By Geno McGahee
I am a huge fan of the PHANTASM series. In 1979, it all began and was unique and creepy. The sight of the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) lifting the coffin and throwing it into the hearse by himself with ease was unsettling and it set the tone for the rest of the film. There was an aura of mystery and kept the viewer watching. I often describe HALLOWEEN as the best horror franchise out there, despite some of the later entries, but PHANTASM may give it a run for its money. Even though some of the entries weren’t as good as others, the quality was more prevalent than we saw in film series like FRIDAY THE 13TH and NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. So, it took 17 years to see another film in this series and it was completed before we said goodbye to Angus Scrimm.
PHANTASM: RAVAGER is a reunion movie. It brings back much of the cast from the others and also brings back Don Coscarelli, the writer of the other PHANTASM films. We begin with Reggie (Reggie Bannister) and his continued fight with the Tall Man. He is a spent force with the hope to one day bring back his friends Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) and Jody (Bill Thornbury). He can’t find his car, but as luck would have it, a thief (Daniel Schweiger), is behind the wheel and stops to give Reggie a ride. Reggie leaves him on the side of the road in his speedos. Why he was wearing speedos is anyone’s guess. Why they couldn’t put him in a pair of boxer shorts, I don’t know, but thankfully, the Tall Man sends his metal balls in to take care of the issue. The balls are now noticeably CGI, but it isn’t terrible.
Reggie wakes up in a hospital with Mike and is totally confused and he begins going back and forth between one life and another. He’s at the hospital, suffering from Dementia in one life and in the other, he’s still fighting the Tall Man. I have to say that Bannister gave the best performance of his career here. I was very impressed with how he played the role and how he maintained the serious tone throughout. In other entries, he had become comic relief and it took away from the suspense of the scene. Here, he is believable and likable and there is an aura of mystery in this one. Considering his diagnosis, we don’t know if the Tall Man even existed at all. Could this all be in his head?
The battle with the Tall Man becomes a MAD MAX sort of theme and I really disliked that. The Tall Man style set in the first four films has been this creepy horror feel rather than this apocalyptic battle that we see here. People in gas masks shooting guns at other people in gas masks and a rebellion, led by Mike, to take down the Tall Man. Now, there was one thing that really bothered me and that was the tough little person. One of the heroes is a midget that keeps calling Reggie “baldy” and jumps at the Tall Man covered in bombs and still survives it. He is missing a hand and still plays it tough, despite the terrible wound. The film’s shift to this character so much and away from Mike, Reggie and the Tall Man hurt it.
Another thing that made it feel unlike a PHANTASM movie was Mike, scared kid, turned into John Connor from TERMINATOR. Some of the visuals were very good and the PHANTASM series lives and dies with its visuals, but the MAD MAX influence did not fit this series at all and I kept hoping for more direct interactions between the Tall Man and Reggie rather than this story of some rebellion saving humanity from it. The scenes where Reggie is at the hospital and trying to figure out what’s going on are very intriguing and could have balanced out well with a direct battle with the Tall Man and his little monsters, but it wasn’t to be.
Despite my issue with the direction of part of this film, much of the rest holds up quite well. The visuals are very good at times, including and especially the shot of a group of Tall Men standing together and noting that it doesn’t matter if he dies because there millions more of him. There are moments in this film where I get really compelled. The different timelines and time travel aspects are outstanding but they never follow through on them. Perhaps it was due to the passing of Scrimm, but this film felt very incomplete and loaded with filler.
The film wraps up with more of the MAD MAX story and a terrible final scene with the midget grabbing a girl’s breast, leading to a hinted further showdown with the Tall Man and another sequel. It took 17 years to get this one. I have a feeling this is it…especially considering that Scrimm has passed away.
PHANTASM: RAVAGER is a mixed bag. Scrimm was, once again, awesome as the Tall Man. His scenes are tremendous, but they are few and far between. Reggie Bannister did a great job in this and it was great to see the rest of the characters back again. Unfortunately, the forced in MAD MAX knockoff storyline just didn’t fit with the film series and took away from the overall experience. Had they just kept the focus where it belonged, the film could have been special. I could tell that their hearts were in the right place and that they put forth a great effort to make a quality film. They were just misguided with certain elements.
As a huge PHANTASM fan, I recommend this. The good outweighs the bad and I did enjoy parts of it very much. It’s worth a watch, but disappointing.
Rating: 5/10