OctoBOOOOOOY: Phantasm: Ravager (2016)

And so we come to it at last - nearly forty years after the original movie's release, Don Coscarelli and co reunited, shortly before the death of Angus Scrimm, to deliver one last Phantasm movie.

True to the series, it's a finale that's shaggy, vague, and low budget but still manages to be emotionally satisfying.

It's worth knowing at the outset, this almost wasn't a movie. I don't mean this in the sense that it almost wasn't made, rather that it started life as a sidestory web series about what happened to Reggie after hopping through the space gate at the end of Oblivion.

Which partly explains the production values on this movie – I'm still trying to find a solid budget number to see if this cost more or less than Oblivion, but it doesn't take a discerning eye to see this movie was made cheap.

I can't hold that entirely against the film. Given its origins, it's fitting to go back to a shoestring budget for the end. Unfortunately, once again, this doesn't have the first movie's creative flair for working around its financial restraints. The lethal silver spheres, once the crown jewel of this series' visual effects, are now rendered in jarring CGI. Also hurt by this are some of the larger scale ideas this movie incorporates from Roger Avary's unmade script - including an invasion by the Tall Man and a sequence set on his homeworld - that feel like they could have been something spectacular with some real funding behind them.

It turns out we had all completely misread what the
'War on Christmas' really was.

The story, like the effects, is admirable in its ambition, if not always its execution. Faced with the challenge of going from the last cliffhanger, which left Mike dying and Reggie going off into cosmic parts unknown, new director David Hartman (with Coscarelli on hand in a supporting role) goes back to the dreamlike weirdness of the first movie. What this leads to is curious and more than a bit messy, as the movie focuses exclusively on Reggie, now slipping through various different realities with seemingly no control over when he shifts or what happens when he gets there.

This is probably one of the most interesting ideas this movie offers, and even though it doesn't feel like all the threads are resolved, I can't help but commend Hartman and Coscarelli for taking the risk. It's one of the things I've always liked about this franchise – to the end, it was never content to just repeat itself without trying something different, even when that didn't always work.

As I've joked to many people, I still feel the more appropriate
subtitle for this movie would have been Crisis on Infinite
Reggies.

The place where this movie is its strongest is the cast. The leads have been playing their parts for several decades now, and that familiarity shows through in this at its best moments. The last act especially is helped by that feeling - as the different realities all, to one degree or another, play to a theme of loyalty and family. As a result, those long established bonds shine through and give these scenes real weight that offsets the other shortcomings of budget and script. 

If I had to cite a particular cast member as the MVP for this, however, it's Scrimm. Listening to interviews, it sounds like he knew this would be his last time playing the Tall Man, and he subsequently delivers his best work with the character since the original. From his initial appearance in 1979, his villainous character has grown into his 'skin', and concludes here with a performance that exudes a confident, almost sinister playfulness.

It may be a bit of a cheap get, but as a fan, this movie got extra love
from me for getting to hear Scrimm's "BOOOOOOOOOOOY!"
one more time. 

In looking at reactions to this, I've heard people compare it to a fan film. Often, it's said as a detriment, and referring to the low budget production that reflects its origin as a web series. It can also be seen as a plus, however, for the fact that, despite the cheap trappings, it's clear this movie was a labor of love for the people making it. The ending especially - which I could write a separate spoiler-ridden piece in defense of on its own - while setting up a seemingly unbeatable scenario for the Tall Man's menace, still finds rewarding emotional closure in completing the personal journeys of its three heroes instead. 

While Coscarelli has said he's thought of potentially doing more with the Phantasm world, as far as he's concerned, this is the last ride for Mike, Reggie, Jodie, and the Tall Man. In that regard, it's not a perfect note for them to bow out on, but it's a fitting one. Just as the series started with a low budget, a production team that were almost like family, and a strange story of a team of friends against a cosmic evil, so too does it all end.

I'm not too proud to admit it - for as cheap as this scene looks played out,
as a character moment goes, I got a bit misty.
...what can I say? I have a history with this franchise.

As a final chapter, this is - more than any other in the series - a case of 'your mileage may vary'. In some regards, it's cheaply made, the story's ambitious but sometimes misfired, and the knowledge that this will be the last we see of this cast may leave some frustrated and disappointed. For others, the chance to see some essence of the movie that never was and this last chance to see the team reunite for one last time may be satisfying enough to offset the disappointment caused by the movie's bare bones creation.

In any event, it's been a Hell of a ride, seeing how this series changed and evolved over the thirty-seven years since its first installment, then envisioned as a standalone. For those still with us (and rest in peace, Mr. Scrimm), I hope for the best in their future endeavors, and congratulate them on finishing the series, warts and all.

All in all, this was a different sort of project for Halloween...and while this series was a bit of a daunting first pick, I'm still glad to have seen it through for personal reasons.

Speaking of Coscarelli's not quite fully closing the door -
I'd totally be down for seeing a Rocky spinoff based on
that epilogue if Gloria Lynne Henry is interested.

Now comes the trick of picking which series to use next year.

...and the other eleven months between, of course.