 "Reggie and his super ponytail are back for roud 4 with the Tall Man" | 2009-10-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3UA046AA3DXFD |
Now that Sid's been on the horror movie kick for October it was only fitting that we finally complete the Phantasm series. Which mind you has just been getting better and better. Well maybe not better in storyline but better in the B factor, which is a huge must for us. With a fourth installment it's still so evident there is no stopping the Tall Man. This son of a b***h is ice cold. Never using a knife, machete, chainsaw, or any other slasher device the Tall Man is able to tear anyone apart simply with mind control and silver orbs. This guy is certainly something out of a nightmare and someone Sid would never want to cross paths with.
Phantasm IV picks up where the III left off as Mike, who's looking a bit older, is cruising around in the Tall Man's hearse while Reggie is being held by a bunch of the silver orbs. For some reason the Tall Man lets Reggie go while Mike continues on some bizarre spiritual journey packed with flashbacks. As the film moves forward Reggie (Clint Howard stunt double) proves to be the star of the show as always. The combination of hilariously awful one liners, bald head with mullet style ponytail, and newly found Predator style gun makes Reggie a man whose certain to pick up a Woody Award this year. As the film rolls on there is a lot of the same style action with dwarfs and silver obs with more flashbacks, and another great situation as Reggie tries to score failing miserably. Finally once Reggie and Mike team back up toward the end they come to discover that not even the sweetest hearse explosion can eliminate the Tall Man. It appears he will be an unstoppable force, much like Chuck Norris, for eternity.
So needless to say Phantasm IV is a 5 can event as far as Sid's concerned. No it isn't the best in the series, but it's still the Tall Man. Even though each film has almost the exact same premise you just have to love them for what they are. It's the vintage 90's style b horror we have come to love. In addition to being packed with laughs and enjoyment it also takes us back to that time in life when everything was simply the best. It just reminds Sid of those great nights hanging with Santa watching movies and eating way too much. A film like this should always be done on a crisp fall evening, with a couple windows opened, and 3 great buddies. So on that note this could only be close out one way, with the Drive-In Totals:
7 zombie dwarfs shot dead Reggie style
39 brain drilling silver orbs
orb drilled through Reggie's hand
zombie cop from hell
2 explosions, 1 in attempt to kill Tall Man
9 Reggie-tough one liners
Proof that the Tall Man cannot be killed, so when will #5 happen?
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| "Everything it should be and more" | 2009-09-23 |
| - Reviewed By gregh432 |
PHANTASM IV may actually be my favorite film in the series. It deserves a great DVD release and it gets one from Anchor Bay. While the quality of the anamorphic transfer and 5.1 soundmix seems identical to the previous MGM edition, the treasure here lies in the extras that are included on this DVD. There is a highly informative commentary track from Don Coscarelli, Reggie Banister and Angus Scrimm. There are trailers for the first and third films as well as a great promo trailer for part 4 (vastly different from the "trailer" included on the MGM version).
There is some great behind the scenes footage that shows how sphere effects were accomplished as well as Bob Ivy's amazing fire stunts. The new cover art for this release is probably my favorite cover art for any edition of any PHANTASM film and a card reproducing it is included inside the case with chapter titles printed on the reverse. This film is such an amazing and appropriate conclusion to this epic story and Anchor Bay has given it a very satisfying release on DVD. It's a huge improvment over the previous edition and certainly worth adding to your collection. |
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| "outsanding" | 2009-03-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: AB9EWO8ESOSJC |
| hay amizon i like the forth fantasm then i did the third i thout it had alittle more action in it |
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| "A Complex, Compassionate, Perfect End to a Perfect Saga" | 2008-11-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1JMKS7U9TKXZR |
**SPOILERS**
Phantasm IV just might be my favorite film of all time, and I'd like to explain why I adore it so much and feel that, in every sense, it IS a fitting end to the series, and that it leaves NO questions unanswered.
This series has always been a riddle, always an enigma, and the answers are as difficult to see when they're right in front of you as perhaps the destination of one of the Tall Man's dimensional forks.
I'm sure everyone has a theory of what was meant or implied by a lot of the events of Phantasm IV, and here's my personal take that I strongly believe in, so much so that when I watch part IV, it brings tears to my eyes, every time, without fail.
A lot of people get confused by the "contradictory" flashback scenes that depict different events than what happened in the original Phantasm.
Think about this...it IS true that the ending of Phantasm reveals that everything was just a bad dream, and that Jody died in a car wreck. But poor confused little Michael claims that everything felt so real...
Ten years later, his dream is proven a reality because the Tall Man is back, desecrating every town he travels through-he also kills Reggie's family. Reggie then believes Michael and the two team up and the rest of the series plays out rather linearly.
But...then how could everything have been a dream, if it all proved true? What....REALLY happened?
In part IV, Michael is not only beginning to understand everything about the Tall Man's origins, but about the CORRECT origins to his own connection to it all. It WAS a dream, but something ELSE happened. All the flashback footage we are shown in part IV finally reveals what REALLY happened when Michael first encountered the Tall Man. Everything else we saw in the original was either one of many parallel universes we've witnessed in the series, or merely a dream caused by the Tall Man affecting Michael's perception of reality.
So....Jody DID die in a car wreck, but we never LIVED that reality. It's this disconnection and robbery of Michael's memory of his brother that makes this series so effective in it's sense of loneliness and emotional loss.
Also, I believe that the girl from Phantasm II that Michael has a telepathic connection to is a result of this. She looks extremely similar to the granddaughter of the psychic from the original, and I believe, that if everything from part I WAS a dream, then he knew that girl from a separate dimension of reality, the reality we never knew, that is, until we saw glimpses of it in part IV.
The ending of part IV brings tears to my eyes. Reggie tears through the fabric of time, to journey back to where his personal journey with Mike began. Sitting together in the ice cream truck, they truly have traveled back in time, where they can relive the battle, only this time, armed with something more powerful than a four-barreled shotgun....knowledge.
They will continue this battle, most likely forever. Yet every time they come back to where they started, they will have learned more every time.
It is for this reason that I do not wish for a Phantasm V, no matter how much I adore this "phranchise". I have never held so much love and compassion for a series of films or a cast of characters as much as what I've seen in the Phantasm saga. I would love another journey with them, but, in my heart, I know that Reggie and Mike are still out there, traveling across endless dimensions, fighting the Tall Man for all eternity. They are the Yin and Yang, the Life and Death, of Space and Time. For one to give in to, or to destroy the other, would probably unravel the very fabric of all reality. Let's hope their fight never ends.
Thank you, Don, for giving us the most endearing, complex, and compassionate horror film saga that has ever been created. I will cherish these films until the day I die.
Your undying Phan,
Justin Warren |
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| "Hopefully not the last!" | 2008-10-28 |
| - Reviewed By User: AY7P6ZH8BCEPD |
| Though I get the impression that this is the last of the Phantasm movies, I really hope that after meeting and talking with A. Michael Baldwin (who informed me that there are talks about a new movie in the works)that this isn't the case. Of course Angus Scrimm isn't getting any younger. Nobody wants to see The Tall Man chasing after Mikey and Reg in a wheelchair! If you are a fan of the series then you will get a kick out of the flashback sequences which used extra footage shot for the first film. If you have never seen the rest of the series I think you will be lost and not inclined to give this any stars except maybe one. So watch at your own risk and keep an eye out for flying spheres! They're murder! |
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| "An excellent end to my favorite horror series" | 2008-09-15 |
| - Reviewed By napalm29 |
This is one of my favorite Phantasm's. It brings back the original actors in their original roles. It fell more into the realm of the first Phantasm with its hard to comprehend qualities. The more you watch it the more you come to understand.
I believe that some people will not like this movie, for the same reason some didn't like the first one. It has a surreal quality that film goers don't like these days. They prefer a movie that spells it out for you and lays it all up front. They lack imagination and expect the film maker to give them one. I'm all for this when I'm in the mood for some brainless fun. However that's not what you get here. If you find this movie confusing its because you haven't actually seen it. Watch it again until you figure it out. If you've made it all the way to OblIVion then I know you're already a Phan. Pay close attention to the end and it will become clear where the story went. It will make more sense as to why the film appears to be so disjointed. Like a dream perhaps? Read further and I'll try to explain.
SPOILERS!!!!
For those of you who were clueless about the end of the film and hate it for that reason here are my thoughts on Phantasm IV.
The whole Phantasm series was a dream in young Mikes head. Jody was killed in a car accident (dead from the very start of the series much like young Mikes parents) and Reggie was taking care of young Mike now that his whole family was deceased. When Mike and Reggie are in the Ice Cream truck together driving away at the end of Phantasm IV and you hear adult Mike say "I'm dying" and Reggie asks Mike "Did you hear something?" Mikes response was "It's just the wind. Only the wind". At this point Mike (young Mike) had given up his dream world and accepted the fact that Jody and his parents were dead and were never coming back and in this fact killing the adult dream Mike who never really existed in the first place. I think even "adult" Mike had an idea of what was truly going on and chose to end it.
Quote:
The Tall Man: "Ice cream man, it's all in his head."
Who knows if Tommy was killed by the lady in lavender in the graveyard or if he was in the car accident with Jody? It doesn't really matter if Tommy even existed at all or if he was just another creation in Mikes dream world. There were many characters introduced throughout the series that came and went without any real purpose. The only two that stuck it out from the beginning to the end were Reggie and Mike. This was due to the fact that they were the only "real" characters from the very beginning. Maybe Tommy was a creation to help Mike deal with Jody's funeral.
Go back and watch all 4 films from the very beginning and pay close attention to the things that happened that didn't really happen. Mikes encounters with the Tallman, Alchemy (Samantha Phillips) lying on the embalming table only to disappear when Mike turns around. Mike and Liz (Paula Irvine) being able to communicate with their minds. The endings to the first 3 films. Everything that happens in the 4 Phantasm films are hints that it's all just a dream. Even now I can hear The Tallman say "No, it's not!".
All the Tall Man was is an undertaker who young Mike thought of as taking away his family (which made him the antagonist in Mikes dreams), but really was just a creepy old undertaker. Perhaps just the sweet old man who offers Mike lemonade in his inter dimensional time trip.
End Spoilers:
I believe this was Coscarelli's intention all along and so many people complained that it was too vague or they just didn't understand it at all. It was after the complaints that talks for a fifth film began. After all, since when do artists ever feel the need to explain their vision. Either you get it or you don't.
In earlier interviews he said that Oblivion would be the 4th and final Phantasm, and that he intended to have a surprise ending that wrapped up the whole story. I feel that's exactly what we got, all that time to find out that Mike was still just a little boy with a dead family and none of it ever really happened. It was so surreal and I love it! I think it was an excellent end to an amazing trip.
Notice the use of dreamlike sequences throughout the whole series. Even the ones tossed out of Phantasm II by the studios.
There were some rumors about a possible Phantasm V after the remake trilogy fell apart (thank the gods of horror). However Don Coscarelli hasn't mentioned it in any of his recent interviews. When questioned about Phantasm V Angus Scrimm's exact words were "Don't hold your breath!". Not to mention the fact the guy is 82 years old. At Louisville's Fright Night Film Festival Mike Baldwin, Reggie Banister and Angus Scrimm all stated they weren't interested in a remake of any sorts.
I don't think Don Coscarelli's heart is really in making a 5th film in the series. Considering that his original concept of Phantasm IV was closure.
I could be TOTALLY OFF on this. However I like to think I'm on target. Since I don't see another film in the near future and definitely not with Mr. Scrimm who makes Phantasm what it is. I choose to let it end here and most certainly don't want to see my favorite series get the same treatment as the most recent Crow and Highlander installments.
For those of you still waiting on Phantasm II on DVD if you have a region free DVD player you can get the complete set via Region 2. The copies contained in the set are the exact re-released DVD's of Phan 1,3 and 4 plus you get a really cool bonus disc. So I'm pretty sure that if we ever get a Region 1 release of Phantasm II it will just be the same version issued on Region 2.
If you don't have a region free DVD player it's real simple to make 90% of current DVD Players region free. No hardware modifications. |
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