Don Coscarelli outdoes the humor of John Hughes in what feels like a more honest version of the gleeful sadism in Home Alone.

Phantasm IV: Oblivion at times feels like an expensive, 35mm home movie made by some kids in their backyard.

Having already exhausted all the horrific and action-adventure possibilities of his Phantasm series, writer/director Don Coscarelli falls back on mystery-sapping exposition for Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, a direct-to-video catastrophe that continues the story of Mike (Michael Baldwin, returning...