SHANNON’S DRIVE-IN: PHANTASM III: LORD OF THE DEAD

Shannon remembers Reggie Banister with a tribute to the 1994 direct-to-video flick Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead.

The Tall Man is back and it’s up to Reggie and company to defeat him once and for all.

Director: Don Coscarelli

Writer: Don Coscarelli

Stars: Reggie Banister, A. Michael Baldwin, Angus Scrimm, Kevin Connors, Gloria Lynne Henry

Ah yes, the Phantasm series. A franchise that didn’t so much go off the rails as much as it started there in 1979 and steadily got weirder with each new entry. Writer/Director Don Coscarelli seemed to make the rules of the world change with each new installment. Even when the franchise’s plots dared to be more confusing, it was hard not to love it with its mortuary imagery, the Tall Man, and those damn flying spheres.

I feel like a lot of that affection is due to Coscarelli himself consistently returning to evolve the vision of his story, as well as him reusing beloved actors which give familiarity in the bizarre world of Phantasm. This includes Reggie Banister.

Reggie has become as synonymous with Phantasm as the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) has. He’s our hero, a father figure to Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) and Jody (Bill Thornbury), and a worthy adversary against the forces of evil.

In February 2025, it was announced that Bannister was receiving hospice care in his home due to his deteriorating health. Fans sent well-wishes, cards, and gifts while his wife Gigi Bannister gave updates on his health status. On August 9, 2026, he passed away at the age of eighty.

I have a soft spot for Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead. My drive-in crew played it at Dead ‘Till Dawn in 2021 and we all figured it’s a sequel where it’s not required to have seen the previous two (because Phantasm as a whole doesn’t make a lick of sense anyway).

The film picks up where Phantasm II ends (with, of course, the Tall Man promising to return) and doesn’t waste time in throwing us into a story where Mike has a near-death experience, communicates with his brother Jody, the Tall Man comes back and takes Mike away, and Reggie goes on a quest to find Mike.

What progresses is pure 1990’s direct-to-video schlock and I’m here for that. Sure, it’s the weird lost child of the franchise and will always seem out of place to some fans. It’s an action-loaded Phantasm with a bit of Evil Dead 2 thrown in. It’s a “let’s grab some guns and have some fun” movie, a movie where we’re just gonna attempt to defeat the forces of evil using really cool weapons. It’s also a small showcase of what kind of weird stuff those silver spheres are capable of.

On his quest, Reggie finds Tim (Kevin Connors), a pre-teen boy who’s lost his family to the Tall Man and knows how to use a gun (and also a frisbee with blades sticking out of it; the sequence feels like Home Alone from hell). They meet Rocky (Gloria Lynne Henry), a bad-ass action chick from the era of bad-ass action chicks (seriously, this trend needs to come back full throttle). This ragtag team has great dynamics together and when Reggie lets his flaws show, both characters put him in his place. Tim ain’t having any of it when Reggie drops him off at the local orphanage, sneaking back into Reggie’s life to let him know he owes him. Rocky shows him up by handcuffing him to a motel room bed.

Phantasm III is horror, but also a western and a road movie, with our heroes traveling from town to town to get back what the Tall Man has taken from them. The direct-to-video cheesiness of the time is not going to work for everyone, but for those who are going to appreciate a level of likeable goofball shenanigans with their horror. There’s going to be that level of fan who prefers their Phantasm much more mysterious and moody; this movie isn’t for them. This is for the fans who want to spend some time watching it on a Saturday afternoon just to have a fun time without paying too much attention to the specific logical conjuncture of the plot.

The movie is a fun time with Reggie Bannister on his journey to defeat the Tall Man once and for all. We’re all going to miss him, but he’ll forever live on within the world of Phantasm.

Shannon Grant is a writer, performer, adventurer, and horned cryptid living in the wilds of upstate New York. Her work can be found in many small press anthologies such as A Guide to Useless Sidekicks, Catskill Chaos, and The Lizzie Borden House Anthology. She is currently at work on a vampire novella. When not writing, she can be found haunting drive-in movie theaters, karaoke bars, and looking for ghosts in the woods.

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