Phantoms (1998)

Director: Joe Chappelle

Stars: Ben Affleck, Liev Schreiber, Peter O’Toole, Rose McGowan

In the peaceful town of Snowfield, Colorado something evil has wiped out the community. And now, its up to a group of people to stop it, or at least get out of Snowfield alive.

‘Phantoms’ isn’t the worst fantasy horror I’ve seen, but there certainly is a lot of missed opportunities here. I really enjoyed the first half, which was mysterious and scary.

Welcome to the sleepy town of Snowfield. Oh, wait, let’s make that the dead town of Snowfield. On arrival in Snowfield sisters Lisa and Jennifer Pailey find the town deserted. Things take a sinister turn when they start discovering bodies. But there’s something really weird about these bodies…

Enter cops Bryce, Stuart and Steve, whose sudden appearance – to the audience – is just as mysterious as the deaths of the townsfolk. Things become even more curious from there when they’re taunted by an unseen enemy. Now, it becomes a fight for survival for the group.

Everything was going so well for the movie until the enemy made itself known. From there it became just another demonic possession movie – or so it seemed, but in fact it was some kind of alien force taking over human bodies – yup, pretty much like The Body Snatchers, or every alien movie out there featuring an alien wanting to get inside you. (hmmm, did that come out wrong?).

Dr. Timothy Flyte (Peter O’Toole) is a specialist on the Ancient Enemy and is asked by the FBI to accompany him to Snowfield. Or rather, they literally kidnapped him! Spoiler alert!! As it turns out, this so-called ancient enemy that wipes out civilizations, is familiar with Flyte’s work and it is revealed they/it lured him to the town so he can tell the world about them/it. Why??? Why would the Ancient Enemy need a human being to tell the world about its existence? And for what purpose? If this enemy destroys civilizations and intend on destroying humans, why first make humans aware of them? Just why??

Lets just say I really enjoyed the first half of the movie. Judging by the box office takings I’m not the only one. The film earned less than $6 million on a budget of around $14 million.

Would I watch it again? No.