Horror

Science Fiction

Thriller

Phantoms

Dimension Films

Raven House

NEO Motion Pictures

Fuji Creative Corporation

Miramax

United States of America

Japan

English

Ben Affleck

Peter O'Toole

Rose McGowan

Joanna Going

Liev Schreiber

Nicky Katt

Clifton Powell

Rick Otto

Valerie Chow

Adam Nelson

John Hammil

John Scott Clough

Michael DeLorenzo

William Hahn

Robert Himber

Bo Hopkins

Robert Knepper

Paul Schmidt

Dean Hallo

Clive Rosengren

Edmund Wyson

Luke Eberl

Judith Drake

Yvette Nipar

Lonny Chapman

Linnea Quigley

Joe Chappelle

Randy Bricker

Dean R. Koontz

Dan Bradley

Greg Littlewood

David C. Williams

Richard Clabaugh

Lane Leavitt

Mickey Giacomazzi

Kathy Jarvis

Leah Rial

Dorian Vernacchio

Daniel Bradford

Yoji Kurokami

Harvey Weinstein

Steven A. Lane

Andrew Rona

Michael Leahy

Barbara Cole

Enrique Cerezo

Robert Pringle

Don Phillips

Joel Soisson

Deborah Raymond

Dana Litwack

Bob Weinstein

Richard Potter

Ken Larson

Laurie Borg

Jason Lezama

Joel Harlow

Allen Hurd

Alan Kerr

Dean Beville

Paul Berolzheimer

Richard Chaim

Amanda Carroll

Ricardo Broadus

Trip Brock

Paul Curtis

Vance Hartwell

Elisabeth Flaum

Michael Kamper

Harry Cohen

Rob Hinderstein

Daniel W. Barringer

Ben Hernandez Bray

Billy Bryan

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 a fight for survival ensues as Peter O'Toole's sharp doctor character comes flying in to become the fulcrum of the story. So yep! There's something very evil and nasty at work here and the makers expand upon the reasons why with a drip-feed mixture of mad science and intelligent thematic ideas.

The effects work is more than adequate and the strong cast list perform well up to scratch (nice to see O'Toole doesn't phone it in to denigrate the story). Things are taken very seriously throughout, the makers in no way biting the hand that feeds them, while the requisite insertions of jump - shocks - twists and mayhem are handled with care and attention by the director. You may come away as I did with a hunger to dig out your copy of John Carpenter's sublime The Thing? Which in truth is never a bad "thing," but this is still sturdy stuff, a pic caked in genre cement, and crucially it doesn't waste the time invested by the genre compliant viewers. 7/10

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 have stunning faces, but their beauty is never really capitalized on in the film. Joanna, for instance, wears ridiculously baggy tan slacks the entire runtime.

The first half is nice & mysterious with several genuinely creepy sequences whereas the second half focuses on the incredible source of the horror and the complexities thereof. People complain about the latter portions, and I can see where they’re coming from, but I like the way the protagonists put their heads together to try to figure out and defeat the diabolical phenomenon.

The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes and was shot in Georgetown, Colorado.

GRADE: B-

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**

Phantoms - Trailer

Best Movies

Phantoms

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Ben Affleck

Peter O'Toole

Rose McGowan

Joanna Going

Liev Schreiber

Nicky Katt

Clifton Powell

Rick Otto

Valerie Chow

Adam Nelson

Box office

More Like This

The Experiment

Jaws

The Lives of Others

2 Fast 2 Furious

Silent Hill

The Da Vinci Code

Solaris

Independence Day