Phantasm IV: Oblivion
Tags: good versus evil, flashback

Plot synopsis:
The film opens where its predecessor left off. Mike flees from Boulton mortuary in the hearse, while Reggie is trapped inside by The Tall Man's spheres. However, The Tall Man decides to let Reggie go for the moment.Mike's spherical brother Jody persuades a reluctant Reggie to go looking for Mike. On the way, Reggie runs into a police car which pulls him over. He is attacked by the policeman, who turns out to be a mysterious psychopathic demon, but manages to escape after blowing up the police car and destroying the body.The next morning, Reggie meets a woman called Jennifer, whom he rescues from her overturned car and takes her to the next town, which is also abandoned. They stay the night at an abandoned motel and Reggie tells her the story of The Tall Man. Jennifer doesn't believe him and also rejects his advances. Having dreamed of Mike, Reggie wakes up and unbuttons Jennifer's nightshirt, discovering two spheres sticking in her breasts. As they fly out and attack him, he smashes one with a sledgehammer but is pinned to the wall by the other. In desperation he strikes his tuning fork and the sphere explodes. Jennifer grabs his leg but he smashes her with the hammer and leaves.Mike, trying to uncover the mysteries of The Tall Man and to escape the transformation, drives through abandoned towns and remembers the last days before The Tall Man's arrival. The Tall Man appears in the back of the hearse and takes control of the car before he disappears into the coffin.Mike drives the hearse into Death Valley. Mike intends to force The Tall Man to a confrontation and writes his testament. He finds himself at a 19th Century colonial-style house with an earlier model of the gate inside. Mike meets a man resembling The Tall Man, who however welcomes him cordially and introduces himself as Jebediah Morningside. Jebediah wants to speak with Mike, who, however, is frightened and again escapes through the gate. Jebediah's wife (who resembles the Fortuneteller from the first Phantasm movie), appears and tells him to let Mike go.Back in Death Valley, Mike realizes that he can move rocks by the power of his mind. Jody appears. Mike is distrustful and accuses his brother of having abandoned him. Jody defends his behavior and disappears. Mike works on his car, using parts to build a makeshift sphere. Hoping that he might stop Jebedaiah from becoming the evil Tall Man, he again goes through a gate, but finds himself in the deserted city of Los Angeles and escapes The Tall Man only with Jody's help.Meanwhile, Reggie arrives at Death Valley and fights off a group of zombie dwarfs when Mike and Jody appear through a gate. Mike embraces Reggie and tells him not to trust Jody. Reggie passes Mike the tuning fork, as the two brothers pass through the gate, appearing in Jebediah's house. Invisible to the old man, they witness how he perfects his craft and approaches the inter-dimensional gate. Mike tries to stab him before he can pass through but misses him, as they are in another dimension. Jebedaiah vanishes and moments later is replaced by the evil Tall Man who emerges in his place, having taken his form and using his human appearance as a disguise.Mike escapes through the gate, finding himself in a cemetery. He is attacked and overpowered by his brother and awakes on mortuary slab. Jody holds him as The Tall Man begins operating. A panicking Mike strikes the tuning fork, thus immobilizing his opponents. Mike then kills Jody with a sphere but The Tall Man revives and telekinetically takes the fork from Mike. Again, Mike escapes through the gate back to Death Valley, pursued by The Tall Man. Reggie tries to shoot The Tall Man but is overpowered. Mike summons the sphere he built. The Tall Man is impaled in the neck but he is unharmed and he pulls out the sphere and crushes it with his right hand, amused.At that moment, Mike activates the hearse's motor, which turns out to be the true weapon against the Tall Man (a strange inter-dimensional bomb). A distracted Tall Man is vanquished after the explosion consumes both him and the car. However, a new Tall Man immediately comes through the gate, revealing that the Tall Man is but one of many. He resumes the surgery started by the last Tall Man he removes the golden sphere from Mike's head and disappears again through the gate. As Mike is close to death, Reggie arms himself with his 4-barrelled shotgun and enters the gate, determined to overcome The Tall Man.As Mike lies dying on the desert floor near the gateway, he has a childhood memory, climbing into Reggie's ice cream truck with him and driving off into the night.

Review: These serve as really interesting backdrops for Mike, Reggie, Jody and the Tall Man (all the original actors returned, too).
The film actually ends with a flashback- a poignant and subtle scene that is unlike the endings of the other three movies, leaving the series with what could be a perfect close.
There must have been a ton of stuff on the cutting room floor, or someone found a great actor to play Mike from 1979, because a lot of this one bounces back to the first one as they try to tie all of this together.I understand, unlike 'Star Wars', the complete story was not written out ahead of time, it was made up as it went as it went along.
First off, let me say that Angus Scrimm is a National Treasure and any Phantasm movie is worth watching just for his performance.The first two Phantasms were excellent, pure works of imagination that are unlike any other horror series.
As for part 3, I've only seen part of it on Sci-Fi and as its not available yet on DVD, I don't remember it too well but presumably OblIVion takes over where that one left off...Mike is heading off into the wastelands and Reggie is pinned to the ceiling by a bunch of silver spheres.The story has Mike once again trying to stop the Tall Man and Reggie trying to catch up with him.
This time we jump through space, time and dimension to find the Tall Man's origins and get a glimpse of the future he has in store for the earth.This is a fairly good installment but it seems like there's more story then fits into the ninety-minute format.
It lives the same world, but isn't distracted by pop culture phenomena of the time the way 2 & 3 seemed to be influenced/commentating on 'Evil Dead' and 'Home Alone'.As much as I like seeing the Tall Man, Reggie and Mike back in action, Jody still seems forced into the series.
Just watched this series of movies for the first time, and was very disappointed at the ending of Oblivion, there was so much promise in the story and characters, even tho it was getting pretty silly.
The film uses deleted footage from the original Phantasm movie to further enhance the storyline and it works.After fleeing the mausoleum in the end of Phantasm III, Mike goes on a quest to try to escape his transformation, while Reggie tries to save him from The Tall Man.
Like so many great mythological stories about quest, heros and villains, the characters of Mike, Reggie and The Tall Man are truly genuine.
I admit this isn't the most well-made film and the loose ends, unexplained occurrences, and inconsistencies are enough to make one lose faith in the series, yet after the beautiful beginning cinematography done in panoramic view, where the Tall Man stalks the halls of the cemetary, the scene where Reggie is attacked by a mutant police officer, another scene where Reggie survives not one but two of the balls, and the most surprising scene of all, when Michael, after going through a dimensional gateway, encounters what appears to be the Tall Man's "good" alter-ego!
I think a lot of people didn't 'get it' because they were expecting a bunch of gore and action, and a very simplistic plot (like most horror movies today).
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 are very few characters in this one b\c it focuses on The Tall Man's relationship with Mike (yet, of course, like the others not explaining all we need to know!).
This film was a bit more sophisticated than the previous sequels while not compromising any of the traditional fun, scares, gore or witty one-liners we come to expect from Phantasm.
The fact that Coscarelli had shot lots of unused footage for his first film enables him to incorporate it here, and it is fascinating to see our actors at different ages throughout.It may not be altogether satisfying for some of its viewers, but it's still more interesting than most output in the genre, in the way that it gets its audience thinking and leaves events open to interpretation.Seven out of 10..
As the Tall Man's history unfolds in a series of scene's from the original Phantasm, a majority of these scene's were cut from the original release of Phantasm and are being scene for the first time, other scene's are just scene's created specifically for this film.
Phantasm 4 Oblivion is a great film for you fellow Phantasm lovers out there.All the classic characters return.The tall man,Angus Scrimm's character is even fleshed out more,giving you a possible explanation on how he became the sinister grave-robbing mortician who can pass thru different dimensions.It has a surreal quality to it ,almost like being in a dream.For a Phantasm freak such as myself,I highly recommend it..
Did I mention pointless?These movies have, at the very most, two things going for them: Angus Scrimm's performance as The Tall Man, which is far, far better than this drivel deserves, and the memorable weapon of the flying silver ball.Other than that, they're a mess.
The best part of this entry though which completely saves it is the long showdown between Mike and The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), yet most of the story surrounding Reg is almost old hat.
Mentioning this a certain female character in the film does seem to have no real use, coming in for 30 mins then being killed off.In all this is a worthwhile movie to check out if your a fan of the Phantasm series.
On the last movie, one of the silver spheres attacked the Tall Man was Mike's brother Jody.
I liked the part when the ball was used to take out the minions of the Tall Man. When Reggie left in the Ice Cream truck, the question remains, "Is it over?" The movie puts the "I" in Intensity, out of all the other horror movies, Phantasm is tops!
While Reggie deals with demon cops and a sexy lady (Heidi Maranhout), Mike travels through multiple portals and discovers how The Tall Man came to this dimension and if his brother Jody (Bill Thornbury) is really what he seems to be.Phantasm IV is the most recent entry in the series to date but thank god it is not the last as there will be one more film on the way.
I consider Phantasm IV to be a little better than the disappointing (but still good) third entry of the series, but my issue with this one is that even though you are entertained throughout and your eyes will probably be glued to the screen, nothing really happens when you think about it.
Like Phantasm III, Bill Thornbury is just kind of there but unlike Phantasm III he actually has importance in this one.The Breakdown:PROS: Captivating story, Great score, Likable characters, Dosen't contain many continuity errors unlike it's predecessor, Attractive women (Heidi Maranhout), Very surreal, And who wouldn't like to see a bald and middle-aged ex-ice cream vendor dressed in his old uniform shooting demon midgets with a quad barrel shot-gun?CONS: The ending will really annoy you for a really long time, Though the film contains many of silver spheres, there arn't any real drilling's:(, and you occasionally have no idea what is going on.OVERALL: It isn't as good as "Phantasm" or "Phantasm II", but "Phantasm IV: Oblivion" is yet another satisfying entry to this amazing fantasy/horror series.
The original Phantasm is such a landmark cult film because it truly bent the limits of the horror movie genre.
We get a peek into the origin of the Tall Man (with some fantastic acting on the part of Angus Scrimm who finally gets to read more lines than "BOYYYYYY!"), and we learn the significance of the dimensional portal introduced in the first movie.But don't look for everything to be answered straightaway & tied up with a pretty bow, Hollywood style.
The story arc is tied together instead by imagery which, beginning with a "feel-good" onslaught of just what diehard Phantasm phans have come for, goes steps further, encouraging the viewer to learn the imagery language to begin to answer some longstanding questions: who or what is the Tall Man?
Actually, it's not THAT bad.While the film lacks the brilliant invention of the first two, the back story that Coscarelli has created is intriguing and while he could have delved a bit deeper into it, if you don't go in expecting too much; Phantasm 4 will not disappoint fans of the series.
All the usual Phantasm staples are present in this film, from The Tall Man himself to the creepy little dwarfs, all the way to the very cool shiny metal balls that fly around and stick in people's heads.
Phantasm IV is the worst of the Phantasm series.The movie only has 6 characters Reggie, Mike, Jody, TallMan, Jen, and a Demon Cop.That's it.The movie has no plot, action and doesn't fit in well with the Phantasm series.Some people say Phantasm 3 is the worst in the series, it's not.Phantasm 3 is a good movie.Way better than Phantasm 4 will ever be.Not worth the money..
Coscarelli has saved himself from the rather dull "Phantasm III." It is obvious there's no budget and the story is barely there, but the Tall Man (Scrimm, in his best performance ever) is just such an interesting character.
This movie is pretty much just a reunion of old friends for fans of the original (or any) "Phantasm." The ending puts the series in a deadlock, but "Phantasm 1999" (written by Roger Avery) is trying to get off the ground.
Picking up where the previous film ended, story has Reggie pursuing the Tall Man(Angus Scrimm), who has taken Mike for his own purposes, but is once again accompanied by Jody, still trying to tell the secrets of the Tall man's origins(he was a kindly inventor named Jebediah Morningside who enters a space/time tunnel and returns from the trip transformed into the evil Tall Man), before it is too late...Much better than III, though can't approach the first film, from which it uses much unused footage to further explain and enhance its present plot that has the gang going back and forth in time to avert the enslavement of humanity.
(Both seem more or less true).The great thing is that this time we are treated to a story, and not just a gross-out violent scene with the Tall Man, as has happened in the other 3 films.The only thing missing from our disjointed tale of silver spheres is the true origin of the Tall Man himself...we now know that he replaced Mr. Morningside, but what after that...?I understand that the team is producing one more picture...hopefully it will answer my question.BTW, I called it interesting because it's the only Phantasm segment that I didn't leave the room for a john break while it was playing...I needed to know what happened next....
It doesn't help that they keep adding stuff, such as time traveling and Jedi powers, which only all adds up to the confusion of the story.The series has been much liked for it's mixture of horror and comedy but I just think neither of those two elements ever work out strong enough, in neither of the 4 movies actually.
Other than that, good shooting location, nice end credits song (Reggie Bannister does an almost-heavy-metalish cover of the Phantasm theme), and my favourite part was the motel scene where the blonde had spheres in her...well, you know where I'm going with this..
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.
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.
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.
Well, I just finished watching all four films this week.It's been like seven years since I took the time to watch these all the way through one after another.My opinion hasn't changed.The first film is a masterpiece and the second one was a cool follow up even if all the answers to the questions the first Phantasm posed weren't satisfied.The third installment added even more questions but at least answered some of the questions the first one.It seems the pattern of this series is to throw out more mysteries than answers with each installment.This tactic worked with the first three films but with the fourth one it got redundant.I have deliberately stayed very vague with my review to avoid any spoilers.Phantasm IV is not a stand-a-lone film.There is just too much mythology built up into the franchise for a newcomer to this to get any kind of enjoyment.Thinking this through, I think this is why I found this installment such a disappointment.I expected the film to wrap up all the loose ends from the previous films and that wasn't done.I would hope that if there is going to be a final installment that we should be given answers to such questions as: What is the purpose of this army being built up from the dead?
It does give some background on the Tall Man. If you have never seen a Phantasm movie before, forget it.
I do not think there will be a sequel though, cause at the end of 4 they go back in time and miss the key event that starts the whole movie series, Thus it never happened..
Thin plot, hardly any action, millions of questions left unanswered, a VERY disappointing movie to a series that was, before this one, terrific!Sure, let's just let the Tall Man release Reggie at the very beginning of the movie so the demons can pick on him some more...Thank God they did let him go, because he's the only one who breathed a little life into an otherwise extremely dull movie.
Instead of Reggie & Mike seeking out the Tall Man in some mausoleum in some ghost town, this story takes place in a desert, and there is a lot of time traveling and sudden point-of-view shifts.
What's the problem, this is the best way to end the series if part five never comes - Reg aimlessly fighting for his friend's life, Mike Helpless to prevent his fate and the Tall Man appearing to be the Evil victor, but we know the good guys will win, don't we?
Mike, after the events in "Part III", finds himself in a strange limbo of dimensions in the Tall Man's world, trying to save his own life and stop the evil villain.Being a big fan of the "Phantasm" series, I really, really tried to like this movie as best as I could, but I had a little trouble with it at times.
Michael Baldwin is featured much more in this sequel, and holds up well, as does Reggie Bannister as his long-time friend and co-fighter against The Tall Man. Angus Scrimm is just as scary here as he was in the original "Phantasm".
The conclusion to the movie is open-ended for a sequel (as are all the endings in these films), but we're still awaiting another installment to try and help answer a few questions and possibly bring a close to this utterly bizarre gem of a movie series.Overall, "Phantasm IV: Oblivion" is an installment that most "phans" won't be too disappointed with.
The core of the movie is the mental confrontation between the two characters and that explains why there's a lack of action sequences in comparison to the two previous chapters and lots of dream-like scenes.But Don Coscarelli didn't forget the numerous fans of Reggie Bannister (a.k.a the god of the zombie killers), who is better than ever as the tired and angry ice cream man who desperately try to have a good time with a sex-bomb , and gave him a few memorable action scenes in which he can use his now famous super-gun against the army of the dead.An asset of PHANTASM : OBLIVION is to really bring an evolution of the characters and the story.
We just focus on Reggie, Mike and Jody battling the spheres, jawa creatures and the Tall man, everything fans of this series want.
Reggie's basically here to provide the action while Michael confronts the Tall Man. I read somewhere there wasn't a lot of money to make this film and you can tell.
The movie picks up where the third installment left off with Mike (Michael Baldwin) captured by the Tall Man in a hearse and Reggie left hanging, trapped by the ever present silver spheres.