Pretty Good

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's hard to believe that the Phantasm series started back in 1979 and sporadically released it's 5 movies across the decades.What's even harder to believe is that every major player from the franchise has stuck through it and is right here in 2016 for the final chapter.Reggie returns one last time to reunite with his friends, fight the forces of evil and go toe to toe with the Tall Man for the ultimate confrontation.Now I don't think that the Phantasm franchise is that great, I think they are original titles and I applaud them for lasting as long as they have but they've tended to be confusing disconnected movies.Alas this is no different, in fact I have to say it's the most confusing of them all. Regardless it's a nostalgia trip, everyones along for the ride including the films original creators.Though the sfx are ropey and the plot makes very little sense Ravager isn't that bad, it's just not a fitting finale for a series that has lasted this long! What makes it worse is that the highly ambiguous finale does it no favours.I'd say this is essential viewing for fans of the series but all things considered it should have been considerably better.RIP Angus ScrimmThe Good:Nostalgia filledSome new and interesting ideasThe Bad:Plot isn't greatPacing is a bit of a messFinale is terribleThings I Learnt From This Movie:Reggie Bannister is immortalWhen a franchises sfx haven't improved since the 1970's you need to have serious words with your sfx guys

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.

Back in 1979 a small horror film was released that captured the imagination of fans around the world. It spawned several sequels back when the term franchise was yet to be a dirty word. It was original and brought to us a world we never knew existed, a world harbored over by someone called the Tall Man who controlled silver orbs with protruding blades and drills that could drain a man of blood in no time. The movie was PHANTASM.With each subsequent sequel fans have begged for more. Writer/director Don Coscarelli answered their pleas by releasing three follow up films, each leaving the door wide open for the next. So when word came out that he had another film in the making fans were ecstatic. Unfortunately he turned the director's helm over to someone else and the end result is PHANTASM RAVAGER.The movie opens in a near apocalyptic future with Reggie (Reggie Bannister) walking down the highway having had his '71 Cuda stolen from him. As he walks along the car nearly runs him over before screeching to a halt. The man behind the wheel takes the time to yell at him and in return finds himself removed from the car and Reggie back behind the wheel.What follows is a movie that seems to be in the same world we've visited before but at the same time not quite that world. Sure the spheres are still out there cruising along looking for victims. But their CGI inspired versions are just not quite the same as the old methods used. The Tall Man is back as well but even he seems less inclined to want to do damage like he did in the past.What makes the movie even more jarring is that it moves back and forth not only in time but in location as well. One minute we're seeing Reggie battling the spheres as they attempt to kill him and the next it's as if he's just woke up and finds himself sitting in a retirement home talking to Mike (A. Michael Baldwin). In this world Reggie is dealing with bouts of dementia, the events of the previous films being nothing more than images created in his own mind and having never actually taken place.This back and forth goes on for most of the film. Not only do we see Reggie having lengthy talks with Mike he has them with the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) as well. Perhaps all of this was due to budget but the film ends up with more talking than action, more discussion than discovery of what happened. Not only that, but the entire series is called into question since we're not sure it's real of if it's all in Reggie's head.The movie feels like something is desperately lacking here and my guess is it was the emotional tie in that would have come from Coscarelli. All of his films have had something of the man himself in them. In the hands of director David Hartman that spark is just not there. Hartman could have been the biggest fan in the world but somehow his vision of this story felt lacking.On the plus side it was great to see nearly all of the entire original cast back together again. Not only was the aforementioned cast in the film so was a returning Bill Thornbury as Mike's brother Jody and Kathy Lester as the Lady in Lavender. All of them on hand again just gives fans a warm feeling.In the end I'm sure that fans who want to own the complete story of PHANTASM will add this to their shelf. I'm not sure I can say the same. I just didn't enjoy it. It does deserve to be watched at least once though. And sad but true yes, it did leave the potential for yet another sequel. If that happens it needs to happen while the actors are still alive. Angus Scrimm passed away before this was released. And it needs to be under the helm once again of Don Coscarelli.

If PHANTASM: RAVAGER turns out to indeed be The Final Chapter in the saga, so be it: it's a f---ing fantastic finale. The tight focus on Reggie Bannister helps; all too often, Fright Films tend to meander. Reggie as Reggie has always been my favorite character (although I loved the interplay between the two brothers in the first film more than anything else in any of the films) and PHANTASM: RAVAGER has more than its share of poignant moments. The idea that everything that we've seen in all these movies might simply have been the onset of Dementia was particularly powerful; we Fright Film Fans truly LOVE these kinds of movies (especially when they're done as exceptionally well as THIS series has been) and it's sad to see a series come to its inevitable End. I STILL say a PHANTASM teleseries would be a good idea.