Phantasm II (1988/Marketing Film Company/Region 0/PAL 2-DVD Set)
Picture:
C Sound: B- Extras:
C Film: B-
PLEASE NOTE: This is a DVD that can only be
operated on machines capable of playing back DVDs that can handle Region
Zero/0/Free and the PAL format software.
The
relative neglect and resulting obscurity that the Phantasm series has suffered may soon be passing. Only
recently has the planned fifth installment been cancelled, and in its place, a
trilogy of films that are intended to reinvigorate interest in the
franchise. It doesn’t entirely come as a surprise, as Don Coscarelli has
been making a bit of a comeback himself due to the unexpected success of his
most recent film, Bubba Ho-Tep
(reviewed elsewhere on this site). I only hope that the filmmakers remain
true to the original concept and make good use of it. The original
run-through had lots of spots where it didn’t make much sense when viewed as a
whole, and there were even lapses of logic within the individual films themselves.
Those bumps will probably all be smoothed out in this new series, but it may
lose its charm in the process. It’s a fragile situation that may end up
out of Don’s hands, as he won’t be making a return as director. Rather,
his role will be that of an overseer, though Angus Scrimm and Reggie Bannister
are supposedly set to be placed back into the roles that have made them famous
within the horror community. Marketing Film has issued this double DVD
set of Phantasm II, the first sequel
made 9 years after the original, a PAL import that is the subject of the
following.
Now that
I’ve updated some of you on the status of the series as it currently stands,
I’ll get on to the subject of the DVD at hand. This is a decent set from
Marketing Film, but it’s a little disappointing in a few respects. So
far, though, this is the best release of the film you’ll be able to get until
Don has finished up supervising a box set that is being planned to be released
in the near future by Anchor Bay UK. Until that makes it way out, fans
will have to cobble together releases of varying quality from different
sources. At the moment, the worst off is Phantasm III, reviewed elsewhere on this site. Like this film, it’s completely unavailable on
DVD here in the states; but unlike this film, none of the various foreign
editions offer a widescreen presentation or any noteworthy bonus features at
all. Fortunately, this Dutch company was able to secure a passable
widescreen print of this film and print it up on DVD.
The movie
itself is considered to be one of the weakest spots in the series, as the
studio meddled with the entire production - even going as far as to eliminate
Michael Baldwin from the lead role in favor of a better looking and more
marketable actor. Hopefully, a director’s cut will be in place when the
definitive box set is released, and those who have waited will see the film as
it was intended. As it stands, the movie still isn’t as bad as you may
think, and it should be more easily accessible to those of us in the U.S.
who haven’t seen a fresh copy since the VHS tape went out of print. The
story picks up where the first left off, retracing some of the final events of
that film. It then moves several years down the road with Mike stuck in a
mental care facility. Once out, he and Reggie prepare to seek out the
Tall Man and stop him from turning the buried dead into his slaves. The
strange concept of the films have attracted a lot of people to the franchise,
and it has paved the way for surrealistic horror movies like the original Nightmare On Elm Street to become box
office hits, even though such success that has managed to elude most of the Phantasm films.
The
extras come off as being tacked on. The
old Fangoria convention footage can
also be found on the MGM Region 1 disc that is now out of print. There is
also footage from another convention - it’s filmed a tiny bit nicer, and the
content of it itself is more entertaining than that of the Fangoria one. The biggest extra for many people is the
inclusion of the full-length workprint of this film for your viewing
pleasure. It does have visible timecode throughout, but that’s just
something you’d be forced to put up with anyway. Previous to this, you’d
have to buy a bootleg copy of the workprint separately, so for it to be
included here is a nice touch, and one that almost surely won’t be on any
major-label releases of the film. For some, this alone may be enough to
warrant a purchase of the film, even though I found it a little unnecessary
since the finished version is right there on the first disc. I do
understand that some people like to have as much insight as possible on the
different stages of a movies production, so to each his own, and surely a lot
of people will still get a kick out of this separate version of the film.
Though I
was mostly impressed with how nice this is overall, there are a few things I
don’t particularly care for, for one reason or another. The packaging
isn’t top notch, and the printing quality of it is dark and unappealing.
That’s probably the worst you’ll be contending with, except that the packaging
and menus also happen to be in German. You should be able to work out
what does what, but it can still be a little annoying to those of us who don’t
use the language. All of this is forgivable in light of the situation,
but those that are familiar with the stellar MGM edition of the first film will
be a little disappointed, since it falls short of being able to look that one
eye to eye.
The print
utilized in this release leaves a little to be desired, but I’m sure it’s the
absolute best that was available to the company, and I applaud them for digging
it up. Surprisingly, the 1.85:1 image is also anamorphically enhanced for
16x9 TVs, but, sadly, there is no English 5.1 surround sound mix to be found on
this edition. Don’t fret though - there’s still an original English audio
track in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo that will keep most people happy until the
pending Anchor Bay set gets a street date. The
film was originally issued in Dolby A-type analog sound the third one also came
out in. That is better than Ultra Stereo. MGM had done the original
in a 5.1 Dolby remix from the original mono for their discontinued DVD, but
that was only so good. The remake should have all the digital bells and
whistles one can imagine.
It seems
that another small European company has recently released Phantasm II to DVD, but this time in an extremely limited
run. I haven’t seen this version, but from what I’ve read about it, it
seems to be identical to the one reviewed here. The only difference is
likely the packaging - the one from XT Video looks a little bit clearer, and
the back is more thoughtfully designed. However, this is only going on
pictures from the Internet, and I can’t rightly recommend one edition over
another sight unseen. If you’d like to see this film, then this DVD would
be a wise decision to get - it’s uncut, widescreen, and has passable audio
quality. To those that would rather wait to see what the future would
hold for revised editions of this movie, I don’t blame you; but it may be quite
some time before Anchor
Bay has finished
preparing that release for sale. In the end, Universal issued a DVD in
later 2009 that was very basic and problematic.
No Blu-ray is on the horizon yet either.
For a
look at the first and third films on DVD, try this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/5332/Phantasm+I+++III+%E2%80%93+Lor
-
David Milchick
