Phantasm 5: Ravager (2016)

Director: David Hartman

Starring: A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Dawn Cody, Angus Scrimm

Reggie teams up with a boy and a young woman to rescue Mike from the Tall Man.

Its been 18 years since ‘Phantasm 4’. Reggie Bannister returns once again as Reggie, A. Michael Baldwin as Mike, and Angus Scrimm in his final performance as The Tall Man (sadly he passed away before the release of the film, at the age of 89).

Once again, Reggie’s narration in the opening scene explains more than the film series did. As it turns out, The Tall Man was a scientist in his past life. He crossed the threshold to a red world (hell, I suppose), and came back changed.

Reggie is womanizing again! This time the damsel in distress he lends a helping hand to, is Dawn. But women and Reggie doesn’t go that well together; yeah we’ve seen this since the first installment. Poor horny Reggie… But Reggie’s character takes a completely different turn in this installment. He is suffering from dementia and at a care facility. Mike is trying to help Reggie, and seemingly doesn’t know anything about the Tall Man. He believes the story Reggie is telling (what happened in the previous films) is Reggie’s mind going, and him imagining things. Oh, wait, there’s more…!

This film’s narration is all over the place, making it a difficult film to follow or understand. The one moment Reggie is in pursuit of the Tall Man and fighting evil dwarves and killer spheres, and the next the film jolts back to an aged Reggie at the care centre – just as things got interesting. The film continuously jumps back and forth and as a result, there never was any suspense. They also explore far too many different scenarios. So much so that I eventually completely lost interest in the story – and the film altogether. The spheres were back to being menacing again as they were in the first two films, but this film has so many issues that even the spheres are no longer scary.

Having entered the age of CGI, practical effects made way for CGI – only the CGI is cheap and looks awful! ‘Ravager’ doesn’t feel like it belongs to the rest of the series. It also unnecessarily complicates everything. I can now safely say I enjoyed ‘Phantasm 2’ the most – by far!

For the first time, the series has a new director, and in all honesty the film is a complete mess! It would have been better to end the series with ‘Phantasm 4’. Please, don’t let there be any more!!

Would I watch it again? Needless to say, no.