rocky (Gloria Lynne Henry) a badass woman with her own vendetta against the Tall Man.

This time the Tall Man is harvesting brains for his spheres, and continuing to create his dwarf creatures. The group traps the Tall Man within a freezer, a sphere launches from within his head, but is caught and disposed in liquid nitrogen. In the end, Mike is discovered to have a sphere occupying his own head and departs with Jody telling Reggie not to follow. Tim and Reggie then are attacked by dozens of spheres, and before Tim can save Reggie, he's whisked away by one of the Tall Man's minions as the Tall Man reappears.

While still not as magnificent as the original film, this was a step up from the second film. Reggie and his new companions don't have the same chemistry that Reggie, Mike and Jody did in the original film, but they bring their own dynamic to the story, which is much needed since Mike becomes increasingly haunted and withdrawn, and Jody now has a role similar to the ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Bringing him back in the manner that they did, brought back some of the anything goes storytelling that made the original so wonderful, and was lacking in the first sequel. It also allowed the introduction of a whole new plan for the Tall Man to mastermind.

Not close to perfect, this was still fun to watch.