Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)

Truly Dreadful Film

Simply Perfect

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good movie but grossly overrated

Maybe I like this one more than II or III ... it's hard to say. On the plus side, it tries to have an atmosphere more like the original film and less like a horror action comedy. On the minus side, it literally makes no sense. Unused footage from the original film was found and dropped into this film as ... well as what? It depicts events that could not have happened given how the original film ultimately came together, so what is this meant to represent? This is really symptomatic of the entire film. Reggie encounters some chick on the road, and stuff happens, but none of her interactions with him really make sense or ultimately amount to anything. It's a bit like all the elements of your typical Phantasm film were dropped in a cup, shook up, and dumped out onto a table and then that was filmed.

Just watched this series of movies for the first time, and was very disappointed at the ending of Oblivion, there was so much promise in the story and characters, even tho it was getting pretty silly. In the end they just "dropped the ball" on everything, so to speak..I strongly recommend these movies to any horror/action movie fan, but its a huge shame the last movie was so.. just overall crappy. In lack of a better way of describing it. All the suspense and mystery was totally gone towards the end, and replaced with confusion and despair, as the movie suffered towards its inevitable credits text, leaving the viewer feeling sad and empty, almost betrayed.I struggled to give this movie a 4 rating.

Not in the least bit thrilling, or scary, or funny, or full of action. Any one of which could make for a decent horror film. I found myself yawning throughout most of it.The last few weeks I've been catching up on the sequels to Phantasm after having just become aware of them. I didn't like II very much for its randomness, and lack of Michael Baldwin. III was entertaining and over-the-top, but even though Michael Baldwin returned, we didn't get to see much of him during that flick.And then we get this one, where we see him a lot. In extreme close-up. And I mean, a LOT. Perhaps they were trying to make up for his lack of screen time in the previous one. Or perhaps because they only had about six characters in the whole movie. MB was a nice-looking kid, but as a thirtysomething adult a few more medium shots might have worked better.The biggest fault of this movie is that it's BORING. Lots of reaction shots, plot points that come out of nowhere, plot points that go nowhere. Literally, the middle of nowhere, which is where Michael spends half the movie. In the desert by himself.Only one or two memorable scenes in the whole movie (notably the motel surprise). I actually enjoyed the flashback sequences more and wish they'd used some more of that rediscovered film, or even worked in the deleted scenes from the first one.

What is nice about Part IV is the history and story telling of The Tall Man and how he originated, awesome! What I absolutely found appalling of Oblivion is taking extra footage from the original Phantasm and exporting those scenes in random parts. The only time I found it fitting was the scene towards the end. Those are the two major points of the movie in my mind, otherwise this is another mediocre type road movie. Its interesting to see how the brothers of Mike and Jody progress from Part 1, 3, 4. The conclusion of the film takes a different approach than the other Phantasm films, but you know its another cliffhanger.