I\u2019ve only seen this twice.\u00a0 I remember feeling depressed after seeing it the first time.\u00a0 This is the finale of the Phantasm franchise.\u00a0 It is possibly the weirdest of the bunch, in my opinion, which says a lot.\u00a0 Angus Scrimm, the Tall Man, got to see this shortly before he died.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have much else to say. This is the shortest of the films under 85 minutes.\u00a0 It has a 4.9 IMDB rating.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see how it goes.\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to eat lunch while watching, so my notes could be a bit sparse.\u00a0 I have a ham and salami sandwich with a cup of spicy chicken ramen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Start Film<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reggie is walking out of the desert in his ice cream man outfit, carrying the gun. He looks a bit older. We get a different take on the song, but it sounds great. He could use a rocket pop right about now. Hahaha. True story, since I last watched this film, I have had the words ROCKET POP written on my refrigerator\u2019s whiteboard. Fun fact. Reggie gives us the voiceover with the full story up to this point. This is a really well-done opening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Visually, this just looks so much better than any of the films since the first film.\u00a0 Reggie is walking the road, and some asshole comes up behind in the Barracuda and is a dick.\u00a0 This guy demands $50 for giving Reggie a ride.\u00a0 What a dick.\u00a0 Reggie compliments this guy\u2019s jacket and car and then pulls out his gun from the glove compartment. He then kicks the guy out and strips him down to his banana hammock.\u00a0 And here comes two spheres. One gets the guy in the back of the head.\u00a0 The pavement must have been so hot to lay on.\u00a0 Ugh.\u00a0 Sphere Two is chasing Reg, and we get the orchestral version of the song. A different sphere flies in, and it\u2019s like when a bee flies into your car.\u00a0 Very irksome.\u00a0 I have never shot a bee with a gun though.\u00a0 One of life\u2019s many regrets.\u00a0 Reggie turns around and drives over the asshole in the road.\u00a0 He gets out and shoots the last sphere.\u00a0 Now he can drive peacefully.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, we have Mike looking good with some longer hair and glasses.\u00a0 Reggie is in a wheelchair in a robe.\u00a0 He appears to be at some facility.\u00a0 Reg says that this isn\u2019t right, it\u2019s complicated, like a relationship status on Facebook.\u00a0 Apparently, Reggie has been diagnosed with Dementia, early onset.\u00a0 The doctor told Mike to keep Reggie\u2019s mind active so he asks for him to tell the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reggie goes back to where he was after shooting the sphere. He comes across this girl named Dawn. She is very pretty, and Reggie gets to go out in style. He\u2019s gonna give Dawn a ride. He is scoping her out from the mirror, looking for any peculiarities or if she has a sweet ass. She has a home nearby. Different architecture design this time. Dawn\u2019s parents were Bulgarian and she has a farmhand that lives there named Demeter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reg is playing the guitar by the fire, as is tradition.\u00a0 He has told her the Tall Man story.\u00a0 She thinks it\u2019s a hell of a story.\u00a0 Reggie is gonna write her a song tonight instead of trying to nail her.\u00a0 And she does have a nice butt.\u00a0 While singing the song, he can\u2019t remember her name.\u00a0 Poor dude.\u00a0 She comes down, possibly to allow him to sleep in her bed, but he has passed out.\u00a0 He gets a sweet afghan to cover up, at least.\u00a0 Tell Man and Sentinal are outside.\u00a0 The sentinel looks on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back at the home where Reggie is, present time, and the man in the other bed is the Tall Man.\u00a0 He looks rough.\u00a0 Angus is amazing.\u00a0 It\u2019s Jebediah, he\u2019s been there since the dawn of time.\u00a0 He asks what brings Reggie to this God-forsaken place.\u00a0 Reg says that he\u2019s searching for friends.\u00a0 Jeb says that his body is close to death.\u00a0 Then Jeb kinda goes evil, he tells Reg he\u2019ll never be safe, and he\u2019s always watching him, Lavender girl from the original is under Jeb\u2019s bed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now back to Dawn\u2019s. Reg remembers her name. Reg wants to stay there for a few days. He hears some noise upstairs where her bedroom is. We hear metal whirring, and there\u2019s a sentinel in her head. Now it goes after Reg. Time to get the hell outta there. He\u2019s got new weapons. A machete, nunchucks, newer guns, so they are still manufacturing new guns in this story. The most interesting aspect is that Reg has a vest on, presumably a bulletproof vest. He hides in the barn and there\u2019s Demeter the farmhand. He wants Reg out of there. The sentinel takes out a horse. That was a bit graphic. The sentinel wants in. Demeter opens the door and goes after him. Reg picks up his handgun. Demeter swats the sphere at Reggie, it bounces off of his gun and right into Demeter\u2019s throat. Reg, give him a mercy shot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike wakes up Reg, he starts drifting off mid-story.\u00a0 Mike talks to Reg about theories about being in 2 places at once, parallel dimensions, and membrane theory.\u00a0 Mike seems to have not experienced this stuff.\u00a0 Reg is getting pissed that nobody remembers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back to Reg who is now out in the woods in his story.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure why we\u2019re getting the story if Reg isn\u2019t telling the story. They need a Forrest Gump or Big Fish angle here.\u00a0 In the sky, Reg sees a giant sphere, and behind him is a portal.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He wakes up in the present with Mike. Reg really misses his 4 barrel. He was talking to Mike, but Mike isn\u2019t there now. Oh boy. Reg gets up and walks around. He is still the most comfortably dressed character. He finds a portal in the yard. He is unsure about touching the cylinders, just as he didn\u2019t in the flashback. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In flashback, he is in a very white area, all white, and there is the Tall man, just standing there staring into nothing.\u00a0 He turns and sees Reg.\u00a0 He has a familiar look and says that their paths cross again.\u00a0 Reg asks where this is, but it\u2019s when, not where.\u00a0 They are back in 1979, right before the funeral that started everything.\u00a0 Tall Man explains that Reggie\u2019s family didn\u2019t die, they just came to him.\u00a0 He can return Reggie\u2019s family if Reggie will agree to a deal.\u00a0 He just asks Reggie to stay out of his way.\u00a0 Reggie wants Mike to be safe, but Tall Man says that Mike is his always.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reggie goes through a portal to a mausoleum.\u00a0 There is a creature or Jawa somewhere inside.\u00a0 The girl in lavender walks behind Reg but does nothing.\u00a0 Reg is very jumpy.\u00a0 He finally sees her.\u00a0 She looks great for her age, especially.\u00a0 Good for her!!\u00a0 They do remind us that she did stab Reggie in the belly, and then she shrieks and Reg shoots her.\u00a0 She has both honey mustard and red blood coming out.\u00a0 I wonder why.\u00a0 There is an opening to a cavern in front of him, it\u2019s a special feature of the mausoleum, I guess.\u00a0 Jebediah paid extra for that feature.\u00a0 The Jawas are in this cavern.\u00a0 One gets shots.\u00a0 The room caves in, kinda, and disintegrates, and now he is on a floating rock with Tall Man.\u00a0 Tall Man asks if Reg will accept his offer.\u00a0 Reg tries shooting him, but it doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 Reg insists on walking away with Jody and Mike.\u00a0 The Tall Man really is irritated, so now he talks down to Reg, with an eye-opening speech.\u00a0 The Tall Man says that Reg isn\u2019t even real, he\u2019s the Tall Man\u2019s bad dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reg wakes up in a medical room strapped down, I see spheres, electricity, and a dead body next to him, and it looks like he is in shock therapy.\u00a0 A Jawa enters.\u00a0 A small person enters, not a Jawa, and cuts Reggie free.\u00a0 There\u2019s an adult with the short person.\u00a0 Okay, it really is a little person, and the adult is Dawn.\u00a0 Nope, her name is Jane.\u00a0 She radios that Reg is clearly delusional.\u00a0 Reg sings the song, hahahaha.\u00a0 He\u2019s so f\u2019n entertaining.\u00a0 She has no recollection of any dealings with him.\u00a0 Reg has been here for some time.\u00a0 They are gonna bring him to a shelter to get food and medical attention.\u00a0 The metal things were 2 tiny metal cylinders.\u00a0 The little guy is named Chunk, so that\u2019s what we\u2019re going with.\u00a0 Chunk talks about how the device was used to extract info and memories.\u00a0 Chunk also dealt with it.\u00a0 It was a tactic that Tall Man used.\u00a0 Jane is down one way at a hallway intersection.\u00a0 Chunk goes another, Reg is supposed to stay put, so he goes down the last option.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike finds a charred corpse, and then is assaulted by a Jawa.\u00a0 Chunk shoots the Jawa dead.\u00a0 \u201cI hate these little mother fuckers\u201d says the 3-foot-tall man.\u00a0 I appreciate the line.\u00a0 Reg asks for a gun, and now Reg is spouting off lines like he\u2019s Arnold.\u00a0 Some other people show up in the hallway, and the leader is Mike.\u00a0 According to Mike, Reg has been on ice for a decade since they blew up the Tall Man in the desert.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s time to get the hell outta there.\u00a0 There\u2019s like a group of maybe 8 people all armed and with flashlights.\u00a0 Reggie says it feels nice to be back home, but Mike says it isn\u2019t really their home anymore, it\u2019s the Tall Man\u2019s.\u00a0 They open the door and it\u2019s red, fiery, spheres in the guy, men on the ground with guns and we return to the hospital room with Reg in a bathrobe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He walks out into the hallway and it is empty, but the lights are on. There\u2019s an old dude walking. He looks at Reg. A nurse tells Reg that they need to get him back in his room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reg then flashbacks to being grabbed by a masked guy who is reanimated.\u00a0 Mike shoots him.\u00a0 Reg goes with Mike and Chunk.\u00a0 That\u2019s a good group.\u00a0 Reg gets brought into a room.\u00a0 Here comes a red spiky sphere.\u00a0 It blows up a guy\u2019s head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reg wakes up in his hospital bed.\u00a0 The nurse checks in on him, and Mike is here to visit.\u00a0 Reg tells Mike that he keeps slipping in and out of time.\u00a0 Mike says that he dreamed of blowing up the Tall Man with a hearse.\u00a0 Mike describes his dream and how he went looking through the desert searching for Reg.\u00a0 Mike says that in the dream, he can still feel the connection to him.\u00a0 He sews up the hole in his head.\u00a0 Mike searched for Reg but there was a full-blown invasion attack.\u00a0 Heads were expanding and exploding.\u00a0 Oh, this is Mike telling the story in the War Zone timeline.\u00a0 Reg says that he is done and wants out of there.\u00a0 He steps out into the hall where we see a red spiky ball.\u00a0 The Tall Man and a Jawa approach.\u00a0 He also has 5 reanimated fucks with him.\u00a0 Mike fires an RPG at Tall Man, and back to the hospital room.\u00a0 Fucking A, this isn\u2019t a fun blog to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mike is there to visit. He tells Reg that they have to leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now Reg is leaving with Mike in War Time, Chunk went after Jane.\u00a0 Reg says that he knows this is a trap, but they go through the portal to the red world again.\u00a0 There are giant sentinels in the sky.\u00a0 Tall Man has Jane hostage.\u00a0 Tall Man tells Mike that business isn\u2019t finished.\u00a0 The Tall Man reveals that there are tens of thousands of him in other dimensions.\u00a0 Every Tall Man deserves amusement.\u00a0 Chunk is dressed as a Jawa, but I don\u2019t think he is one.\u00a0 The golden sphere crosses the canyon, and Mike\u2019s eyes go metallic.\u00a0 Jane gets her neck twisted.\u00a0 Chunk starts massacring Jawas.\u00a0 Jane has had a bad run.\u00a0 Chunk refers to the Tall Man as \u201cTiny\u201d.\u00a0 He then pulls a bunch of grenade pins and explodes into the Tall Man as Mike and Reg escape through\u00a0a portal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now Reg is lying in the yard at the hospital.\u00a0 Reg goes wandering off looking for Mike.\u00a0 There he sees Wartime Mike and this is just weird to describe.\u00a0 Mike tosses Reg the 4 barrels.\u00a0 Is this in Reg\u2019s mind?\u00a0 He turns and is in his ice cream man attire and starts shooting at the reanimated.\u00a0 Did he just shoot the hospital staff?\u00a0 Mike has one shot remaining.\u00a0 Suddenly the Barracuda comes pulling up with twin-mounted chain guns.\u00a0 Jody is driving and looks dapper.\u00a0 The Barracuda looks incredible\u00a0 They drive off.\u00a0 They are gonna drive north to where it\u2019s really cold.\u00a0 Smart.\u00a0 Reg is so happy to see them both.\u00a0 Reg looks happy.\u00a0 He leans back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now in the hospital bed, Mike and Jody are at his bedside.\u00a0 Reg wakes up and sees his friends.\u00a0 His heart rate monitor flatlines while his buddies hold his hands.\u00a0 In his mind, Reg is still in the backseat of the Barracuda.\u00a0 He has his flashbacks. This reminds me of the Tyrese death episode of The Walking Dead in some ways.\u00a0 The car drives off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
End Film<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, there is a shot of the desert and a portal.\u00a0 Chunk crawls out, and looks rough.\u00a0 There\u2019s a gun to his head, but it\u2019s Rocky from III.\u00a0 Chunk wants her to give him a piggyback ride, so he grabs her chest.\u00a0 She wasn\u2019t happy about that.\u00a0 She bandages him up.\u00a0 Chunk still flirting with Rocky.\u00a0 She says he will do, for now.\u00a0 Their ride shows up, and you know it\u2019s the Barracuda.\u00a0 They get in.\u00a0 They are in the War Time dimension.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
True End Film<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh man, where does one start with this one? Once you take into consideration the ages of the cast and Angus’ health, you can see a reason to rush it a bit. This did come out 18 years after the fourth. The clock was ticking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This movie makes me sad mainly because dementia absolutely terrifies me. It only occurred to me during this recent viewing that I correlated something. The first movie is truly about loss but presented in a fever dream. This feels very strange, with multiple dreams, but this time dealing with dementia. In a way, it’s important that they even tried tackling the subject, and yet Phantasm is one of the few franchises where it can be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That being said, it doesn’t excuse certain aspects. This looked great in some scenes, especially the opening on the road. But the war-torn area looked like a made-for-TV movie. It didn’t look good. I know that budget was a problem. I’m trying not to rip on them, but it needs to be acknowledged. This is such a weird mixed bag that it is difficult to offer much insight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Final Rating: 5.3 – There is some really good stuff here and some really bad. This movie isn’t for everyone, but if you watched the first four films, you may as well see how this ends. Kudos for touching on dementia. Good on the cast for making it through this. I’m all for a reboot, but this series did end with a bit of a whimper. The post-credit scene was quite good, at the very least. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is arguably the most underrated horror franchise. Thank you for all of the amazing memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the pictures used in this blog are for review purposes. They are the property of: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Please go find a copy and support the creators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve only seen this twice.\u00a0 I remember feeling depressed after seeing it the first time.\u00a0 This is the finale of the Phantasm franchise.\u00a0 It is possibly the weirdest of the bunch, in my opinion, which says a lot.\u00a0 Angus Scrimm, the Tall Man, got to see this shortly before he died.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18184,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[361,362],"tags":[6835,6833,6841,4055,6842,6834,6832],"class_list":["post-18207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film-reviews","category-horror","tag-a-michael-baldwin","tag-angus-scrimm","tag-bill-thornbury","tag-phantasm","tag-ravager","tag-reggie-bannister","tag-tall-man"],"yoast_head":"\n