Review of Phantoms (1998) by Aaron C — 04 Aug 2010
I was excited when I learned they were making this into a movie, as 'Phantoms' by Dean Koontz is a terrific and very scary book which I've loved since I was a teenager. Unfortunatly, it recieved a miniscule budget and greatly suffers for it.
Based on the original book, this could have been one of the greatest horror movies in recent memory. The capacity was here for mindbending special effects, creatures, and just general scary-as-hell-ness.
It really suffers alot from poor casting. They chose to go the 'Scream' route, casting a bunch of hot, young, minimally talented actors which I simply could not take seriously. The running time is way too short, as they rush the orginal story's building and diliberate pacing, cutting out lots of important plot details as they go.
The special effects are decent for a movie of this budget, but still underwhelming. As it stands, its a fun (be it cheesey) horror movie that does deliever some good scares and moments, but like I said, its more miss than hit, and squanders a potential mega-hit type of story.
This review of Phantoms (1998) was written by Aaron C on 04 Aug 2010.
Phantoms has generally received mixed reviews.
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