Phantasm: Ravager

(0ne mild spoiler)

The Tall Man is dead. Long Live the Tall Man.

“The American way of death”, that's what the man said. Coscarelli, that is, Don Coscarelli. He was talking about Phantasm and what he wanted to explore with that film. What he ended up with, I think, was a movie about how it's sometimes scarier to be the one surviving. Young Mike has lost his parents and now lives in daily unchecked terror of losing what little he has left of all he knows of life: his older brother Jody loves him but aches to dump him with someone else and take off. It's a movie that deals with the bonds of loyalty and abiding love between the brothers an their friend Reggie, a local ice cream vendor. That latter has always resonated with me, but as I grow older the fear of loss – and specifically of abandonment of being alone - strikes a deeper and deeper chord.

The trio have become entangled with a mysterious Tall Man, an alien of sorts in human form who empties cemeteries, re-animating and transforming the dead into armies of slaves. The Tall Man proves to be their dissolution, and Mike, Reggie, and Jody will spend the next three sequels trying to find each other across the countryside, across dimensions, and even across time. Phantasm: Ravager, the fifth and probably final film in the series, has been promoted as the one that will bring resolution.

On a personal note, I saw this at the Hollywood Theater in Portland, Oregon, with a crowd of Phans all roughly my own age. I'd guess that most of us have been with Phantasm from the beginning. The bond of abiding love isn't just between the brothers and the Ice Cream Man. If someone put a razor-forked metal sphere to my head and forced me to choose just one horror film as my favorite, it would be Phantasm. Besides an investment in the heroes, the emphasis on surreal dream-logic driven narrative strikes a chord with me. So does the score, and just about everything else.

Phantasm benefited from an alchemy of elements – the chemistry of the cast, the imagination of Coscarelli and his collaborators, dreamy imagery, an iconic score from Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave, science fiction, horror, humor...I think even the year, 1979, was a vital ingredient. Phantasm was informed by the sentiments, concerns, and the language of cinema of the Seventies but it's premise and physical, visceral realization of fantastical subject matter looked forward to what Eighties cinema would become within and without the horror genre after the likes of The Evil Dead (1981) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Phantasm is swimming in gateways: I think the film itself was a gateway for the genre and for Coscarelli himself who went from grounded dramas (Jim, the World's Greatest and Kenny & Company) to unhinged fantasia like Bubba Ho-Tep and John Dies at the End.

Phantasm Ravager picks up not long after the finale of Phantasm IV: Oblivion. As Oblivion ends in Death Valley, the Tall Man has taken Mike's mind (literally, encased in a metal orb). Reg, armed with his signature quad-barreled shotgun, sets off into the maze of inter-dimensional gateways to rescue his friend.

We don't know how long he's been wandering the desert (“Some fuckwad jacked my Cuda.”) but not too long we assume from his inner monologue and state of his clothes. He's still on Earth but as later dialog suggests it may not be his Earth. A couple of killer sphere drones aren't far behind him. Even closer is a nasty shock when he suddenly finds himself in a wheelchair in the garden of a care facility. “They bring us here to die”, says a fellow patient. The patient has a familiar face. Mike is there too, coming to visit him with great concern. Mike knows nothing about tall men or other planets. What he knows is that his dear friend has been diagnosed with dementia.

Which life is real? Have all of these adventures been a hallucination? Trying to placate Reg's alarm, Mike floats a theory he's heard of alternate realities. Reg may have gone Billy Pilgrim, unstuck between realms. I believe that there is actually more than one Reg, one for each alternate reality, and that as some hop back and forth, their experiences are bleeding into the mind of yet another. As a theory this covers a number of discontinuities in previous films as well – there's more than one Mike and Jody, relatively aware that they are dealing with shifting realities and misaligned memories but not knowing why. In fact, Ravager offers no reason to believe that anything in the movie takes place in what DC Comics would call “Earth 1”.

Ravager is Reg's story as he bounces back and forth between realities, either of which may be unreal. The Tall Man has wiped out civilization on one Earth, but the seemingly normal in the hospital one may be a trick. Once again, in ways that are uncomfortable and heart-sickening, it resonates with my own life. Reggie faces the loss of his own mind at the end of his life preceded by the loss of identity, dignity, autonomy, and sanity. Which is the more desirable existence, an ignominious decline and death as a nobody in an uncaring facility or being the hero of a fantastical realm standing against impossible odds to defend the love of dear friends? Which is more credible?

Understand that I love all of the films in this series. They're a wonderful set of adventures that spark the imagination and are compelling for the bonds they showcase. Still, II, III, and IV d not deal with issues as I and V do. This, I think, is what ultimately makes Ravager and elevates it above its low indie budget.

If you want solutions, this is not the film for you. From the beginning, a vital part of the allure of the Phantasm universe is the fact that we are presented with facets of a mystery without explanation, and no small amount of discontinuity in the narratives the heroes' lives. Currently many phans are disputing the worth of Ravager for its nondisclosure. For myself, the last thing I wanted was an explanation which could only serve to make that realm a smaller one, severely and needlessly amputating the many possibilities suggested by these films. Simply, it's a richer universe in our imaginations than it could be if confined to the screen. I do, however, wonder what the Tall Man's purpose with Mike is...in Ravager he calls Mike an experiment.

The closure promised is not of the plot points, those are MacGuffins. What matters more is the the bond. Always the bond. Jody, Mike, and Reggie have been apart since 1979, sharing each other's company only in brief respite from the nightmare and Mike only as a wraith of dubious alliance after having been transformed by the Tall Man. Ravager brings them together again for the first time. Their long search is rewarded.

One of the reasons I expect that there will never be another sequel is the recent passing away of Angus Scrimm, the Tall Man. Mr. Scrimm was a versatile and much beloved character actor who's indelible, captivating, and intensely scary portrayal of the Tall Man made an immediate impact. There could never be another Tall Man. Without him, the conflict of our protagonists has no center and no weight. I never had the pleasure of meeting Angus Scrimm but everyone who did attests that he was the kindest, most outgoing of souls. The audience I was with applauded loudly his first appearance in Ravager and the dedication to him in the closing credits. You played a good game, sir.

It's a delightful performance. Scrimm's Tall Man is an exercise in graceful menace as his face and vocal inflections dance from arrogance, amusement, frustration, curiosity all bubbling just underneath his unshakable poise. In Ravager for the first time we his calm demeanor break in the face of Reggie's loyalty. “WHHYYYYYYYYY?, shouts the Tall Man, in a surprising lament. It's the opposite of Anakin Vader's infamous “NOOOOOOO!” - compelling instead of cringeworthy.

Scrimm also gives us another glimpse of Jebediah Morningside, the human who first opened the doorway to the alien realm and whose body became the template for the entity known as the Tall Man. Morningside was a kind and decent man who wanted nothing but good for his fellow man. Jebediah is another resident in the care home. One quiet moment broke my heart: Jebediah crossing the hall and looking up at Reg, his body shockingly old and frail, taken by the ravages of time. The sad look in his eyes...I may avert mine when I see it again. “I'm afraid this body of mine is nearly finished.” It's an ironic note from Jebediah, an omen from the Tall Man, and an acknowledgment from Angus to us his many fans.

Noted above, the movie is limited in budget. That's putting it mildly, Ravager began as a series of webisodes involving the adventures of Reggie as the Tall Man sweeps across the Earth. These were the work of David Hartman, formerly an animator at Disney who contributed to earlier Coscarelli films. These were done with Coscarelli's blessing, and with the original writer/director's collaboration they modified the series into a feature film. Having tasted studio interference, Ravager was self-financed. Hartman directed. This results in some of the fx work not being up to par and the camerawork being subject to diminished means. Frankly, it looks a lot better than I'd feared. Working a coherent – and achievable - story from these shorts must have been quite a challenge, given the tantalizing but unused sequences that appear under the closing credits. They're ambitious bits set in the North against monster-sized spheres, once scene pitting a jet fighter against them. Some of the scenarios that did make it in (like the devastated Earth and the Red Planet) are left unexplored... disappointing but understandable for the limitations involved.

I'd also feared seeing it with an audience, given some of what Ravager has met online. Phantasm is a big thing with me...I was too young to see it at the theater but knew from the trailers that it was something special. When it debuted on American network TV(CBS Friday LateNight, 12:35 AM. following “The Zombie” episode of Kolchak: The Night Stalker) I sat alone in the dark, back turned to a large living room, next to the front door that creaked and cracked as the house settled. It's one of my fondest memories sharing this with friends who were similarly watching at their homes.. I am grateful and delighted to say that seeing the Ravager was also rewarding, in a bittersweet way. The audience applauded many times throughout as beloved players Reggie Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Angus (always Angus!), Kat Lester, and Gloria Lynn Henry made their entrances. Reg's and the Tall man's lines elicited cheers and laughs. Even the Cuda got a hand.

To Messrs Coscarlli and Hartman, to the casts and crews of all five, thank you.