Phantasm: Ravager (2016)

How sad is this?

Good concept, poorly executed.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I was browsing through the Walmart DVD section and when I found this a while back, I was super excited, since I've been a fan of the franchise. When I first saw this film I was a bit disappointed even though I was still happy to own it as part of the legacy.Upon second viewing, I was able to enjoy it much more. Some people said this is like a fan film, and I think they mean that in a bad way. While I can see some of what they are saying, no fan flick is like this. You have the original actors, the car is here, the weapons are here, the bad guys, inter-dimensional travel, and the spheres. The trademark theme music is here, some people can argue that the mood setting is lacking in this one, and I can agree to that, but that doesn't break it for me. This one may feel lower budget than the other titles in the franchise, but once again that doesn't break it for me. I'm just glad they made it. The time traveling is a bit hard to follow, but instead of analyzing it, just take it as Reggie's mental state imploding and it all leading to his rescue. A little bit like when they rescued Neo from The Matrix. So we know this is a never ending battle between the Tall Man and our heroes. And some of this film takes place in a post apocalyptic future where the Tall Man has taken over the world. You see an invasion. It's very ambitious and the thought is very interesting. Large spheres that resemble a mother ship hovering over skyscrapers and taking them down with a single laser blast! What an image! To me this doesn't mess up the story, it leaves room for more, I really don't have any complaints, I look forward to watching it again and again.

Having seen all the others films in this series, I felt this one was a big disappointment. The acting and effects are good but definitely not the script. Though it was a novelty having an entire cast stay together long enough to make this many movies, and seeing a montage in which they age, this, as the final film in the franchise, went out not with a band nor a whimper, but simply...went. With all the switches from one dimension to another, soon the audience is apt to soon be as confused as Reggie.No explanation was ever given in any of the movies for why all this was happening and it isn't given here, the little speeches of "loyalty" which should really read "friendship" notwithstanding. Although the actors do a credible job, and the special effects are well-done, along with brief glimpses of black humor, the plot is a confusing mess leaving nothing but disappointment in its wake. This movie doesn't tie up any loose threads or offer any explanations. Technically, it's not even a final entry since the story merely stops...with an open ending which could conceivably herald another episode, if the "Tall Man" himself, Angus Scrimm, were going to be around. Once wonder if perhaps since this film was dedicated to his memory, everyone thought it would be too difficult to replace someone fitting that role so aptly.Whatever the reasons, I felt it was time wasted and was left with the feeling the spirit as well as the fright of the original film had long since fled.

SPOILERS!!!!! Stop looking at this series as a literal interpretation of man vs. alien. It is more like yin vs. yang! Stop assuming no questions were answered. It is a metaphorical journey into a person's psyche.Part one deals with a kid experiencing the loss of loved ones (either his brother or his parents, or both, depending on what dream reality you are following). Reggie experienced that loss too.In life we all face our mortality, suffer through fears, and our own human ego / Satan chattering it up with negativity in our heads. As an ongoing battle for enlightenment within your own mind the Phantasm series puts an entertaining experience to that representation. "It's all in your head".If you are confused and complaining about Ravager you are missing the point. The series hit on action, goof ball slap stick comedy, horror, metaphysical and multi-dimensional layers, and vibrations (which is what forms the Universe). The tuning forks is the visual representation... ie: control your vibration and you prevent fear from taking control of your life. Control your mind away from playing tricks on you by inventing up negative stories that are not even true, you find happiness.In Oblivion, Mike found peace in the desert scene after blowing up The Tall Man. He had resisted all his life up to this point and when he finally killed The Tall Man, another one steps out of the dimensional gate, totally deflating any form of celebration. However, this is exactly what was needed... Mike let go... gave up fighting fear and death (The Tall Man is symbolic of those) and that's when IT took the sphere out of Mike's head and left. Mike won. He found peace and no longer was it all eating away at him inside. This is shown by the camera entering his "single eye", it morphing into an eye that is letting a lot of light in by shrinking his pupil, and showing him as a kid with Reggie. Reggie hears negativity... "I'm dying"... while Mike, finally at peace, says "it's only the wind". The fitting ending... to his story. He found his way out of Limbo.Bible Quote... Matthew 6:22 "The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." The spheres attack your third eye... they drill into them. Those who cannot see within... aka... are not in alignment with truth and Spirit, die inside. Their 3rd eye is blocked and they are stuck in the 3rd dimension of the material and death.Ravager is Reggie's story because at the end of Oblivion he kept fighting... by running into the dimensional gateway after the new Tall Man. He didn't find peace. Ravager is the outcome of that choice... a man facing dementia trying to find peace but still fighting it through the alternative reality of what ever happened when he went running through the gate in the desert.There are two endings in Ravager during the end credits. 1... Reggie dies old surrounded by his friends. The other, he remains in a never ending battle with the Tall Man while still wearing the ice cream man uniform from Oblivion. His peace was from being reunited with his friends, which "The Trio" is all he ever wanted to be happy. Both possible realities play out... and it is up to us, as viewers, to accept that all choices are possible depending on how we decide to live our lives. Do you accept fear and hide from it or do you face it, find peace with it, and go live your dreams in peace? For Reggie, facing it means fighting on in one dimension, side-by-side with his buddies, or by letting go and dying surrounded by loved ones in the other because too much time had passed.I love the Phantasm series because I get it... I get the theme, the metaphors, and the Tall Man, for he is watching us all. What / who will you be on your death bed? What regrets will you have? Thank you Phantasm!

PHANTASM: RAVAGER is perhaps the most disappointing and horrifically executed follow-up in a film series since TROLL 2, a declaration I only wish was hyperbolic. It almost single-handedly unravels all the value and merit gathered from the previous installments and it does so with almost neolithic incompetence.While we all knew that RAVAGER was the least-capitalized of the series, it's shocking at how poorly made it is, especially considering what Don Coscarelli was able to do with a comparable budget 37 years earlier. The film has all the production value of a SyFy Channel Asylum monster movie (complete with unprocessed production audio), and with even less narrative cohesion. The script is cringe-inducingly bad, with little-to-no plot or agenda beyond wanting the viewer to question how much of Reggie's reality is real, and the dialogue is almost a parody of bad movies done without irony. The actors, many of whom have had decades of experience under their belt, behave as if they're in their first student film, and every performance looks so horrifically under-rehearsed that it feels like they're reading their lines off of cue cards taped to the other actors' heads.It's also the least consistent with the style of the rest of the series, and the film opens with a recap introduction that was so inept that I thought it was tacked on by an executive producer. And so many stretches of the movie involve the characters wandering around a desert simply to pad time with a free location. To put it another way: I've waited 18 years to see this film and I actually fast-forwarded through certain scenes simply to see if they were going somewhere or to bypass the sheer ineptitude of the filmmaking. That's how bad this film can be. I have seen fan films on YouTube made for pocket change that showed more talent, creativity, and cinematography than this.I suspect that all this may have been done on purpose to ensure that no one would ask for another film (rendered moot since Angus Scrimm has now passed on), as Coscarelli has expressed a desire to move on from PHANTASM films. It would have been better for all if Coscarelli had simply loaned out the film to screenwriters who wanted to take a whack at it instead of wasting decades until he came up with an idea. As it is, we've now lost so many potential sequels and have to suffer the indignity of this entry as its finale. The lack of any talent on display in this film is almost an insult to fans of what was one of the most unique and beloved horror film series of the century.RAVAGER is for completists only, and even then...I pity them for what they have to endure.