Phantoms

10/3/2014

The first thing we'd like to know is what we're dealing with, biological, chemical, or other. Directed by Joe Chappelle and written by Dean Koontz, who adapts from his own novel, Phantoms (not the greatest title all things considered) is a considerably well put together amalgamation of horror/sci-fi/creature feature tropes. If at times it feels clichéd and formulaic, then that is ultimately a curse of the cinematic genres it lives and breaths in. Plot basically has two sisters played by Rose McGowan and Joanna Going arriving in the town of Snowfield, Cololrado, to find most of the inhabitants dead, diseased or dismembered. A trio of coppers turn up played by Liev Schreiber (shifty malevolence), Ben Affleck (square jawed bastion of heroism) and Nicky Katt (fodder of course), and thus

9/15/2018

The Thing’s long lost cousin (sort of) in an isolated town in the mountains of Colorado Two sisters (Rose McGowan & Joanna Going) visit a town in the Rockies, which is mysteriously absent of people except for a few corpses. They eventually encounter a Sheriff (Ben Affleck) and his deputies as the mystery deepens (Liev Schreiber plays one of the deputies). Peter O'Toole is on hand as an eccentric British writer who assists the group while Clifton Powell plays the commanding officer of an Army unit sent to the town. The movie came out in 1998 and was written by heralded horror author Dean Koontz (both the screenplay and the novel). The story is basically “The Thing” (1982) set in a Rockies town with various nuances, like the addition of two females. Speaking of whom, Rose and Joanna ha

12/1/2025

I had last seen this probably back in 2000 on DVD but don't remember a damn thing about it and really only remember the line in Jay and Silent Bob Stike Back, "Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms". In any case, some of the effects were decent and cool shots here and there, but the quick editing, likely to cover the deficiencies in the effects, was annoying. Watchable I guess but had so much potential to be better. Kind of surprising nobody has tried to adapt this in a mini-series. **2.5/5**