cyrusmassoudi

I watched this expecting an average, low budget, poorly scripted, badly acted creature feature. Phantoms, however pleasantly surprised me. Some interesting and original ideas by Koontz have been carried over to the silver screen with good effect. The movie contains everything a good creature feature should, suitably over-dramatic lines, serious firepower, hot chicks, humorous moments and a visually compelling creature. A young Ben Affleck plays alongside a stereotyped O'Toole, but the stellar performance by the ever-creepy Liev Schreiber steals the show. The healthy budget shows through some good effects that make ludicrous concepts seem palatable and some poignant imagery stands this feature at the top end of its genre. Lots of nice eerie touches are used to effectively create a suitably creepy atmosphere that supports the various nightmarish sequences. I liked the transition from the isolated feel of the ghost town opening to the universal threat to humanity. The action spirals into total mayhem, or, as Michael Flyte (O'Toole) puts it 'chaos in the flesh' only to end, as most movies of this genre seem to, rather tamely, but the effects and the obligatory final twist carry it over the finish line. In summary, a must see of the genre. It takes itself more seriously than I generally like my creature features to, but it has the budget and the originality to pull it off. Up there with The Thing.

This is a film for people who, like me, have seen the art in really poor film-making. Some films really do make an art form of the tacky storyline and cheesy script....this is a classic of the genre. It is full of humorous references for the true horror junkie and doesn't pretend to be anything it isn't. A film like this could go two ways...it could either try to take itself seriously and unless masterfully achieved it'll fall flat on its face, or it can step back and take a good, long, honest look at what its really got going for it and try to pull it off with its tongue firmly in its cheek. With a little more audacity some of the deaths could have achieved cult status (one certainly springs to mind)...but hey, with such a vast array of acting talent (Gunnar Hansen of Texas Chainsaw fame being the shining light, and Steve Dixon as Parks also doing an admirable job) and plenty of hillbilly gags, the obligatory pervert-cum-hero this is a must watch for the truly awful film fan...if you liked this watch mutator; awful film, great deaths.