Movies - Phantasm II

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	Movies - Phantasm II

Phantasm II is the 1988 sequel to Phantasm
. It was written and directed by Don Coscarelli. Angus Scrimm starred as the Tall Man. James LeGros starred as Mike and Reggie Bannister reprised the role of Reggie from the original film.

The story of Phantasm II begins when the original ended, although production of the movies is separated by eleven years. While the first movie was more of a straight forward horror film, Phantasm II leans toward being an action/adventure movie in a horror setting.

It was produced by Roberto A. Quezada

Plot outline

Phantasm II centers on a now nineteen-year-old Mike and his friend Reggie as they pursue the "Tall Man." The Tall Man (played by Angus Scrimm) is a supernatural entity in the form of a mortician, who roves from one small town to another, leaving behind cemeteries empty of corpses and the towns themselves empty of people. Reggie comments on this process, saying, "Small towns are like people. Some get old and die a natural death. Some are murdered." These empty towns are the Tall Man's signature and they become a trail for Reggie and Mike to follow in their pursuit of him.

The Tall Man's objective is not clear. The protagonists only know that he takes his victims from their graves, seals them in drums, and sends them through a gate to another world. The other dimension is a barren, rocky landscape with a red sky and high gravity. The Tall Man's victims are crushed into gnarled dwarves by the atmosphere and then brought back to Earth. Upon their return, they are clad in hoods that make them very much resemble Jawas from Star Wars.

The ultimate purpose of assembling this collective of zombie dwarves remains unknown. It does not seem to be world domination, given the Tall Man's patient, tolerant attitude towards those who try to interfere with his plans. Instead he seems to serve some mysterious, but eerily natural purpose. He tells a priest, "You think that when you die, you go to Heaven. You come to us!" The Tall Man's role on Earth seems most like that of an overseer and agent rather than a mastermind; he is the physical aspect of the side of the process that can be detected by humans, and straddles the boundary between the known, human, physical world, and the world to which he sends his victims.

Outside of his ghoulish dwarf servants, the Tall Man is assisted by a pair of apparently human pallbearers and gas mask clad worker bees whom Mike calls "gravers". They do the physical work of digging up the bodies and begin the process of conversion.

The Tall Man's most notable assets, however, are the flying metallic silver spheres, about the size of softballs. Although they have no visible force to propel them, they fly rapidly through the air and are able to negotiate complex paths without any understandable method of guidance. The silver balls are equipped with a pair of serrated razor sharp blades which pop out through slits. The balls, or their movers, whoever they are, show no allegiance, neither to the Tall Man or his lackeys.

The spheres will impale any moving target once activated. They usually aim for the forehead and once implanted, a combination drill and suction tube will pop out, draining a few pints of blood which are ejected from the sphere's other side.

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