Phantasm: Ravager

I'll start by saying that the Phantasm series is one of my all- time favorites. Each film progressively follows & continues the story line, but each film reflects upon the filmmaker, actors, crew, & time in which it was made. In that respect, Phantasm Ravager fits right in with the series. It has its own style, look, & feel, and, like the other sequels, it's trying something slightly new but with all the old gang in tow.

I've read a few reviews complaining about the budget & the effects, as well as the fact that nothing is really resolved. As far as the budget: no fan of the series would be looking for much else. This has been & will be a low budget series til the end. Ravager is a fairly ambitious story & it fairs just fine with what it has to work with. As for resolution: no true Phan would ever expect or want anything resolved in the series. Throughout the series, any potential answer always brings with it a multitude of new questions. Ravager does the same. To give any concrete answer would fly in the face of everything that is a Phantasm film. One negative online review claims the film spits in the face of the fans by presenting a definitive and disappointing denouement. Again, nothing could be further from the truth. You take away exactly what you choose to take away. There are multiple interpretations and, like the entire series, it all rests with viewer.

In the end, is the film as great as it could be? No. There can always be improvements to everything. It is not quite the grand finale I personally expected, yet I always depend on these films to stray from expectation. Am I happy that there is a new installment to endlessly analyze upon further viewings? Absolutely! The Phantasm series is something different to every Phan. Each Phan has there personal favorite, their personal theories, and their personal readings of the films. Phantasm morphs as the viewer does, remaining fluid, and forever changing. And like any good art, the Phantasm series, including Phantasm Ravager, remains open for infinite interpretation.

With so much time between movies, I hardly remember anything from Phantasm, but I do recall I liked some of the films enough to watch this fifth and probably final part of the series. But it was completely disappointing.

The movie is more like a collection of shorts that blend into each other as Reggie is either in a mental asylum, or a on his death bed or in a house trying to score with a redhead or in a hellish world taken over by Tall Man. Since it retains that dream quality of the previous movies, you never know what is real, especially since some of the scenes seem to be previously recorded but unreleased footage. Some extras are brought for no good reason and Angus has just a few scenes. The actor died this year, so RIP for him and probably for the series.

The problem laid with the lack of emotional impact for any of these scenes with disjointed action and characters that never develop and one barely remembers from previous films. Frankly, a waste of time for everyone involved.

The people who watch this film are the hard core fans who were entranced by the disorientating chilling imaginative world of the First Phantasm Movie. Most likely viewed multiple times at late night triple features in actual cinemas, like me. So when the franchise lays this confusing mess in your lap it is with sadness we view the results rather than dismissively as consumers of media. This was the last chance Angus Scrimm got to play his iconic Tall Man roll, and he totally delivered on his lines yet again, creepy, with a plan we can't understand, everything we could ever want from him. But how those nuggets fitted into an overlaying story, well, really they don't. There was nothing there for them to slot into, for them to make sense in. Granted, part of the original movies charm was how sense was tossed out the window; but everything in the original movie fitted within the universe of Phantasm; everything had a point, and a result to that point.

In this 5th installment most things that happened went nowhere; were smoke and mirrors; a collection of disconnected setups; some with style; many executed with cringe-worthy cheesiness; naff effects, and an edge of unintended sadness, as they chipped away at the legacy of the original.

What was it all about? I don't really know and it gives the feeling that no one, particularly the director did. It didn't make any sense, and not in a good way, just looping round some vague concept of "is Reggie dreaming, or is it real"?, but it's done so poorly the end result is a wasted opportunity to do something solid with an all-original-cast back together to pay tribute to a legendary movie franchise.

Reggie was OK as a disposable side man, but it was the 2 brothers that were the interest factor in the original. To be honest, it was kind of boring,....

.... of note, the music was a reasonably decent reworking of the original catchy score orchestrated excellently, although the original did use non classic orchestra sounds and rock instruments well, so it deviated from that innovation. The only jarring thorn in an otherwise stellar soundtrack was the cringe-worthy Ravenger rap over the score as the credits rolled. Utterly awful.

Either the director has no understanding of what was good about the original , or Coscarelli totally 'George Lucas'd' his own series, and also didn't understand what he got right in the original.

Farewell Phantasm. I wish you could have had a better send off than this. Thanks for the original though. A true iconic milestone in disorientating creepy cinema.

Phantasm: Ravager (2016)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The fifth and apparently final film in the series has Reggie (Reggie Bannister) walking through the desert where he is trying to locate Mike as well as The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm).

That's pretty much the only plot details you need to know about PHANTASM: RAVAGER, which turned out to be perhaps the best in the series next to the original. I really wasn't sure what to expect since there had been such a break in between films but director David Hartman has created a pretty interesting episode that will probably have some people scratching their heads but for the most part I thought it delivered the goods.

I haven't been the biggest fan of the sequels, which is another reason why I was so shocked to see myself enjoying this one so much. The majority of the film takes place at three different settings so there's a lot of guessing as to what's really going on. The setting is constantly changing and you never know if you're in the afterlife, reality or some sort of Hell. I thought this really kept you into the picture but I must say that around the hour mark you start to wish there was something making sense or at least something pointing you into the direction that the film is going.

The film really benefits from the cast members standing up and really delivering the best performances of the series. Bannister is extremely good once again in his role of Reggie and he's actually got quite a bit of acting to do here and he pulls it off very well. Scrimm doesn't get too much screen time but whenever he's on the screen you can't take your eyes off of him. Dawn Cody is also good in her small role and it was great seeing A. Michael Baldwin.

The sphere is back as you'd expect and there's all sorts of gore that will keep fans happy. There's a lot more CGI here than in previous entries and while some of it is very poor it's not too distracting. PHANTASM: RAVAGER isn't going to appeal to everyone as I'm sure some will have an issue with the ending. I personally thought it was a great way to end the series.

Having seen all the others films in this series, I felt this one was a big disappointment. The acting and effects are good but definitely not the script. Though it was a novelty having an entire cast stay together long enough to make this many movies, and seeing a montage in which they age, this, as the final film in the franchise, went out not with a band nor a whimper, but simply...went. With all the switches from one dimension to another, soon the audience is apt to soon be as confused as Reggie.

No explanation was ever given in any of the movies for why all this was happening and it isn't given here, the little speeches of "loyalty" which should really read "friendship" notwithstanding. Although the actors do a credible job, and the special effects are well-done, along with brief glimpses of black humor, the plot is a confusing mess leaving nothing but disappointment in its wake. This movie doesn't tie up any loose threads or offer any explanations. Technically, it's not even a final entry since the story merely stops...with an open ending which could conceivably herald another episode, if the "Tall Man" himself, Angus Scrimm, were going to be around. Once wonder if perhaps since this film was dedicated to his memory, everyone thought it would be too difficult to replace someone fitting that role so aptly.

Whatever the reasons, I felt it was time wasted and was left with the feeling the spirit as well as the fright of the original film had long since fled.