Horror Movie Reviews
More Details...Price: $9.99 |
Title: Phantoms (1998) |
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Review of Phantoms
- A heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat thriller with a hot cast of rising stars, PHANTOMS is the latest from master of suspense, Dean Koontz! Five lone survivors in a devastated town must face the unthinkable: a ferocious force of evil lying below the earth for centuries has surfaced with the power to destroy every human being! Left behind are two sisters, the town sheriff (Academy Award(R)-winner Ben Affleck, GOOD WILL HUNTING), his deputy (Liev Schreiber, SCREAM 2), and a noted tabloid journalist (Peter O'Toole). You're in for a pulse-pounding experience as the survivors race to stop this terrifying threat before it wipes humankind off the face of the earth!
Description
- Either Dean Koontz shouldn't adapt his own bestsellers, or his 1983 novel Phantoms was a pack of horror clichés to begin with, or this movie is 15 years past its due date. What might have seemed fresh at the time of Poltergeist now feels like it was made from a derivative script with pages missing. Plagued by reckless leaps of logic, the movie starts with adequately eerie atmosphere and a perversely twisted performance by Scream 2's Liev Schreiber, but decays into a familiar hash of gross-out effects, resulting from the annihilation of a small Colorado town by an evil force known as "The Ancient Enemy." In a dreary role that insults the twilight of his distinguished career, Peter O'Toole plays a paleobiologist whose crackpot ideas have become tabloid fodder, but he holds the key to conquering the beast. Or does he? Sure enough, an obligatory coda leaves room for anticlimactic doubt. Phantoms has a few genuinely creepy highlights, including a devilish beastie resembling an angry flying scorpion, and horror fans will surely find something to admire, but everyone else is advised to proceed with caution and lowered expectations. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com
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Comments for Phantoms
- Posted on 2008-06-13
What's up?
Personally, I liked the book and the movie--very Lovecraftian. What I don't get is why did my copy from Amazon have a Wal-Mart sticker on the front? Does any Amazonian have an answer?
Score: 5
- Posted on 2007-12-29
The Book Is Better
The seller of this item was great. Shipped fast and wonderful communications. HOWEVER - The movie itself was awful. After reading the book the movie was a major disappointment. Don't waste your money
Score: 1
- Posted on 2007-09-23
Lovecraft.....? Is that you..?
I had no idea Koonz was so heavily influenced by Lovecraft. This film and story had a very strong H.P. Lovecraft feel to it. I'd recommend it to any Lovecraft fan.
Score: 4
- Posted on 2007-08-17
"Affleck you the bomb in Phantoms, Yo!"
Indeed dear Sirs and Misses he is. I highly recommend this B movie to everyone who just wants to have a good laugh with a hint of a scare here and there.
Score: 5 - Posted on 2007-06-17
Don't Waste your $
This is one of the worst and most unwatchable movies I have ever seen-right up there with Battlefield Earth and I Dreamed of Africa. I picked this up at Blockbuster, stupidly paying money for a rental and just could not make myself watch the whole thing. I am a cheapskate and I never do this. It's playing on the WB right now as the requisite bad sunday afternoon movie.
I'll just ask the obvious and say what the #&!! was Peter O'Toole doing in this? Perhaps this past sin is why he was shut out at the Oscars this year.
When will I learn? Every Dean Koontz movie I've tried to watch is awful-interesting premise but really really predictable and intellegence insulting plot and dialogue. You can't really blame the actors, they do the best with what is clearly excremental scripting and directing. Even more pitiful and disappointing than Steven King movies.
Score: 2