Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

Phantasm: Ravager Blu-ray Movie Review

Is this real life?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 28, 2016

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.

Is anything happening in Phantasm: Ravager “the real thing” (so to speak), or simply the imaginary ramblings of Reggie’s addled mind, a la The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari? That’s a question that Phantasm: Ravager never sufficiently answers, though it’s important to remember that even the first film tended to hedge its bets as to what was “real” and what was a “dream”, as evidenced by the last few seconds of that film, when first one “explanation” and then another follow in rapid succession. The entire Phantasm franchise is built upon the whole disconnect that many of us have experienced where we know we’re dreaming and yet don’t have the power to wake ourselves up. Unfortunately, the same helpless feeling that often attends such experiences may also greet viewers trying to wend their way through a series of vignettes that seem to have little in common other than their gaggle of Phantasm regular characters.

An opening vignette in the desert seems to be picking up story threads from the previous Phantasm entry, Phantasm IV: Oblivion (still not available on Blu-ray as of the writing of this review), with Reggie evidently on the hunt for The Tall Man. He is stumbling through a desert, bloodied and unkempt, and is initially accosted by a guy in a Barracuda before the inevitable appearance of the deadly flying spheres intrudes on the barren environment. The whole Barracuda element is indicative of the piecemeal approach Phantasm: Ravager takes: there’s a showdown with the car’s driver once Reggie realizes that the vehicle is actually his, but with little to no context, the interchange, while amusing, never really amounts to much. When the film then quickly segues to Reggie confined to what appears to be a mental institution, where his old ally Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) is pushing him around in a wheelchair, there seems to be an indication that at least some of what is happening is taking place entirely within Reggie’s confused imagination.

As Don Coscarelli and director David Hartman discuss in the commentary included on this disc, Phantasm: Ravager had a rather protracted production history, with a small crew (five people for some shots) doing what initially were “camera tests” (in the words of Hartman and Coscarelli), with the suggestion being there may not have been a cohesive screenplay to work from, at least in the early going. That gives the film an unavoidably chaotic feeling, with characters just kind of showing up and then disappearing again, and with little if any cogent through line to make things “understandable”, this despite not just that aforementioned montage but a later “Moishe the Explainer” segment that attempts to at least dot a couple of i’s and cross a couple of t’s. The film will no doubt be greeted with open arms by longtime Phantasm fans who will delight in meeting up again with various characters from the previous films, while enjoying the ongoing skirmishes between Reggie and Mike (and various hangers on) and The Tall Man and his nefarious spheres. Does it ultimately make any sense? Probably not, but that’s kind of how dreams are, aren’t they?

Phantasm: Ravager Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Phantasm: Ravager Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Behind the Scenes (1080p; 5:24) is a standard issue EPK, but does offer some good interviews.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 3:47, 2:24, 1:42) also includes some explicatory text. These are in rough cut form, with an overlay and timecode from the production house.


• Phantasm: Bloopers and Outtakes (1080p; 8:40)


• Trailer (1080p; 1:46)


• Audio Commentary features Don Coscarelli and David Hartman.

Phantasm: Ravager Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.