Phantasm: Ravager

Reggie (Reggie Bannister) is wandering through the desert seeking out his friend Mike and the evil Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). Along his journey, he is hunted down by the dangerous spheres and stumbles upon the gorgeous Dawn.

I have to talk about the actors. Reggie and Angus were fine, of course, as they know exactly who their characters are. Dawn Cody is the worst part, with awful acting as Dawn (though she seems to be better as Jane, strangely enough). Daniel Roebuck is a nice addition, even if he seems out of place.

Joe Leydon and Marten Carlson both criticized the film's narrative cohesiveness. Leydon speculated that the film's troubled production may have cause this, and Carlson more directly blamed the film's origin as a series of shorts. This is a legitimate concern. The film is quite a mess, even in a series that has some bizarre continuity. Anyone going in to this without knowledge of the series will be completely confused. (But, of course, it seems obvious not to watch "part five" without seeing earlier chapters.)

It's hard to believe that the Phantasm series started back in 1979 and sporadically released it's 5 movies across the decades.

What's even harder to believe is that every major player from the franchise has stuck through it and is right here in 2016 for the final chapter.

Reggie returns one last time to reunite with his friends, fight the forces of evil and go toe to toe with the Tall Man for the ultimate confrontation.

Now I don't think that the Phantasm franchise is that great, I think they are original titles and I applaud them for lasting as long as they have but they've tended to be confusing disconnected movies.

Alas this is no different, in fact I have to say it's the most confusing of them all. Regardless it's a nostalgia trip, everyones along for the ride including the films original creators.

Though the sfx are ropey and the plot makes very little sense Ravager isn't that bad, it's just not a fitting finale for a series that has lasted this long! What makes it worse is that the highly ambiguous finale does it no favours.

I'd say this is essential viewing for fans of the series but all things considered it should have been considerably better.

RIP Angus Scrimm

The Good:

Nostalgia filled

Some new and interesting ideas

The Bad:

Plot isn't great

Pacing is a bit of a mess

Finale is terrible

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Reggie Bannister is immortal

When a franchises sfx haven't improved since the 1970's you need to have serious words with your sfx guys

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.

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.

I'm happy to admit that I find the story lines to the Phantasm films a bit of a challenge to follow, their freewheeling, anything goes, dream-logic approach not being the easiest thing to grasp. But then that's all part of the series' charm, creator Don Coscarelli having forged an intriguing franchise that writes (and rewrites) its own rules and which constantly surprises.

Ravager, the first Phantasm film not to be directed by Coscarelli (David Hartman takes the reins), fits the mould perfectly with a bizarre narrative that sees its unlikely hero Reggie (Reggie Bannister) flip-flopping between several distinctly different realities, the film never letting on which of these, if any, is his genuine existence. In one reality, Reggie is wandering the desert searching for long lost friend Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) when he encounters a woman called Dawn (Dawn Cody); in another, he is in hospital suffering from early onset dementia, suggesting that the Tall Man and his minions are a figment of his deteriorating mental state; Reggie also finds himself in a version of Earth where the Tall Man and his spheres are in control and where Mike is leading a desperate band of freedom fighters.

Not a lot of this makes much sense, and little is really resolved by the end of the movie, but the fun is in seeing much-loved characters returning for one last adventure, in watching the silver spheres causing more bloody mayhem (in this chapter, a horse gets drilled, and an exploding spiky sphere blows someone's head apart!), and in seeing just how bonkers it all gets. Ravager has a gun-toting dwarf, sees Reggie out-driving some spheres while blasting at them with a hand cannon, and features spheres the height of skyscrapers, but it could have done with a bit more gore in the second half for my liking. Still, it's not a bad way to spend some time and should keep most avid Phans reasonably happy for the duration.