Phantoms (1998)

"Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms yo!"  I couldn't even hit play on this one without hearing that quote in my head a million times.    Phantoms is based on the Dean Koontz novel of the same name, where two sisters return to Snowfield, Colorado to find that the whole town has just pretty much disappeared.  I've never been a huge Dean Koontz fan, although I should start reading more of his books.  I loved The Door to December, but I was always typically too obsessed with Stephen King to pick up a Koontz novel.

Phantoms is full of star power including Ben Affleck, Rose McGowan, Peter O'Toole, Liev Schreiber, and Nicky Katt.  Also, can we take a moment out to acknowledge that Rose McGowan was the epitome of late 90s hotness?

Jawbreaker?  Scream?  She was even in Bio-Dome for chrissakes.  (My love for Pauly Shore movies is not really a secret)

As the sisters investigate the disappearances, they find people that appear to be dead for no reason.  They run into some local lawmen who try to straighten things out, not with much success.  They learn that those in charge are treating this situation as a biological attack, and are trying to pin down the creature/contagion/whatever that is causing people to just croak at random.  One scientist/thinker/nutbag decides that this is caused by "the ancient enemy" which also took out the Mayans.  Okay....

Supernatural flicks are not my favorite, so Phantoms didn't do as much for me as it might for others.  I did enjoy much of the action in this movie, such as the cop's body being ripped away and clothes staying, people puking out lizards, and the shot with the scientist where all the townspeople were standing in the street.  The action and effects were pretty exciting, and there was a lot going on, coupled with a great cast and good acting.

Whether or not Affleck was the bomb is kind of up for grabs but I did really like seeing Liev do "wanna see something?"  Ahhh, the 90s.

However, the whole story didn't really entirely come together for me.  Maybe because I'm kind of meh about the ancient spirit coming for revenge storyline


I will say that the sound level on this movie was insane.  In order to not be instantly evicted from my apartment, I had to keep turning this shit up and down like every three minutes.