Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're finally finishing the "Phantasm" series, as I'm taking a look at the fifth and final entry that came out in 2016. That movie is "Phantasm: Ravager".
I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you, guys, I'm kinda happy that this is the last "Phantasm" film that I have to cover here, because these movies have ranged on being ridiculously average. It's not that they're bad movies or anything, it's just that, ever since that first movie, each one has ranged on being consistent with more and more problems that I've come across throughout my journey on covering these movies. Especially that 4th movie, which is easily the weakest entry of the entire franchise. If you want to know more about my thoughts on that one, well, I covered it a couple of weeks ago, so it should be really easy to find.
But anyway, shameless plugging aside, I actually kinda broke my protocol here and dug up a little bit of information on this movie. I didn't do that for the previous films, because I wanted to go into them as blind as possible. And while I'm still going into this movie blindly, I wanted to actually find out a little bit about what I was getting myself into here. And part of the reason why I wanted to do so was mainly because this thing came out in 2016. 18 years after the ending of the 4th movie, they made another sequel, AKA this one. And I am both curious and concerned about this movie for a variety of different reasons that I'm gonna try to condense here.
For starters, I'm mostly concerned about the fact that this thing is even another sequel at all. As I mentioned in my previous review for "Phantasm IV: Oblivion", when it comes to horror movie sequels, they usually start to decline in quality, as it did for that movie. And what's even more concerning is the fact that you wait almost 2 decades to make *another* sequel. Now yes, I understand that Don Coscarelli, the guy's who written and directed all of the previous "Phantasm" movies, has been wanting to do a fifth sequel to this series and he had to go through a lot of hurdles in order to get this movie made, but it still makes me concerned about the overall quality of this movie. That said, though, I'm am curious as to what you can do with a sequel for a movie series like this with modern technology.
Which brings me to one other thing that I wanted to talk about before I watch the movie. Now, as I've just stated already, Don Coscarelli has been the writer and director for all of the previous "Phantasm" films. And while he is credited as a writer for this fifth entry, he's not directing it this time. The director, this time, goes by a man named David Hartman, who also co-wrote the movie with Coscarelli. And I'd love to tell you more about what I know about this guy, but unfortunately, from what little information that was I able to find on him, there really isn't much to say about him. In fact, most of his directing credit comes from animation. He's directed quite a number of cartoon shows, most of which I've never even heard of, aside from "Jackie Chan Adventures" and "Godzilla: The Series". So, to take someone who's focus is mostly centered around animation to directing a sequel to a horror movie series is a rather strange choice to make. And I don't know if this was done deliberately or not.
Now, I probably shouldn't judge too harshly. I've not even watched the movie yet, and it's possible that maybe a fresh face is what is needed for this film series. Granted, I understand it's the final entry and all, but it could still impress me. So anyway, with that overly long introduction out of the way, it's finally time for me to see if this movie is any good at all. And the only way I'm gonna find out is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Phantasm: Ravager".
18 minutes later
All right, guys, I know it's still a bit early in the film, but I think now might be the time to mention this. So far, the acting here, mainly from our returning cast members, such as Reggie and Mike, has been really good so far. And then I come across this red-haired woman named Dawn, and her acting is fucking terrible. Just thought I'd let you guys know now, so that way I don't have to mention it again later. At least, until I cover the acting for the overall review, but still. I'm hoping, maybe, that her acting will get better as the film goes along. But right now, I'm not having any hopes of that happening.
7 minutes later
Well, after being missed from the previous movie, the metal sphere is back again, and it apparently killed the worst actress in the entire movie. I guess that does answer my question on whether or not her acting would improve or not, so at least I can toss that point out of the way pretty quickly.
4 minutes later
O...K...well, holy shit, that's actually a first for this series! I've seen these things kill many humans throughout these movies, but this is the first time I've ever seen a metal sphere kill a horse in that fashion. That's actually...really fucked up. And I feel really sorry for that poor horse, too.
20 minutes later
Oh...well, never mind, Dawn is actually still alive...admittedly, while I'm not sure if her acting will improve here or not, I am curious as to how she's actually alive at all. Oh, and apparently, her name is actually Jane now. I'm gonna honest, guys, I'm a little bit lost here, but at least I am interested to see where else this movie's gonna go.
9 minutes later
So, I'm now getting a first look at this new hellish world by the Tall Man. And I gotta say, despite some questionable CG, it does actually look kinda cool! I'll get more into the special effects a little bit later on when I eventually cover this thing, but again, this new world by the Tall Man does look pretty cool, I will say that much.
3 minutes later
And apparently, we also have a new metal sphere as well. Although this one's more red, given that it causes someone's head to explode the moment it makes contact with it. I will say, though, that it still looked really cool, so at least there's that.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Phantasm: Ravager". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. Well, before I give out my initial thoughts on this movie, I am gonna start by saying that the way that this movie decided to conclude itself, it gave me the impression that it was setting itself up for another sequel. Which, honestly, I would've been on board with that. Yeah, my overall opinions on these movies have been somewhat mixed, but I still would've like to have seen what they could've done with another movie. Now granted, I don't think it's ever going to happen, and I'll get to why later when I cover acting. But still, I think they could've done something else, had they decided to go forward with another movie. At least, I think so, anyway.
But anyways, let's actually get into the movie itself here. And as usual, I'm gonna start with the writing. Now, I'm gonna start off by talking about something I hinted at, but never really went into full detail on. So, way back when I reviewed the 3rd movie, I mentioned a horrible theory that I had when I was watching that movie, and it was about a certain line Jody mentioned to Reggie, saying that he shouldn't believe everything that he sees. And I wanted to hold off on discussing that theory until after I finished watching all of the movies in this series. Well, now that I have finished watching them, I believe it's now time for me to tell you guys what that horrible theory was. Essentially, my theory was that this entire movie series was just a dream made up in Reggie's mind. And I feared that he was going to end up in some kind of mental hospital all this time while of this was playing in his head. Now the latter part doesn't isn't really the issue, but more so of the whole thing just being a dream. Which, if that were the case, then it would've made this a waste of fucking time. Because, you had 5 movies to play with, and had they decided to end it with "oh, it was all a dream", then I would've been royally pissed, because I really despise it when movies pull this sort of shit.
Now, believe it or not, they actually kinda do play with that theory, to a degree. Because, in this movie, Reggie is being told that he has dementia from Mike, who apparently looks a little bit different with the glasses and is a little bit of a nerd as well. But anyway, he tells Reggie that he's been treated at this mental hospital for some time, while Reggie believes that none of this is real, and that the Tall Man is manipulating him in some way. And throughout this movie, it plays with Reggie's mind on what's actually real and what isn't. And this honestly is something that you'll either be really interested in, or you're gonna be totally lost here. Because they play up this angle of the movie a lot, and it's to a certain point where it does this a little too much, in which it tries to mess up your mind, much like it's doing with Reggie. Which, in a way, it does work, seeing as how it wants to work in being a psychological horror movie, but again, it could've dialed this back a little bit.
In terms of characters, there's really honestly not a lot to say about the new characters here, because all of them are pretty flat and one dimensional. The only ones that are even worth mentioning at all are Reggie and the Tall Man. Reggie, I've kinda already talked about, but I wanted to bring up the Tall Man as well, because it sorta encapsulates the ongoing saga between Reggie and him, and why he has let Reggie live all this time when he could've killed him at any point. I won't go too deep into spoilers here regarding everything they've said, but I will say that it is really good stuff. And despite all the hell that Reggie has gone through against the Tall Man and his reanimated corpses, he's still pushing on the fight until he saves Mike and Jody. So, character depth wise, Reggie has it the best here. Especially when compared to the 2 previous films in the series where his character sorta regressed, and it was almost to a point where I even mentioned that I didn't think Coscarelli had any idea on what to do with Reggie's character anymore. Well thankfully, I was proven wrong here, as Reggie definitely had the best development here in this final entry.
So, writing wise, it's certainly better than what was in the 4th movie, which I still stand as the weakest entry of the entire franchise. This movie, although certainly nowhere near as interesting as the first 3 movies were, it still has enough here to make you see where it goes and how it ends. Admittedly, I don't consider this a true ending, but again, it'll just reiterate on what I already talked about earlier, so I'll leave it that. Now with that said, let's get into the acting. And before I talk about the main point of the acting, I will get the only bad actor out of the way here, and it's the same actress who plays Dawn in this movie, which also happens to be her first real name too. But anyway, to put it simply, guys, her acting is fucking terrible. And it's mainly because she sounds very one-noted and sounds very flat with her delivery. And that also goes for when she's playing as Jane. There's no real changes in her voice, other than that she sounds like a generic soldier agent, if that makes any sense at all. But yeah, guys, the acting from her is by far the worst of the entire casting here.
That said, though, let's actually talk about the rest of the acting, which is nothing but positives. When it comes to our recurring cast, all of them do a really good job with their given material. Admittedly, Bill Thornbury, who plays Jody, really only has like, a couple of lines here and there, so it wasn't enough for me to give my full thoughts on his acting, but it's still kinda nice to see him here again. A. Michael Baldwin as Mike pulls off a pretty good showing here. Reggie Bannister as, well...Reggie, probably pulls off one of the best performances he has given out since the first movie, which is actually saying something, given that he was given a much better script to work with.
And that, of course, leaves me with the best actor in the entire movie, which is, unsurprisingly, Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man. The very fact that this man, despite almost being in his 90's, can still pull it off is fucking amazing to see! Regardless of how I felt about the writing in these particular movies, he has always held this character together ever since his first appearance in 1979. And the fact that he can still pull it off 37 years later is, again, absolutely astonishing to see. And as much as I would've loved to have seen where he can take the Tall Man character in a potential sequel, that's not going to happen. Why? Well, simply put, this was one of the last films Angus Scrimm had a part in before passing away, which was also the same year that this movie came out in. Now, of course, you could potentially find someone else to play the Tall Man, however, they would never be able to replace the charm and tenacity that Angus Scrimm brought to the character. It's just personal bias, really. But with that said, the rest of the acting, minus the actress playing Dawn, did a great job here. So, kudos to the entire cast here for putting on such good performances here.
So now, let's, unfortunately, get into the special effects. Now I say unfortunately, because this is quite easily the worst part of the entire movie. And why is that? Well because, for the past 4 movies, I have praised the special effects from top to bottom about how great they've always been. And even though the first movie had some cheap-looking goofy effects, there was still a lot of charm and thought put into those effects, which is why I can't be too harsh with how they looked back then. This movie, however, I have to be harsh here, because most of the effects in this movie are fucking horrible. And I'm talking about everything involving CG, green screen effects, the digital effects in the guns looking like shit, explosions, just about everything involving those effects look horrible. Now before I sound contradictory, yes, I did say that I really liked the hellish world that was created by the Tall Man. But after really getting a chance to talk about it, the effects for that world still looked really bad what with everything I just said about it.
The only bright spot in the special effects are the practical effects, which are mainly used around the beginning, with the best highlight being the horse kill. But everything else...no, it's still fucking terrible. And yes, I am aware that this movie was made on a low budget. However, I must also stress that the other "Phantasm" movies were also made on low budgets. And, barring the first movie, the effects in those movies looked great for what they had to work with. This movie, on the other hand, almost felt like a Sy-Fy Channel Original Movie. Which is pretty fucking sad, considering the low quality those movies usually have. So yeah, unfortunately, the special effects here are mostly fucking terrible.
But otherwise, guys, the camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mix is also fine. And the music here, at least in terms of it's score anyway is pretty much up to par with how the previous 4 movies sounded. So, at least we have that in terms of it's consistency. It's not great, but it's still pretty good.
So, with all that said, guys, am I able to recommend "Phantasm: Ravager"? I'm gonna say yes, as long as if you've followed the previous 4 films in this series and you liked them enough to check out this fifth entry. For myself, personally speaking, it's certainly better than the 4th movie, but it's not quite saying a whole lot, considering how the other films range on being somewhat average for me. Still though, I can recommend it to fans of the "Phantasm" series. And on that note, I should probably give out my final thoughts on the "Phantasm" series as a whole package. Well...it's certainly a really interesting series of movies. Especially ones where they didn't go down the route of churning out a sequel almost every year just to make a quick buck. That said, however, all of these movies, even the first one, didn't entirely 'wow' me. And because of that, I'm probably never going to be watching these particular movies again unless I had some morbid curiosity for some reason. So yeah, I did enjoy watching these movies once, but sadly, I just don't see myself ever watching them again, unless, you know, morbid curiosity and everything. But if you enjoyed them more than I did, then that's awesome. More power to you if loved these movies. I myself, unfortunately, didn't. But I would've never known for myself what these movies were like until I covered them for this series. So, I can at least say that they were worth the time for me.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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