Phantasm: Ravager

Dir: David Hartman

2016

****

People have been asking Don Coscarelli whether he’d make another Phantasm film ever since Phantasm IV: Oblivion came out in 1998. Phantasm IV: Oblivion was a patchwork quilt of various bits of unused footage and was meant to be a bridge between the third film and a new film that producer Roger Avary had written that he and Coscarelli hoped would be the big one with the studio spending mega-bucks on. It was over-ambicous and never happened, although Coscarelli remained hopeful. In 2004, six years after the release of Phantasm IV: Oblivion, series director Don Coscarelli said in an interview "I’d also still like to do another Phantasm film. Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm are still in great shape and raring to go." Then, in March 2005, it was announced that Coscarelli was in the final stages of talks with New Line Cinema to produce a new entry. He said the new film was "being developed as a relaunch and as a possible trilogy about Mike's coming of age.” Once again, it didn’t happen. Rumors about a sequel were reignited again two years later by footage contained in Don Coscarelli's Farewell to the Alamo Drafthouse, featuring Angus Scrimm and A. Michael Baldwin in their Phantasm roles. However, when Reggie Bannister was later interviewed and asked about the possibility of a fifth film, he stated there was no activity or development but said that anything was possible in the future. I don’t think anyone truly believed that there would be another Phantasm film. However, in 2012, rumors surfaced that Coscarelli would begin a new Phantasm sequel. According to a reliable source, the script was completed and filming would begin later in the year. Coscarelli disputed this claim, publicly stating, "I have no solid news to report on a new project now.” For me that was confirmation that there would never be another Phantasm film ever and if there were, it would be an awful re-boot that wouldn’t have anything to do with Coscarelli or any of the original actors. The thing is, Coscarelli was lying. He and co-writer-director David Hartman had already shot the film secretly. What a sneaky genius. It was confirmed in 2014 and was finally released in 2016 with fans of the series in a frenzy of excitement. The film begins with Reggie, running about in the desert, still on the trail of his nemesis - the Tall Man. He then pays a man to offer him a ride, but realizes it's actually his car they're in, and the man stole it when he recalls putting a gun in the middle compartment. He chucks the man out, but two spheres suddenly fly by, and one sphere kills the man on the road while the other chases after Reggie. He manages to defeat them however, but then wakes up in a hospital sitting with Mike talking to him as he sits in a wheelchair, who apparently looks after him due to him having an early stage of dementia. He then tells Mike his story. In an apparent dream setting, Reggie meets a woman who mistakes him for a friend. Her car isn't working, so Reggie offers her a lift. They go to a cabin on a farm, and Reggie learns that a Bulgarian man named Demeter helps out. Reggie explains to her about his dealings with The Tall Man over the years, and she is amazed by his tale. He tries his usual lady wooing, but is turned down. As he plays a song, he cannot remember her name, and goes to sleep. Later, The Tall Man shows up with more of his deadly spheres. A flashback scene then shows Reggie in the hospital, but it is the hospital from the 1860s. The Tall Man (or his original identity, Jebediah) is lying in the bed next to him. They then talk. Jebediah explains he's nearly finished, and has lost many friends. He says they are both there basically to die. Reggie wakes up the next morning, remembering the lady's name is Dawn. He gets no answer when he asks her a question, and finds that she's been killed by spheres, that then give chase. Reggie equips himself with a shotgun. The spheres force him into a nearby barn. A man armed with an axe confronts him, and it's revealed he is Demeter. A sphere kills a horse. Another sphere then manages to get inside the barn, killing Demeter, before Reggie fights it off. Reggie speaks to Mike again in the hospital. Mike tells him about a new threat looming. Back in his dream, Reggie goes through the woods. Along a path, he encounters a gigantic sphere hovering in the sky, and Reggie is back at the hospital again. Reggie alternates between the other world in both his dream, and the present time. The Tall Man appears, and says their paths cross again. It's 1979; a younger self will attend a funeral in Morningside, and that all his efforts got him nowhere. The Tall Man proclaims he can resurrect Reggie's dead family in exchange for him ceasing his meddling. Reggie is next seen in a mortuary, contending with the dwarf "Lurker" followers of The Tall Man, and the Lady in Lavender appears. She is shot by Reggie and seemingly killed. Continuing on, Reggie goes into a large cave, shooting a dwarf and the place shakes. The Tall Man asks him if he's considered his offer, but when Reggie retaliates, The Tall Man again reminds him his chances are depleting. Reggie wants his friends Jodie and Mike back, but The Tall Man recognizes his "loyalty" for his friends as foolishness. In yet another dream sequence which he alternates with the nightmare world, Reggie is strapped to a gurney as armed masked people appear. One is called Chunk and the other is revealed to be the person Reggie knew as Dawn despite her death, but she says her name is actually Jane and she thinks Reggie is delusional. She radios in some people. Reggie fails to convince her they know each other, but she gets him medical attention instead. More evil dwarf things show up to attack Reggie, but Chunk saves him and gives him a weapon. Dawn & Chunk take Reggie to other members of their group who are fighting the Tall Man. Mike reunites with Reggie, and then escape the nightmare hospital. Mike tells Reggie he's been out of action for a decade in a coma, and the Earth has changed. He says it's no longer their home, it's The Tall Man's now. In the dream world, Reggie wanders around the hospital hallways, but a nurse orders him back to his room. In the nightmare world, an enemy has grabbed him. A spiked sphere then kills one of the people helping Reggie. Mike visits Reggie at the hospital, and says his dream orientates him. Mike reveals he had a dream too where he was in the desert, looking for Reggie. It turns out Mike still has his connection to The Tall Man. Mike reveals The Tall Man unleashed an alien virus that caused an apocalypse on society worldwide. Jane is caught by The Tall Man, so Chunk, Mike and Reggie go after The Tall Man. In his own red planet world, they face and battle The Tall Man, Jane is killed. Chunk, who posed as a dwarf next to the Tall Man, then turns the tables. Chunk blows himself up to try to kill The Tall Man. Back at the hospital, Reggie fights some Gravers alongside Mike. Jodie shows up in a car spewing bullets to save them. After driving awhile, they decide to drive north as The Tall Man hates the cold. In a flashback to the hospital, however, Reggie seemingly passes away in bed while Mike & Jody are holding his hands, and the film ends. During the end-credits, Chunk appears through a portal along a desert road, missing a hand, and meets up with Rocky. Chunk flirts with her, asking Rocky if he has a chance. Rocky teases back saying that there are no other guys around, but Rocky then sees Reggie and the others pulling up in the Barricuda heading north, and they get in. Lots of giant spheres are then shown in the sky in the distance, indicating the war with The Tall Man is far from finished. Much like the forth film, Phantasm V is made up of old and new footage but it is used brilliantly. Having Reggie jump from the past to the future as an older man is in keeping with the surreal fantasy element of the series. The idea that the whole saga has been in his head the whole time due to dementia adds an extra depth to the story with Reggie switching from inter-dimensional time travel, to trying to work out what is real and what isn’t in a care home. Reggie Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Angus Scrimm and Bill Thornbury are all back and seeing them together again after all these years is genuinely lovely. Sadly Angus Scrimm, who played The Tall Man, died in 2016 age 89. He was shown the finished film just before he passed away. The film is incoherent and at times rather amateurish looking. The CGI effects are fairly dreadful and the new characters added nothing to the story. However, it works. The giant floating spheres were cool as hell and the return of the Lady in Lavender was a real treat. The old school effects are still brilliant and Reggie has become quite the leading man. The budget was clearly as low as it could possibly be but there is a real maturity to the film that the hardcore fans had been waiting a long time to see. This is a film for the fans. Anyone new to the series will see it as garbage and I totally understand why they would. However, to those of us who have lived the Phantasm films one at a time, Phantasm: Ravager comes as an unexpected treat and a faithful farewell. Never has such a low-budget below average horror film brought so much joy and warmth, the perfect way to end the series.