Phantasm IV: Oblivion (1998)

Fleeing through the countryside, the group of friends battling the Tall Man finds the spirit of his trapped brother is leading them closer to the secret of who The Tall Man really is and forcing him to unleash the full force of his demons in an effort to stop them fry ruining his plans.This here was one of the more impressive entries in the series. One of the best things it has going for it is the really big and grandiose action scenes that are largely familiar scenes of the series. Following on the majority of the series' efforts of continuing with the previous one left off, the opening escape from the mausoleum into the desert which is rather nicely handled in starting the action as there are a spectacular car flip and rescue, two exploding vehicles, some aggressive jumping dwarfs and a silver- sphere attack which occurs after the equally inevitable girl picked up en-route as well as the initial encounter with the phantom patrolman which proves to be genuinely creepy or the silver sphere attack in the abandoned motel. Equally effective is the flashbacks and alternate reality visions and memories, presenting absolutely unique scenes that are quite imaginative and really intriguing. The longest one, a night-time chase through a forest will get plenty of atmospheric scenes in, including the sequence where the hanging Tall Man ushers a big remark offering peace in exchange for his freedom or the sight of The Tall Man appearing as a regular human sitting on his porch offering a glass of homemade lemonade is pretty impressive as well. Another cool thing about this one is the atmosphere and suspense here, not only from the regular antics featured within but also the flashbacks that tie in all the events from the past into one rather cohesive whole. The other big plus here is the fine finale as there are some big moments in the initial battle with the dwarfs in the desert, the autopsy scene that reveals a big surprise for one of the victims and an attack from the spheres late in the film, leading to many of its true gore set- pieces as they cling to major body parts is something to behold. All in all, this is a very worthy sequel as although there weren't many flaws in here they were somewhat important. The main point in this one is the fact that it follows the conventions of the series closely. This one has so many of the clichés and plot-points that the other ones have, and it can lead to correctly predicting what will come next which can lead to many problems throughout the film. That is mainly because none of them are changed around or inverted this time around, which is where the problem lies. Nothing is changed from the expectations of the series as a whole, and that is something which can be used against it. There's also the fact that the film doesn't really move as fast as the others out there, which can be somewhat irritating. A lot of time is spent wandering around in the desert, which offers good scenery but nothing else, and by utilizing the clichés at hand, a long time is spent on other scenes that have nothing to offer in terms of action, and at times this can be somewhat dull. However, the main problem with this one is that there's no explanations for anything in the film, much less the series. This one probably should've done something to answer the questions the others have to offer, and it would've been a great time to do it. That is the biggest flaw, and it keeps it down the most.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.

A quote from IMDb trivia for "Phantasm III": "Don Coscarelli reportedly admitted during filming that he had run out of ideas after finishing the script for this sequel and had no clue which direction would the story take in case there was a fourth Phantasm movie. He jokingly added that if a Phantasm IV was ever filmed, it would actually be "just to make money out of it"."Another quote from IMDb trivia but for "Phantasm IV": "In a 1998 interview, writer director Don Coscarelli stated Phantasm IV was being filmed "just to make money out of the series"."When "Phantasm IV" came out, nearly 20 years had passed since the first film in the series. And, oddly, in the second and third films, the star was not Mike (who was clearly the star in the first one) but Reggie. This one, in contrast to the last two, features more Mike, as he battles through time and space to battle The Tall Man. And, the film cuts back and forth between Mike and Reggie in their quest. So in one scene, Reggie might be fighting zombie cops and in the next, Mike's back in the US Civil War days! It is a bit confusing...but different to say the least.Compared to the previous installments, this Phantasm is more visceral--with several 'EWWWW, Yuck!' scenes. So, if you like gory effects that make your skin crawl, this one should please you. On the other hand, this installment felt like a HUGE step backwards for me. First, the wonderful new characters introduced in the last film (Tim and Rocky) were never seen nor talked about...a big mistake as they made the third film every bit as good as the first. Second, the final portion of the story is simply a confusing mess. I agree with the filmmaker...this one was just done for the money and is a rather poor film in most every way.

Phantasm IV (1998) * 1/2 (out of 4)Fourth and final film in the series takes a different approach to the familiar storyline of the previous two films. This time out, starting off at the end of part three, the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) travels throughout time trying to capture Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) who is trying to figure out the origins of the Tall Man and the secrets behind the death of his brother. Reggie (Reggie Banister) is also out there trying to locate Mike so that he can save him. This fourth film in the series at least had the Tall Man looking for someone instead of the same story of Reggie and Mike looking for him. The one benefit of this is that we get more screen time devoted to the Tall Man but most of the good stuff ends there. Seeing as how parts two through four take place as one continuous story, I couldn't help but think that had the three sequels been edited together as one movie then perhaps the series would have worked better. I felt a lot of the stuff in parts two and three was just carried on to the point of it being boring and I think that holds true here so if the director had simply made one good story instead of three weak ones, I might have enjoyed the series more. Once again the performances are decent, if nothing great with Banister and Scrimm standing out. The gore this time out is rather low, although we do get a few good kills scattered out. The story itself isn't the strongest in the world but it is a mildly interesting one but I wish there had been more backbone to it. We do learn a few new things about the Tall Man but there's still not too much and it really doesn't do any good considering the series is now over.

It's rare that the same creative team are still around 4 films into a series, and even rarer that a 4th film has anything new to add, so this makes a refreshing change.The tone is a little uneven, with Coscarelli seeming torn between delivering the slapstick gore and laughs of the previous 2 sequels and going for the darker more surreal approach of the first movie, so a lot of Reggie's scenes seem like they could have been pasted in from a different movie. Speaking of which large chunks are made up of deleted scenes from "Phantasm", which, while suggesting money problems during development, actually works very well in bookending the events so far.It also goes some way to filling in the gaps, giving the Tall Man a proper origin story and answering a few questions while still leaving enough up in the air to justify the 5th film which is apparently in production currently.That said, even if a 5th film never materialises, this makes a nicely apocalyptic ending to a series that has actually come to life in it's sequels. There's still plenty of laughs, but there's a very downbeat tone and some nicely creepy touches, making this a very enjoyable, if slightly schizophrenic addition to a fun series.