Phantasm: Ravager (2016)

Powerful

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This is better than the last one, which I recall only as being the very worst kind of sequel: The kind where new scenes of lame, yakkety filler simply serve to pad out lazy over-use of excerpts from the prior films as "flashbacks." This movie doesn't seem so impoverished, but it's suspense less and conceptually wheel-spinning, with people "waking up" from one reality to another with tedious repetitiveness. The "dream logic" has turned into rote shtick. If you hadn't seen prior entries in the series (at least the first one or two), this film would have no value whatsoever, as it's entirely self-referential. Which isn't the worst thing to be, but you should bring more original ideas or narrative invention to the completion of a long series, even as you reprise its familiar motifs. More extensive and better CGI effects attest to the fact that they at least tried to go out with a home run here, but "Ravager" is more of a bunt.

Phantasm: Ravager, comes after a long, long wait for the concluding chapter in the series. Notably, it's the first one that Don Coscarelli did not direct, handing those duties over to David Hartman. Hartman has mostly done TV work, and largely animated TV work it appears, and it can seem obvious that he's largely unused to live-action movie work, there's a notable number of scenes that look far more amateurish than the previous films. This can apply effects-wise too, there are some sequences where the CG stands out, but on the other hand, there are plenty of other effects that look as good as before.But the story and writing is where the focus is really at. The previous films in the series had a sense of dreamlike direction to them, and continuity was somewhat loose, even within a single movie. Oblivion touched on the idea of different realities, using cut scenes from Phantasm for its flashbacks to show us a very different Phantasm than what we saw, and Ravager plays that up. The film is split between different, and sometimes merging, realities. It focuses on Reggie, and starts with him emerging from a portal after the end of the last movie. From there we get him being awesome, as one would hope from Reggie, before he suddenly awakes in a nursing home, Mike reappearing to tell him that he's there because he's been diagnosed with early onset dementia. From there the perspective shifts back and forth, from Reggie in a nursing home to his struggles against the Tall Man in an apocalyptic wasteland. Much like the previous movies, it leaves us with the question of "what is dream and what is reality," except here there's a sense of sorrow tinging the entire thing, it feels depressingly final which is only reinforced with the death of Angus Scrimm. The ending is slightly open, but at the same time you know this is the end. The mood whiplash is very, very real, fun bits leading into sad bits and then snapping right back.So that's the real determination on if you'll like this movie. Can you handle some amateur film making? Some occasionally iffy effects? A tone that will leave you excited and then yank that away to leave you near tears as you watch these characters you've come to love at the end of their lives? If you can, you will find a satisfying, if flawed, film to be enjoyed, though perhaps not without a sense of mourning.

I've loved the Phantasm series since I first saw the original on VHS in the early 80's. Sure, they're not Oscar worthy or bursting with state of the art SFX or A-list talent but they never pretended to be, they were just a continuation of an interesting premise with fun characters and a first class bad guy. Sadly, this final installment is an enormous let down.There's not much satisfaction to be found for Phantasm fans in Ravager. Well, not for me at least. Reggie is still great, it was nice to catch up with old characters again like Mike, Jody, The Lady In Lavender and even a surprise appearance by Rocky from Phantasm III. It starts quite well with Reggie reclaiming his stolen car and meeting up with a hot chick, even trying to seduce her by writing her a song on his guitar beside a fireplace. Classic Reggie! Some of the effects were OK, I especially enjoyed the shots of the dystopian Earth with enormous Sentinels hovering over everything. And that's about it.The rest is pretty bad. The storyline descends into chaos, with alternate realities coming and going with zero explanation or real purpose. The movie is shot on digital cameras which makes it look cheap and nasty and doesn't do the low budget SFX any favours. I'm not sure what's up with A. Michael Baldwin here but he just didn't turn up for this film, his acting is just abysmal. I have a pine coffee table in my home that is less wooden. And sadly they just left it too long to make this sequel. Angus Scrimm, God rest his soul, was a superb and truly horrifying villain but here he just looks too old, a shadow of his former self. Not that any of that is his fault. He does his best but I dunno, the fear factor has gone. It's hard to be terrified of a guy who looks like he needs oxygen and a lie down.I rated the film 4, because it's Phantasm, and there's always something to enjoy, but sadly the bad outweighs the good massively in Ravager and it's a feeble and inadequate way to end such a magnificent franchise.BOY!!!!

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.