Liz Reynolds (Paula Irvine) has visions of Mike (James Le Gros), the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) and his minions. She puts it all in her book as she wishes for Mike's help. Mike lies his way out of the psychiatric hospital. He goes to dig up his parents' bodies but Reggie (Reggie Bannister) explains that the story of the attack was made up. Mike finds all the bodies in the cemetery missing. Reggie drives home with Mike and his house explodes killing his entire family. Reggie and Mike go hunting for The Tall Man and they pick up hitchhiker Alchemy (Samantha Phillips). Meanwhile Liz's grandfather dies and The Tall Man confronts Liz. Father Meyers (Kenneth Tigar) presides over the funeral and later does battle with The Tall Man.
The attempt to show the world of Phantasm in the first part of the movie is a complete failure. It is confused and undecipherable. More importantly, it is probably unnecessary. There has got to be an easier way to bring Liz in with Mike. She could have easily been in one of the confrontations on the long road to find the Tall Man. They picked up Alchemy on the road. There is no reason why they couldn't have rescued Liz somewhere along the way. The first half is just a mess. It continues to be a mess but at least the second half has more fun as the group battles the Tall Man with the flying spheres. That is fun and interesting. It doesn't alleviate the fact that this is an incoherent story.
The attempt to show the world of Phantasm in the first part of the movie is a complete failure. It is confused and undecipherable. More importantly, it is probably unnecessary. There has got to be an easier way to bring Liz in with Mike. She could have easily been in one of the confrontations on the long road to find the Tall Man. They picked up Alchemy on the road. There is no reason why they couldn't have rescued Liz somewhere along the way. The first half is just a mess. It continues to be a mess but at least the second half has more fun as the group battles the Tall Man with the flying spheres. That is fun and interesting. It doesn't alleviate the fact that this is an incoherent story.