Customer Reviews

Phantoms

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Director: Joe Chappelle
Cast: Ben Affleck, Peter O'Toole, Rose McGowan, Joanna Going, Liev Schreiber, Nicky Katt, Clifton Powell.
Running Time: 91 minutes
Rated R for science-fiction violence, gore, and language.

Dr. Jenny Pailey (Joanna Going) is bringing her younger sister, Lisa (Rose Mcgowan), home from L.A. to the small quiet town of Snowfield, Colorado. It's a peaceful environment to live in, with a population of 400, and the town has some nice ski resorts that make it a popular site during the summer. Upon returning, however, they discover everyone either missing or dead, with bodies that have a strange gooey look to it. They try to leave, but find their car and every other vehicle in town dead. Exploring further, they enter a bakery, where they encounter Sheriff Bryce Hammond (Ben Affleck) and his two deputies, Shanning (Nicky Katt) and Stu Wargle (Liev Schrieber). As they look further into town, they discuss what could have possibly caused this massive disappearance and all these deaths. The mysterious cause behind this hasn't ended, however, and as the night progresses, Shanning is taken by an unseen presence. Hammond and the others must now try to survive the night and hope they can get off a message to the outside world of their plight.

"Phantoms", adapted and written by novelist Dean Koontz, is a surprise on almost every level. It's a well-made thriller from Joe Chappelle, whose only previous major credit was "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers", usually regarded as the worst of the "Halloween" sequels. He may have seemed like a dubious choice to direct this film, but he does a fine job, creating heavy doses of suspense through some clever uses in the small-town setting and the suggestion of an unseen force lurking around every corner. The film is overall scary, working best when you have no idea what's causing this terror. The unknown is far more frightening, and Chappelle wisely plays this fun material for all it's worth, creating many eerie sequences, such as a slow exploration inside a hotel, the creepy use of Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces," and an encounter with a giant moth that is positively heart-pounding. For approximately an hour, Chappelle keeps mounting the tension level in, throwing in a good amount of horror and suspense into the proceedings in a relentless manner. Dean Koontz's script is somwhat successful. He builds in some intriguing ideas that are never fully explored, but to his credit, he had budgetary limitations and had to work with a 96-minute running time. As a result, the pacing is often so fast, you'll probably wish the film was at least another 15 minutes long. The script is sometimes heavily reliant on many horror cliches, including people walking into dangerous places alone, which is something a character in this sort of film should learn not to do; however Chappelle still handles these scenes remarkably well, creating suspense in certain spots when it often hasn't worked in other movies. There are also some lapses in logic, but they can be ignored rather easily.

The visual effects are quite good, such as the giant moth and the other strange creature designs. The setting is among the film's best assets. Smalll towns are usually great places to hide an unseen menace and this film pulls it off quite well. Many of the empty buildings, mainly the hotel and the police station, are great set-ups for some well-done setpieces. The cast is fairly good, and is one of the main reasons this thriller is moderately effective. The lovely Joanna Going is good as the film's strong female character. She brings dignity and class to her performance. Liev Schrieber and Peter O'Toole are perhaps the scene stealers, with their mostly successful attempts at humor. Schrieber is mostly over-the-top, and often creepy, while O'Toole is wry and sarcastic. It's a bit odd to see such a legendary actor in a film like this, but he plays the role in the right manner. The only weak link in the acting is Rose Mcgowan, who seems more suited for jokey, "hip" horror films rather than a serious one, and she's sorely out of place here. David Williams' score is creepy and good in creating some tension. It sounds somewhat derivative of the works of Ennio Morricone, but it still blends well into the film. The score is mostly a series of repeating notes, but it actually never becomes a slight annoyance, like John Carpenter's repetitious score in Prince of Darkness. The final scenes is among the movie's flaws. It's slightly darkly humorous, as it is intended to be, but this ending has been done so often, it's become rather tiresome by now. It's obvious Koontz has become influenced by far too many modern-day horror films. "Phantoms" isn't a classic film, since it has its own flaws and doesn't delve deeply into some interesting ideas, but it blends action and horror into a suspenseful and often scary mixture, with non-stop thrills and tension that keep the material fun to watch, even if the story's not always logical.

I think this is a good adaptation of Dean Koontz's book. As for scary, anyone that thinks "The Village", "Final Destination", "I Saw What You Did Last Summer", or "Blair Witch Project" are scary but think that "Phantoms" is bad, you just don't have a clue. The suspense slowly builds with no clear goal of how to destroy the creature. Excellent music helps build the suspense. If anything is lacking in the movie, it is the creature.

The creature is not quite as good as it could have been with a larger budget. My guess is they didn't want to spend alot of money on CGI. It is still well done and the acting is definitely good. The directing, camera work, and sets are good too. The camera work reminded me of some of Hitchcock's work. All-in-all certainly worth more than the five dollars and ninety-nine cents I paid for the DVD.

Word, b****, Phantoms like a motherf***er!

First off any bad reviews for this movie come from people who have never read the Dean Koontz novel it was based on. That said, the movie Phantoms doesn't even come close to being as good as the chilling novel it was based on. But it's a satisfactory attempt nonetheless. With a screenplay by Koontz himself the movie maintains all the key elements and many of the high points of the novel. The scare factor is high, the action terrifying and intense. The unexpected and seemingly inexplicable demise of the residents of Snowfield, the Ancient Enemy and all its gruesome manifestations. The special effects are damn good, the scenes of death and carnage as original as the book they were based on. The cast is enjoyable and believable (especially Peter O'Toole as Timothy Flyte and Liev Schrieber as the creepy deputy) and Rose McGowan and Joanna Going make great eye candy.

The creep level is pushed to the limit in this film, the monster a truly frightening vision. Finally, a good movie based on a Dean Koontz novel! "Chaos. Chaos in the flesh."

First thing is first, Phantoms is a movie to be taken with a grain of salt. There is nothing overly scary or shocking in this run of the mill B-grade thriller, but it is entertaining nonetheless, and mostly delivers the goods. Joanna Going and Rose McGowen play sisters whose return to Snowfield, Colorado is interrupted by the disappearance of every person in the town. Eventually they meet up with a sheriff (Ben Affleck in yet another movie from Miramax/Dimension Films) and his two deputies played by Liev Schrieber and Nicky Katt. Eventually the military is on the scene and we're joined by accomplished actor Peter O'Toole who plays a crackpot paleobiologist whose tabloid fodder may not be so crackpot. A few scares and shocks are abound, with some rather good special effects, and Schreiber nearly steals the entire show with his whacko performance. But, Phantoms is rather predictable and sometimes laughable with huge leaps of logic and a few plot holes here and there, but Phantoms remains a fun ride nonetheless. All in all, Phantoms is a pretty good B-grade horror film that horror or sci-fi fans will get a kick out of.

I read the book before seeing the movie, thankfully. The movie isn't that bad. It din't win any Oscars but it had a great cast and an intresting storyline, including a classic part where a giant butterfly eats a man's face. CBS-TV thought it was "A Chillingly Original Thriller!" but all in all, you should just see this if you're a horror movie fan or a Dean Koontz fan.

I actually give this one three-and-a-half stars, but I'm rounding-up since so many people unfairly blast this movie for not being the book. The major criticism of Phantoms seems to be that it's "a monster movie," but that's as unfair as criticizing a John Wayne flick for having cowboys in it - defining a picture's genre isn't the same as criticquing it, and if you didn't want a monster movie, why did you want to watch this?

Small-town doctor Joanna Going and kid sister Rose McGowan return to Going's mountain resort community of Snowfield, Colorado, to find everybody missing or horribly dead. Nearby town sheriff Ben Affleck and twisted deputy Liev Schreiber turn up to help them make sense of the mystery. Their only clue leads them to unknown scholarly author Peter O'Toole, whose all but forgotten book on mass disappearances holds the answers they seek.

Derivative, yes - anyone familiar with John Carpenter's The Thing and H. P. Lovecraft's "shoggoths" in At the Mountains of Madness is ahead of the game - but that hardly diminishes the fun of this fast-paced monster movie. It's slick and well-produced, and the cast are quite good in their roles. It bogs down a bit in the second half, but not enough to ruin the marvellous setup and ultimate payoff.

Though the movie couldn't match the book because of necessary limitations, in some ways Dean Koontz's self-adapted screenplay improves upon the novel. For one thing, Colorado has more resort communities of the type Koontz set the story in than his original choice of California. For another, the fate of O'Toole's character in the book is less satisfying than the one he comes to in the film. Koontz streamlined several subplots and excess characters into a more dramatically workable few, to excellent effect, most notably with Liev Schreiber's psychopathic deputy. There are some very well-written scenes in this movie, many better than their equivalents in the unwieldy but definitely enjoyable book, such as the one in which O'Toole finds himself "reluctantly" recruited on the monster-hunt by government Men In Black.

This isn't a great movie, to be sure, but it is a good one, and well worth watching if you like this kind of thing. And Dean, if you're listening, you made the right choices when you adapted your wonderful novel. I like both versions, each in their own way.

Phantoms is nothing special. It's one cliche after another but hey, quite a few of those cliches came directly from the book so you can't really blame the director, writers or actors.

The plot is as simple and unassuming as a chamber pot. Two pretty sisters land in a small Colorado town in the winter but they don't get to do any skating or skiing because the place is haunted. The townsfolk are missing without a trace. The electricity is out. The car won't run, there are strange sounds coming from nowhere and oh yes, the dead periodically appear on the streets. The law men who come to the rescue are quickly picked off leaving only the studly sherrif. The only hope is Peter O'Toole who knows what is going on but can't get anyone to listen. He's like Carl Kolchak in The Nightstalker movie.

Eventually, thanks to Peter's brains, the sherrif's brawn and the cuteness of the girls the day and possibly the world is saved.

There are some predictable and cheesey scenes. The band of heroes put what must have been 100 bullets into a giant moth. They do not see the thing die, it just screams and leaves. So what does the deputy do? He walks over to the open window and makes snide comments. He's just about daring the monster to come get him and of course it does. Later soldiers allow what are obviously zombies to come into their camp and they are of course, slaughtered. At one point the younger sister, played by Rose McGowan decides to go to the bathroom alone. Bad move. Nobody ever told the poor girl that the bathroom, attic and basements are kill zones in horror movies. Luckily for her the monster has a perverted streak and instead of eating her it decides to flirt.

At another point in the movie a minority character goes down into the sewer. Now, nobody except the hero and his woman EVER make it out of the sewer in a horror movie and sure enough this character is toast. If you are serious about horror as an art form these scenes will bug you. If mocking the lameness of a plot twist is part of your idea of a pleausurable movie experience then Phantoms will be up your alley.

There are actually, two near golden moments in the film. The monster decides to appear in the form of a golden laborador and mennaces our heroes. The Lab is one of the sweetest dogs God ever made and when the film makers managed to make this one seem sinister, it's almost brilliant. Earlier we discover that the monster has a god complex and really wants humans to admire and be awed by it before it eats them. Now that's kind of original and is definitely not a bad touch.

Phantoms is not a "must have movie". It's a Saturday night, potato chips on the couch movie. It's inoffensive, silly in a high school sort of way and not a bit scary.

Two sisters return to small town Snowfield, Colorado only to discover everyone dead or missing. Intriguingly-plotted Dean Koontz horror/thriller is his best adaptation to date (no surprise it's from his best novel), featuring a genuinely terrifying first half. Loses a bit of momentum when it rushes the plot in the second half and messily explains the situation, but manages to generate more thrills in the finale. The moth scene is the film's most frightening highlight. Good performances from Ben Affleck, Joanna Going, and a scene-stealing turn from Liev Schrieber.

This was a very scary movie and I do not scare easily. It is much scarier than Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer. Ben Affleck was of course the greatest part of the movie making an adorable and beleiveable character. As sheriff he wears this cowboy hat and it is actually a good look for him. Rose McGowen was definately not the best part of this movie, but give her a break her part didn't have much to it. The almost romance between Ben's character and the older sister needed to be played out more. The movie is good and if you are a Ben Affleck fan this is a must to add to your collection.