Phantasm II, or, BOY, Interrupted

When I finally saw Phantasm, the movie whose reputation terrified me so much that it took me until middle age to see it, I was surprised by how charming it was. Phantasm II doesn’t have even close to the charm of the first one, but it did still manage to win me over. The first Phantasm actually has a lot in common with other movies that I was curious about when I was younger, but didn’t watch until I was an adult. It wasn’t as scary or graphic as I’d been imagining. It wasn’t as expansive, sophisticated, or as deep as I thought “grown-up” movies must be. And it didn’t show as much of the balls as I’d been expecting. Phantasm II makes up for the last part, at least. I was a little concerned at first, as it was used for only one graphic kill scene, which was as violent as I’d been imagining, but then it just seemed to disappear. I even started to form a theory — the “plot” of the movie is one that lets your mind wander — that maybe only having one scene per movie was the point, and that…