Review: Phantasm OblIVion

Posted by bob in Films, Reviews on August 26th, 2008

Don Coscarelli made a name for himself with the first Phantasm film back in the 1970s.  It had blood, gore, a sphere with a cool looking blade and Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man.

Since then, there have been two other films in the cycle and a promised conclusion which took a decade to arrive on DVD despite coming out in theatres back in ‘98.  Out today is Phantasm OblIVion, in theory the final installment and offering audiences some much needed background. What we receive is some background but a lot of wasted time as well.  The fourth Phantasm film seems to have been shot on a lower budget than the first and Coscarelli teases us with information but forgets to make it compelling.

Credit has to be given to the core cast, including Reggie Bannister, Michael Baldwin, and Scrimm, sticking with the project through the decades.  The story of the three people caught up in the Tall Man’s ill-explained desire to conquer the world should be more compelling than it is.  We have no reason to believe these people have the wherewithal to hold off the Tall Man all these years.

The world as seen in the new film, now available from Anchor Bay, is desolate.  Clearly, the Tall Man is winning, but since we don’t see it happen, we have to guess.  Similarly, we see one other human throughout the entire film, a comely blonde who seems clueless to the danger we’re seeing all around her.  Her story doesn’t begin or have an arc or have an end that makes sense.

The flashbacks providing some background to the Tall Man hint at something interesting but don’t work at all.  Maybe <I>this</i> is what the film should have been about.

Speaking of not making sense, a not-good-thrill comes from the inexplicable arrival of a mutant policeman.  He comes and goes with no one else like him arriving so why this scene is in the film comes without advancing the story or making us understand the world the characters in habit.In short, Coscarelli is a terrible storyteller and has no clue how to write character.  As a filmmaker, whatever thrills he gave us three decades back have atrophied.  There’s no sense of dread, no suspense, no real terror.  This film is slow and plodding, diffuse and thoroughly unsatisfying. The best bits seem to be taken from the unused footage Coscarelli managed to work into the story.

After waiting all this time, we deserve better.