5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.2 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
After battling with the Tall Man in Phantasm IV: Oblivion, a battered Reggie wanders through the desert in search of his missing friend, Mike. After recovering his 1971 Hemi 'Cuda, Reggie is targeted by two of the Tall Man's Sentinel Spheres and destroys them. He awakens suddenly to find himself sitting in a wheelchair pushed by none other than the elusive Mike! Although overjoyed by their reunion, Reggie is in this alternate dimension an aged and weary old patient in a psychiatric ward. And only he remembers their battled and bloodied past with the Tall Man. Reggie must travel between dimensions and discern what is reality in order to confront the mysteries at the heart of a decades-long struggle against evil. He is met with new and familiar faces along the way, and an epic showdown on the Tall Man's home world awaits!
Starring: Reggie Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Angus Scrimm, Dawn Cody, Stephen JutrasHorror | 100% |
Sci-Fi | 4% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
There’s an “enough already, 2016” meme trending on several social media sites as this review is being written, a response to a series of bad news including several celebrity deaths (as if this year was “special” in that regard), with Carrie Fisher’s passing seeming to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak. I wonder if any but a handful of horror fans will include the wonderful Angus Scrimm as among those who left us in the last year. Scrimm shuffled off this mortal coil way back in January 2016, which frankly may be far too long ago for our quasi-ADHD attention spans to remember at this point. Scrimm will probably forever be best remembered as The Tall Man from the Phantasm films, but for those interested, I highly recommend doing a bit of research on him, which might include listening to his frequently acerbic snippets on the commentary included on Phantasm or the interview also included on that disc, for it’s instantly apparent that Scrimm was not exactly starstruck by his own celebrity, and that in fact he championed other things he did (like write liner notes for classical recordings, some of which garnered him a Grammy Award) as much as he did his film work. Scrimm’s The Tall Man is back yet again in Phantasm: Ravager for what one expects is the last time (unless The Tall Man’s “explorations” into afterlife realms turn out to be real), but kind of strangely this iconic character is more or less shunted off to the side in what is often a baffling narrative, despite an early “Moishe the Explainer” montage that supposedly knits together various plot points from the previous Phantasm films. Fans of this franchise will probably be willing to overlook the lurching storyline, one which continues to exploit the Phantasm trope of “is this dream or reality?” to a perplexing new level, while newcomers to the franchise may be as lost as Reggie (Reggie Bannister) seems to be (in more ways than one, actually— both temporally and spatially) throughout the film.
Phantasm: Ravager is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Because screeners for this and Phantasm arrived well past street date due to some kind of production delay, and in my attempt to get reviews out as quickly as possible, I wasn't able to listen to all of the Coscarelli and Hartman commentary to see if they actually list the cameras used, but in some of the snippets I did listen to, they mentioned that the film was digitally captured with what they describe as "lightweight" units at one point, though the somewhat heterogeneous look of this presentation makes me wonder if different cameras and in fact capture resolutions might have occurred. A lot of the transfer looks nicely sharp and rather well detailed, especially in close-ups, though there are occasional stability issues (pay attention during the first scene at the institution when a pan over tree leaves shimmers slightly and later when A. Michael Baldwin turns to a profile, it almost looks like the ridge of his nose has stair stepping). Various sequences in various timelines have been graded differently, and perhaps ironically some of the sharpest and best detailed moments occur in the largely desaturated scenes in a hospital "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" (or something like that). CGI isn't especially convincing sometimes, and can look a bit soft. Things also look a bit splotchy in several dark sequences, and the snippets from various previous Phantasm entries show varying levels of sharpness and grain structure.
Phantasm: Ravager's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 has some fun moments of immersion, especially with regard to large pans when things like Reggie's 'Cuda roars through the frame or when the Tall Man's spherical "assistants" start chasing folks. While more subtle than the foregoing elements, ambient environmental sounds often dot the surrounds as well, providing a relatively realistic soundscape in scenes including Reggie traipsing through the desert or even the interstitial scenes with him at the mental institution. Dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly and there are no problems with damage, dropouts or distortion.
Even if no one else (or at least not too many) will remember the passing of Angus Scrimm in 2016, I'll use this review to salute a very distinctive actor and, it seems, a Renaissance man of sorts who commendably had more to interest him than the klieg lights of film fame. As for Phantasm: Ravager, my personal hunch is this is a film made by a fan (Dan Hartman) for fans, and as such it's probably going to appeal mostly to a narrow swath of folks who have stayed with the Phantasm franchise over the course of a rather long time. Newcomers might do best to "start at the very beginning" (a very good place to start, after all) rather than to try to divine what's going on this film, since even diehard fans may have a question or two along the way. Technical merits are generally very strong, and for the initiated if for no one else, Phantasm: Ravager comes Recommended.
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