Watch Phantasm: Ravager For Free

Really Surprised!

Better than most people think

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

With his friend still enslaved, the lone hunter still left trying to fight off the Tall Man finds that the quest to stop him is complicated by a deteriorating mental condition and forces him into a desperate last-ditch effort to stop the fiendish being from unleashing his true plans.This was quite the fun if slightly flawed ending to the franchise. What it manages to get right include a lot of the elements that managed to be worthwhile in the other efforts, which starts with the fine action scenes. This one really offers quite a lot to like here in that regard which starts from the very beginning as the opening escape from the balls in the desert is a solid chase sequence, the later ambush at the hitchhiker's mountainside lodge home offers some rather strong stalking and gun-play alongside one of the most vicious animal attacks in the genre and the big attack in the old-age funeral home where they utilize several impressive foes to try to stop him. The series of escape attempts in the different dimensions further this with some stellar ideas that include some ravenous confrontations with the deformed minions, full-on apocalyptic battles that include numerous big battles within the destroyed ruins and plenty of ferocious gun-play that gives this some strong and thrilling moments. As well, the fact that this one manages to really bring the series around full-stop with the inclusion of the final stand against the invading army which is carried out in several different dimensions gives this a fine bit of finality to it all. With this one going back-and-forth in the timelines not only featuring the main storyline of fighting off the Tall Man and his spheres but also the future with the rest-home sequences and the events in the past coming into fruition through a pretty ingenious storyline that wraps it all together. Once it starts in on the concept of being unable to determine the different realities from each other and traveling through each of the different dimensions including the post-apocalyptic version of the future that features their final manipulations to stop the invasion. As well as the strong gore on display, these here manage to hold this one up over it's few minor but still detrimental flaws. The biggest detriment to this one is the rather obvious and cringe-worthy CGI that is continually employed here, making itself be known obviously with the use of the Silver Spheres floating through the area as well as for the backgrounds in the hellfire-drenched apocalyptic communities that are prominent in the final half. It's distracting and really downplays the scope of the scene. The other big issue is the rabid quick-cutting that occurs during many of the action scenes, effectively moving to a new scene rather abruptly right at the point where the action is getting going and tends to make for quite jarring interruptions to the flow of the story. These issues here are what hold it down.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

This is better than the last one, which I recall only as being the very worst kind of sequel: The kind where new scenes of lame, yakkety filler simply serve to pad out lazy over-use of excerpts from the prior films as "flashbacks." This movie doesn't seem so impoverished, but it's suspense less and conceptually wheel-spinning, with people "waking up" from one reality to another with tedious repetitiveness. The "dream logic" has turned into rote shtick. If you hadn't seen prior entries in the series (at least the first one or two), this film would have no value whatsoever, as it's entirely self-referential. Which isn't the worst thing to be, but you should bring more original ideas or narrative invention to the completion of a long series, even as you reprise its familiar motifs. More extensive and better CGI effects attest to the fact that they at least tried to go out with a home run here, but "Ravager" is more of a bunt.

Looking at some of the reviews of the film on IMDb it's obvious this film is like Marmite you either like it out loath it, there's no middle ground. I'm so glad to say I'm in the "like it" bleachers. For me, when I watch a Phantasm movie I get a silly smile on my face and feel instantly at home, this instalment was no exception - A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL INVOLVED - your hard work is appreciated.The thing with Phantasm way back in 1979 it was exactly the same way and a lot of people just didn't "Get It". This is the majorly brilliant thing about the film and the series... you're not meant to get it... you're meant to reach out and just about grasp it... only for it to change and slip away from your grasp at the last second.I noticed a few reviews were complaining that there was no real resolve... this is one of those stories where there will never be a resolution. As the Tall Man says in the film, there are hundreds of thousands of him in hundreds of thousands of different dimensions. This means that there's also hundreds of thousands of Reggie, Mike and Jody. This is alluded to in the Dawn/Jane character and when Mike visits Reggie in the hospital and tries to describe the theory behind dimension hopping. So Reggie's dreams aren't really dreams at all. Then when you enter the Chaos Theory into the mix then every dimension should have a different outcome and conclusion to another. To get this film to a conclusion would mean killing all the Tall Men, which is an impossibility and because of the limitations our heroes have it would've been a slap in the face if they had reached a conclusion. However, the duel ending tells the viewer that no matter what happens and what you may face you have to fight - the future is in your hands.Though Don Coscarelli has handed the Director's chair over to David Hartman there is an air of the original film throughout this one. Hartman is also quite brilliant when it comes to segues as he effortlessly and easily slides from one reality to another. The major drawback and flaw to the movie are that it's filmed on digital media - I hate digital film as it can sometimes feel soulless and there are sections in this movie that have that feel and it is a digital rendition issue rather than directorial one; since it's visual you can literally see it.Yes, the special effects aren't on par with bigger budget films and I do wish Hartman had used wet-effects for the body and head explosions as they will always look more realistic, especially with the blood splatter and misting, than CGI.However, these are only small issues as they don't really disturb the viewer's enjoyment (if you're in that group) too much.If you've watched the series then you may enjoy this... or you may not. Though if you've not seen any of the series then fo yourself a favour and get the original movie and if you enjoy that then continue through the series.

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.