Second Viewing: Phantasm: Ravager (2016)

I continue to want to like this movie far more than I do. For a franchise to have stuck around this long with largely the same people (Don Coscarelli works as producer/writer here, while Bannister, Baldwin, and Scrimm return in their respective roles), you have to appreciate it.

But I do stand by what I said when I reviewed this film originally; low budget filmmaking from the ’70s and ’80s is just far more appealing.

I would like to have seen a big budget version of this. The script clearly called for a bigger scale than this film’s budget could offer.

Still, there’s enough of the stuff you enjoyed from the older Phantasm movies here. You’ve got Reggie Bannister as a badass, the perpetually creepy Tall Man (here with much less screentime, probably because of Angus Scrimm’s advanced age), a confusing plot, some weird awesome surrealist stuff, and those silver spheres leading to horrifically violent death scenes, the most notable here being a horse.

I did enjoy this movie a bit more the second time around. I think I just have more appreciation for the series as a whole. This movie may ride on nostalgia for the earlier, better movies, but it still has some good things about it. If you’ve enjoyed the other ones, this is certainly worth a watch.

Rating: 5/10