Released January 23, 1998
Miramax Films
Starring: Peter O’Toole, Rose McGowan, Joanna Going, Leiv Schreiber and Ben Affleck
Director: Joe Chapelle
96 Minutes

The film’s poster came in two versions. The first has the film logo underground, beneath a street lined with buildings. The second version featured the faces of the four young stars, to capitalize on the popularity of a similar poster done for the film Scream.

Phantoms placed ninth its opening weekend grossing $3,065,951 in 1859 engagements.

Phantoms has subsequently been re-released on both DVD and Blu-ray in conjunction with other films as with the original Blu-ray release and in a stand-alone DVD release.

Articles & Reviews

• Detroit News, “O’Toole tries a little horror”, Nov 1,  1996 sec E p5
• Cinefantastique, “Eagerly Awaited”, v29, no2, August 1997 p4
• Cinefantastique, “Phantoms”, v29 no 3, September 1997 p6
• Cinefantastique, “Dean R. Koontz’ Phantoms”, Steven J. Lehti, Vol. 29, No. 4/5, October 1997, p16-17,19-20
• Cinefantastique, ”Phantoms Effects”, Dale Kutzera, Vol. 29, No. 4/5, October 1997, p18-19
• Cinefantastique, ”Phantoms: Peter O’Toole”, Steven J. Lehti, Vol. 29, No. 4/5, October 1997, p21
• Fangoria,  “Phantoms: Shifting Shapes of Fear”,  #168, Nov 1997, p34(6), Anthony C. Ferrante
• Boston Globe, “O’Toole rumpled but thrilling in Phantoms”, Jan 15 1998 sec E p2
• The Orange County Register, “The Dean’s List”, January 20 1998, Show Tuesday, p1,4-5
• Associated Press, “Horror author pleased with film”, Jan 21 1998 5:27am EST
• Dallas Morning News, “The Dreams of Dean Koontz”, Jan 21 1998, Charles Ealy
• Hollywood Online, “Koontz exorcises the Phantoms within”, Jan 22 1998, Nina Davidson
• Reuters, “Phantoms spookily enjoyable”, Jan 23 1998 8:47am EST
• Post Gazette, “Shot in the Dark: Dim Phantoms Fails to Thrill”, Jan 23, 1998 (online), Barry Paris
• Variety, “Phantoms” review, Jan 23, 1998, Godfrey Cheshire
• Hollywood Online, “Dean Koontz scares up Phantoms”, Jan 1998 – Original URL: http://www.hollywood.com/pressroom/interviews/dkoontz/dkoontz.html
• New York Times Online, “Phantoms: A monster hungry for attention”, Jan 23 1998, Stephen Holden
• Movie Mail, E-mail announcement of the opening sent on Jan 23 1998
• TV Guide,  July 25-31 1999 p31 (ad for video)
• The Ringmaster’s Realm, “Phantoms (1998),” January 1, 2013
• Dread Central, “Yes, Ben Affleck Really Was The Bomb in ‘Phantoms’”, February 19, 2024

Books

• Peter O’Toole The Definitive Biography by Robert Sellers, Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd, 2012

Related Items

Several DC comic books dated March and April 1997 included a full-page, color reproduction of the original film poster. These include but are not limited to Green Arrow #131 and Hitman  #24.

An advance screening was held in Syracuse, NY on January 21, 1998. An unknown number of invitation postcards were distributed as tickets.

Artist Christopher Roy Bullock posted this image in the Books of Horror facebook group with the following description:
“Just come across this piece I did for a video company way back, meant to front the video box, it was for a film version of Koontz “Phantoms”, hope you like, was`nt [sic] a bad film, from in my opinion one of his best books.”

Further attempts to contact Mr. Bullock for details have been unsuccessful.

1989 film version

According to an advertisement in the February 22-28, 1989 (p163-4) issue of Variety, New World International had started pre-production on a film of Phantoms. This film was never produced.
Thanks to Reddit user u/PMC7009 for finding the specific issue!

Video CD