Phantasm IV: Oblivion

Trailer—Phantasm IV: Oblivion

Phantasm IV: Oblivion

The fourth part of the Phantasm series is, as all before it, the continuation of the previous film, almost 20 years from the first. Mike Baldwin again is Mike, Reggie Bannister again is Reggie and Bill Thornbury is... well, Jody. Sort of. An attempt of explaining what happened is made, why The Tall Man seems so indomitable and yet he never gets the hero, with many self referential jokes and an origin story. This was funny at times, spooky most of the time, but mainly because of the music and the seriousness of Mike. The Tall Man speaks more and makes his evil faces. There are more chicks that Reggie can't bone and more scenes where the huge four barrel shotgun is completely useless. The story makes a little more sense than in the other three films, but not by much. In many ways, it showed the way the film could have gone, maybe with a little more focus on the characters and story and with a grimmer feel. The ending felt pretty disappointing, though.

Maybe I like this one more than II or III ... it's hard to say. On the plus side, it tries to have an atmosphere more like the original film and less like a horror action comedy. On the minus side, it literally makes no sense. Unused footage from the original film was found and dropped into this film as ... well as what? It depicts events that could not have happened given how the original film ultimately came together, so what is this meant to represent? This is really symptomatic of the entire film. Reggie encounters some chick on the road, and stuff happens, but none of her interactions with him really make sense or ultimately amount to anything. It's a bit like all the elements of your typical Phantasm film were dropped in a cup, shook up, and dumped out onto a table and then that was filmed.

The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) has been spreading his devastations. The neighboring towns have been abandoned to the monsters. Mike is driving towards Death Valley to escape his pending transformation. Reggie is also on the road and rescues beautiful Jennifer from a car wreck. This is generally messy. Mike's journey is a series of random dimensional turns. It's a mistake to separate Mike and Reggie. When the movie opens with a flashback of the trio walking through the door, I hoped for the three of them going on a quest together. It is nice to have the three of them return for this movie but splitting them up loses any hope of chemistry. The logic and the world of this franchise is simply getting too messy. This movie needs a good story. In an aside, I don't like the CGI spheres, no matter how many spheres. There is something solid, something creepy about a real physical floating sphere.