It’s a shame that this is the only movie that patient fans of “Phantasm” will be getting since “Ravager,” the apparent final film in the series, isn’t that much of a horror film. Despite David Hartman’s best efforts, “Ravager” feels more like a fan film for the “Phantasm” movie series than anything else. I went in to the movie expecting pretty awesome and big things and sadly only got the bare minimum. When the movie ended, I literally muttered “That’s it?” to myself. Even Angus Scrimm in his final role appears for a few minutes here and there, and is mostly seen in the prologue through flashbacks.
The only character left in the series is Reggie, as played by Reggie Bannister, who has traveled through dimensions and is looking for his best friend Jody. He’s armed with his classic shotgun, and is walking on the road looking for his car that’s been stolen. All the while he’s battling the deadly spheres that Tall Man has sent to do battle with him. Mostly “Ravager” is based around Reggie running around through various desert landscapes and evading the dreaded spheres. The only really good instances are when we flashback to the original movies in the series, and from that point, Hartman goes for over complicated rather than simple.
Mid-way Reggie flashes back (forward?) to a hospital where he’s told by friend Toby that he’s been diagnosed with a terminal illness. So basically we’re either handed a goofy melodrama where everything we’ve seen for an undisclosed period of time has just been Reggie coping, or a silly final film that ends on a very confusing note. Hartman seems to opt for ambiguous all the way through the very end, even toying with the idea of parallel Earths. And while that would be substance enough to allow audiences to debate what’s perception or Tall Man’s tinkering, Hartman’s screenplay seems to stick with the melodrama until the very end. All of the goofy ideas about mortality dampens the mood of “Phantasm: Ravager” big time, and pretty much voids everything Reggie and his allies are enduring.
Everything outside of the silly side plot involves the hero having a long drawn out friendship with a woman he met on the side of the road. Meanwhile, the late Scrimm’s character is sadly minimized in to an ineffective entity. I guess the series ends now that Angus Scrimm has died. It’s just that despite the occasional good fan service involving the classic morgue and many returning faces, “Phantasm: Ravager” ends on an indifferent shrug rather than an explosion. The Blu-Ray for “Ravager” features a Behind the Scenes EPK with some good interviews with the cast and crew. There are three deleted scenes, all of which are roughly filmed, there are eight minutes of Bloopers and Outtakes, the original trailer, and an audio commentary with director and writer David Hartman and writer Don Coscarelli.