Phantasm – Ravager: Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
After battling with the Tall Man in Phantasm: Oblivion, a battered Reggie wanders through the desert in search of his missing friend, Mike. After recovering his 1971 Hemi ‘Cuda, Reggie is targeted by two of the Tall Man’s Sentinel Spheres and destroys them. He awakens suddenly to find himself sitting in a wheelchair pushed by none other than the elusive Mike! Although overjoyed by their reunion, Reggie is in this alternate dimension an aged and weary old patient in a psychiatric ward. And only he remembers their battled and bloodied past with the Tall Man. Reggie must travel between dimensions and discern what is reality in order to confront the mysteries at the heart of a decades-long struggle against evil. He is met with new and familiar faces along the way, and an epic showdown on the Tall Man’s home world awaits!
It’s been 18 years since we’ve seen a Phantasm film and with this film (supposedly) closing out the series I couldn’t wait to give this a watch. One thing that I noticed right from the start is that even 18 years later it still had the same feel as the previous films. It felt really good to see Reggie back at it again and continuing the franchise that has become a cult phenomenon. Seeing Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man was so wonderful again and his on screen presence is so commanding that honestly he doesn’t even need to do much to be so creepy. The main thing that I was really looking forward to was the story and although it was a really good one it was a bit confusing as to what path it was taking. I initially thought that they were telling the story about how Reggie was in a hospital the entire time and he was imagining all the events from the previous films. Turns out it was the exact opposite…haha! My main gripe about the movie however is the pretty bad CGI. I mean I wasn’t expecting blockbuster level effects but I do feel like the effects from the original hold up and look a lot better. There was even moments towards the end that really threw me off. One was that it seemed like there were a good number of scenes that took place in front of a green screen. There’s nothing wrong with that, in fact Robert Rodriguez has made complete films that way but in this case it just didn’t seem to match the first part of the film and it looked kind of odd. The other thing was that I was under the impression that Scrimm completed work on the film before he passed but it doesn’t look like it because it seems like his face was super imposed onto another persons body for the finale of the movie. Again, I wasn’t expecting high quality effects but I wish that they would’ve thought of some alternative like maybe just putting a shadow in front of The Tall Man whenever he was on screen towards the end. For fans of the series I do feel however that it did provide a great end to the story but at the same time it left a door open for a sequel if the interest were there but with Scrimm gone now I don’t think it would be right though. It’s definitely worth checking out if you want to see how it all goes down but I will advise not to set the bar too high. 6/10
Special Features:
Behind the Scenes – The usual BTS feature with film clips and small interview snippets with the cast and crew.
Deleted Scenes – Only a handful of scenes here that are interesting to check out if you’re curious.
Phuntasm: Bloopers and Outtakes – A funny look at some of the goofing off on set and includes line flubs and miscues.
Audio Commentary With Director David Hartman & Writer/Producer Don Coscarelli
