The Never Dead Part III (Australia) ,
Phantasm III: The Third Power
(Philippines: English title) ,
Phantasm: Lord of the Dead
Director: Don Coscarelli
Writer (WGA): Don Coscarelli
CAST---
Reggie Bannister ...  Reggie
A. Michael Baldwin ...  Mike
Bill Thornbury ...  Jody
Gloria Lynne Henry ...  Rocky
Kevin Connors ...  Tim
Cindy Ambuehl ...  Edna
John Davis Chandler ...  Henry
Brooks Gardner ...  Rufus
Angus Scrimm ...  The Tall Man

Runtime: 91 min | UK:86 min (DVD)
PHANTASM III : LORD OF THE DEAD (1994)

We are back , Tall man, silver balls, midget freaks and all. I was hoping for a triumphant  third installment
into the series but all  I got was a downgrade in story and overall quality. But don’t get me wrong now.
This is a good Phantasm movie but a different one of what we have been accustomed to with the series,
but not by too far. So don’t worry too much, there is plenty of fun coming your way.

First thing that made me wonder was Liz being beheaded all of a sudden ? Wasn’t she like Mike’s  
mystical soul mate with some guiding force in the coming story ? I imagined the couple ultimately
destroying the Tall Man. Ok, I went a bit too far, but Liz losing her head this abruptly was shocking,
maybe even thrilling.  

Then we become aware that the Tall Man can reproduce himself after being apparently destroyed and
look like another person, as in the case with Alchemy. There is a scene later in the movie where he is
seen heaping his dead body into the furnace. Also, he has psychic powers as we see him  throw
someone against the wall “Jedi style”.

Before we get into the spheres  let me tell you a bit about the story. Mike is taken away by the Tall man.
So Reggie continues his quest solo until he encounters a young friend Tim. Tim lives in an abandoned
town that the Tall Man has ravaged. Tim, a ten year old has spent his time booby -trapping his house
and learning to defend himself, even using handguns. Without describing the whole story, three loony
robbers  in a pink hearse ? Yes, a pink hearse show up. Reggie shows up and stuff happens. Later on
the two gentle- men team up with a third member. The reluctant black, female warrior Rocky, who looks
a bit like Grace Jones, lean and mean. And towards the end Coscarelli leads us into another crazy
cliffhanger with Mike having been brainwashed by the Tall Man.

Now we can talk about the spheres. First, we find out  that there is a miniature brain inside the spheres.
Then we are slow to believe that Jody, who has apparently not been shrunk into a ghoul exists inside a
sphere and comes out to help in visions of some kind?
One cool  upgrade is that the sphere can protrude a metal tentacle with an eyeball at the end which the
Tall Mann uses to spy on his prey.

Even with the ’70  Hemicuda muscle car back and the addition of a few  zombies “PHANTASM 3 LORD
OF THE DEAD” really doesn’t  improve much on the Phantasm story, at least not favorably. They tried to
add some unnecessary comedy into this one and it didn’t work out too well. With the Pink Hearse and
new characters that just didn’t seem to fit here I once again wonder, what’s next for Phantasm. Oh yeah I
gave three stars for blood… most of it is in yellow. Well, check this one out either way.

                                                                                                     - Jorge Antonio Lopez
OVERALL
Phantasm III Lord of the Dead (1994)
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