Phantoms

This film was a fascinating melding of various classics and not-so-classics of the creature feature genre done with style. It did exactly what a good B-movie Sci-fi should do: Rip off better films and do it knowingly with tongue firmly in cheek. The cast was interesting and had decent star power for the grade of motion picture (film legend Peter O'Toole, "Scream 2" Star Liev Schreiber, Ben Affleck and "Boston Publics" Nicky Katt"), except for Rose McGowan, who, as talented as she is, was way too old to play a 14-year-old. It was also good to see Ben Affleck not trying to win awards in some silly Michael Bay movie. Whoever did the makeup effects must have seen 1989's "Leviathan" and the script had elements of the movies "Leviathan," "The Thing," "Virus" and even the remake of "The Blob" (the final scene had shots that were exactly the same, minus the snow machine, of course) In short, if you are kicking back and want to see something with some cool effects but not much thought, rent this and have some fun.

Phantoms is a classic B-movie thriller. Phantoms holds the viewer only the first third of the film, after it becomes clear what is happening, the film starts to give up a lot. The plot here is simple. The cast is not bad, Peter O'Toole starred and not yet star Ben Affleck. If the film had not been based on a literary source, I'm sure it would have been worse. That's what you can't say is that Phantoms is a horror movie. It doesn't scare at all. And you can't call it a thriller, there is no suspense most of the timekeeping, except for the first third of the film. Phantoms can be watched once and forgotten, it's an ordinary passing thriller.

Phantoms (1998) Ben Affleck, Peter O' Toole, Rose McGowan, Joanna Going, Liev Schreiber, Nicky Katt, Clifton Powell, D: Joe Chappelle. When two sisters drive into a small Colorado town, they find the whole place depopulated, but corpses keep turning up. What caused it: disease or something else? Enter sheriff Affleck and his snickering deputy (Schreiber), who are just as clueless about these unexplained happenings as they are. Then an army of scientists and a professor-turned-tabloid journalist (O' Toole) come into the scene, discovering what wiped out the 500 residents came from deep underground. Better-than-average from a Dean Koontz novel, written by its author and well-acted for a thriller this ridiculous, that really pushes your buttons with suspenseful scenes and doesn't need to rely fully on special effects. O' Toole's character makes little sense, and we don't believe Affleck's chief graduated from Harvard. Running Time: 91 minutes and rated R for sci-fi violence, gore, and language. ** ½

I thought this quite a scary science fiction/horror film. I would compare it favorably to "Wishmaster," for example.

The special effects were up to par. Peter O'Toole did seem a bit uncomfortable in his role, but the other actors did OK given the limited character development of their parts.

The typical "There Will be a Another" ending was supplied. You just can't get rid of those darned worms it seems

Ben kicks ass in a great little romp, destined to go down in cinematic history through the references in JASBSB. a great performance from all involved, clever story and an equally good if not better script curtosy of having the Author being there! becomes quite eerie and uses some good effects. a convenient movie full of coincidences, a few holes are left in the plot tho because of this. this being said it does start to drift off towards the end. not to take anything away from it a thoughrally enjoyable movie. Not a must see, but well worth watching.