Author: Dustin McNeill
Date: 2018-02-14 00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Horror
Description: IT'S A STORY OF BLOOD, SWEAT AND SPHERES! The fifth and final PHANTASM took an incredible eight years to go from set to screen. The project began as an experimental short before becoming a thirteen part web series and finally a feature length sequel. Shot in secret on a microbudget, RAVAGER reunites PHANTASM 's core cast thirty-five years after the original cult classic. The new sequel filmed not in Hollywood soundstages but in the homes of cast and crew. Visual effects were handled mostly by the director. Decades-old props were taken out of storage and dusted off for reuse. They just don't ma
Publisher: Harker Press

Further Exhumed: The Strange Case of Phantasm Ravager

By Dustin McNeill

Further Exhumed © 2018 by Dustin McNeill / Published by Harker Press / ISBN-13: 978-0692057032 / ISBN-10: 069205703X / Phantasm and its characters are copyright Starway International, Silver Sphere Corporation or their respective copyright holders. The discussion of Phantasm within this book is intended for editorial and informational purposes only. This book is not endorsed by or affiliated with Don Coscarelli, David Hartman, Starway International, Silver Sphere Corporation, New Line Cinema, Well Go USA or Arrow Video. All original content of this book is the intellectual property of Harker Press unless otherwise noted.No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retireval systems, without permission in writing from the author or publisher.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction from the Author

Chapter One: The Epic Phantasm Sequel

Chapter Two: Getting the Ball Rolling

Chapter Three: Rebel Without a Budget

Chapter Four: Our Paths Cross Again

Chapter Five: The Ravager Expansion

Chapter Six: The Longest 927 Days

Chapter Seven: Unleashing the Ravager

Chapter Eight: Deconstructing the Story

Chapter Nine: In Defense of Ravager

Frequently Asked Questions

INTRODUCTION FROM THE AUTHOR

I won’t sugarcoat it. Some movies look great on paper and some don’t.  If I’m being 100% honest … Phantasm Ravager should have been terrible. The reasons why are numerous: The franchise already had a final chapter. Creator Don Coscarelli was stepping down as director and his replacement had no horror film experience. Actually, his replacement had no feature film experience whatsoever. The production was working with the lowest budget in series history, even lower than the original when adjusted for inflation. Ravager began as a digital web series and was later expanded to a feature length project. How many great or even decent films can you name that start out this way? Additionally, there were the many delays. Ravager took an incredible eight years from the start of filming to theatrical release.

And yet despite all this Ravager wasn’t a terrible film. Not for me, anyways. I found it to be thoughtful, smart and remarkably poignant. You might wonder if, as a huge Phantasm phan, I was predisposed to like the film regardless of its actual merit, but that isn’t the case. I actually expected Ravager to be an incomprehensible mess. I braced for the very worst as I walked into the theater.

My first research trip out to Los Angeles in early 2009 for Phantasm Exhumed coincided with production on the web series. I knew something top secret was afoot long before I arrived in town. Even then, there was uncertainty behind the scenes regarding the future of the franchise. This angst grew as the web project evolved into a feature film. While documenting Phantasm’s history I had an opportunity to read a handful of unmade sequel scripts. This led me to a grim realization that few phans consider – They could absolutely screw up Phantasm V. Some of these scripts were terrific. Others were shockingly horrid beyond anything you’ve ever heard. Don Coscarelli might be a master filmmaker but he’s not infallible. He’s only human… as far as we know.

In writing Phantasm Exhumed, I internalized much of the cast and crew’s Phantasm V angst. I was more than happy that my book was going to debut long before Ravager just in case the new movie was terrible. A disappointing Phantasm sequel was one thing but having to write an entire chapter about it was something far worse. I could skip that chore if my book came out first. Angus Scrimm implored me to delay Exhumed at least until Ravager had been announced so that it could receive a cursory mention in the text. I agreed to wait on an official announcement and wrote a cautiously optimistic ending to my companion tome. At the time, it was unthinkable that Ravager wouldn’t reach phans for another two-and-a-half years.

Angus lived to see the release of Phantasm Exhumed. He overnighted his personal copy from Amazon the day it became available. He later ordered thirty copies to distribute amongst friends and family. He even arranged a book signing at his Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony at the New York City Horror Film Festival in October 2014. Sadly, Angus did not live to see the release of Phantasm Ravager as he passed away on January 9, 2016. I wish he could have witnessed Phantasm back on the big screen throughout the country. I wish he could have read the unanimous praise for his curtain call performance as the Tall Man. I wish he was here to share his own take on the film’s mysteries. More than anything, I wish he was as immortal as his signature role.

I caught Ravager twice theatrically during its opening weekend with some of my nearest and dearest pals. Seeing Angus on the big screen one last time was the closest thing to a proper goodbye any of us had. For that reason, these screenings were incredibly special. Angus was as good as he ever was. The years had done nothing to diminish the raw power of his transfixing performance. As I said before, I was pleasantly surprised by the film itself. Not surprising was how marvelous the cast was. A. Michael Baldwin shined as the heroic Mike Pearson. Kat Lester was fantastic in her long overdue return to the Lady in Lavender. Bill Thornbury was so genial and warm as the no-longer-corrupted Jody Pearson. And what of the film’s star? Reggie Bannister gave what I consider to be the strongest performance of his entire career.

In addition to the cast, I thought the film was quite strong. The production values were good for a scrappy independent film. Ravager had a budget smaller than some television commercials with the boundless determination of a Star Wars movie. Christopher Stone’s score was outstanding, an appropriate blend of epic and haunting. The story added to the mystique of the franchise. I especially enjoyed the many parallels to the original film. Ravager managed to somehow capture that certain magical “je ne sais quoi” that only Phantasm movies possess.

In my mind, the new film’s standout heroes were David Hartman and Reggie Bannister, both of whom should be very proud of their work here. Hartman’s fresh direction guides a bold story to a satisfying finish and Bannister virtually carries the entire film on his shoulders with his stellar performance. And you know what they say… behind every good man is a great woman. That makes Kathleen Poirier Hartman and Gigi ‘Fast Elk’ Bannister Ravager’s unsung heroes. Kathleen built the “Cudanator,” fabricated numerous props and created digital matte paintings for the finale. Gigi co-produced, location scouted and worked special effects. The Hartmans and Bannisters even allowed the new sequel to film inside their homes. For all these reasons, Ravager’s success is truly their own.

There’s no denying that not everyone felt the same way about Ravager as I do. The film was incredibly divisive amongst the phanbase. It can be terribly difficult to watch something you love come to an end. There was simply no way the film could please everyone. If you enjoyed Ravager, then may you also enjoy this book as a celebration of the movie. If you felt let down by the new movie, then I hope Further Exhumed helps you discover a greater appreciation for it. I released the original Phantasm Exhumed as far in advance of Ravager as possible so I wouldn’t have to write much about it. In the wake of Ravager’s release, I find myself wanting to drone on endlessly about this unusual gem of a film. There’s just so much to discuss from its zany creation to the implications of its story. Coscarelli and Hartman have given us a lot to chew on with this presumed final chapter. I predict Ravager is a film that’s going to age very well, much like the original Phantasm.

- Dustin McNeill

CHAPTER ONE

THE EPIC PHANTASM SEQUEL

THE SEQUEL THAT GOT AWAY

The oft-mentioned “epic Phantasm sequel,”… How long has it been in the works? Ever since the days of Phantasm II, believe it or not. There were even hints of this direction in the original Phantasm such as the deleted hanging tree scene in which young Mike shouts at the Tall Man, “You’re killing the world!” After four sequels, phans have a much better understanding of Mike’s warning. Though the Tall Man may have started with small town America, his otherworldly ambitions were clearly global in nature. The second and third films revealed entire communities laid to waste. The fourth Phantasm went even further by showing a barren thoroughfare in one of the largest cities in the world. This chilling moment spoke directly to the film’s tagline: “The nightmare lives on. Humanity may not.”

“I’d always imagined that we’d do one where everyone knew about the Tall Man,” Don Coscarelli told Starburst Magazine in July 1988. “In both pictures so far, nobody knows about him or what he’s doing as far as the general population goes. I was thinking of doing one where he took over a large region of the countryside, somewhere you couldn’t even get into. Perhaps some kind of a plague zone and have him ensconced in an industrial mortuary where he’s processing tens of thousand of bodies a day or something. Just make it a little more apocalyptic and final; have the guys go down to the planet and make them stuck there or something.”

Coscarelli’s plan to turn Phantasm into a trilogy dates back to even before cameras rolled on Phantasm II. While the second film greatly expanded the world of the first, it was nowhere near as epic as Coscarelli’s vision for a potential third movie. For this, he drafted a treatment called Phantasm III: Into the Plague Zone (alternately titled Phantasm III: Into the Wasteland). The titular no man’s land referred to a large swath of the United States that had been taken over by the Tall Man and which no ordinary citizen dare enter. This unfilmed draft of Phantasm III involved the alien mortician kidnapping Reggie in an effort to lure Mike out into the desert. His plan works as Mike climbs onto a motorcycle and sets out to rescue his friend, recruiting a monkey sidekick and a love interest along the way. The final showdown occurs at the Tall Man’s massive mausoleum. Of this original Phantasm III pitch, Coscarelli told Fear Magazine in 1989, “I can guarantee you it’ll either happen in the next year or two or it won’t happen at all.”

Such an epic installment would have required a budget much grander than Phantasm II’s modest $3 million. However, the second film’s underperformance at the box office resulted in Phantasm III receiving an even smaller budget and led Coscarelli to rethink the scope of his approach. Consequently, he drafted an alternate Phantasm III pitch that more closely followed the road movie template of Phantasm II. In this version, the Tall Man would instead kidnap Mike, not Reggie, to groom him for a mysterious transformation. The Regman would set out on a rescue mission, recruiting an ex-military femme fatale and streetwise orphan along the way. The final showdown would occur at Boulton Mausoleum, described in the script as “the largest gothic mausoleum in the western United States.”

At the time of the third film’s production, any hope for Coscarelli’s epic Phantasm sequel rested solely on the box office performance of Phantasm III. Had that film been a hit, acquiring a decent budget for Phantasm IV would have been a far less Herculean task. This plan hit a snag when Phantasm III’s biggest advocate, MCA Home Video president Robert Blattner, died unexpectedly just before filming commenced. The studio executive team that inherited the film would shelve the finished product for nearly a year before relegating it to a home video release in October 1994. As a result, Phantasm III did not generate the profits needed to inspire a more grandiose successor. This concluded Coscarelli’s two-film agreement with Universal Pictures, which expressed no interest in a fourth Phantasm. By 1995, the epic sequel seemed dead in the water. Fortunately, good news was just around the corner.

THE AVARY SCRIPT

On March 27, 1995 a longtime phan by the name of Roger Avary won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay on Pulp Fiction. This immediately made him one of Hollywood’s hottest screenwriters. For his next project, Avary sought to write the most epic Phantasm sequel ever. The Oscar-winner contacted Phantasm’s creator to pitch him on the idea. Coscarelli was immediately on-board.

The first draft of Avary’s sequel script was dated March 7, 1996 and bore the title Phantasm 1999. The project would undergo several title revisions over the years including Phantasm 2013 and Phantasm’s End. (To avoid confusion, this text will stick with the original 1999 moniker.) Coscarelli planned to direct and produce the Avary script and was heavily involved in the development of the screenplay in all its iterations. The project was initially budgeted at $10 million, nearly twice the production cost of the first three Phantasm films combined.

Avary’s story painted a world vastly different than what we last saw in Phantasm III. The script’s first nineteen pages were dedicated to setting up these changes. The most significant of which was a devastating infection called the “bag plague,” which spread via the Tall Man’s yellow blood. Infected individuals known as “baggers” quickly devolve into raving zombies before their swollen heads burst from intercranial pressure. These explosions blast skull shrapnel and infected fluid in all directions, further spreading the plague. The unearthly outbreak has splintered the United States into three areas; the New York Zone, the Plague Zone and the Los Angeles Zone. Most of the country falls within the dreaded Plague Zone. Ordinary citizens may enter this area at their own risk but they can never return. The Plague Zone is surrounded by an impassable wall which is guarded by military sentries. Early script pages also introduce a commando team lead by the tough-as-nails Sgt. Heckleman, a part written specifically for Bruce Campbell. Heckleman’s soldiers are tasked with taking a “Quantum Phase Device” far into the Plague Zone in order to toss it through a dimensional portal where it will detonate on the other side. Military scientists hope this destructive event will finally destroy the Tall Man. The operation is aptly labeled a suicide mission.

After introducing the bag plague, the commandos and their bomb, the story shifts focus to Reggie who is gearing up to enter the Plague Zone in search of Mike Pearson. (How Bannister’s character managed to escape Phantasm III’s perilous sphere entrapment conclusion is never revealed.) Reggie’s only companion on the rescue mission is a monkey named Titi. Once inside the Plague Zone, the Regman and his simian sidekick stumble upon Heckleman’s team en route to deliver the Q-bomb. After escaping a bagger attack, the group winds up at Salt Lake City’s Great Mormon Mausoleum which they believe to be the Tall Man’s base of operations. Inside, they discover the powerful force that manipulates their common enemy, an abomination known as the “Tall Mankind.”

Tonally, Phantasm 1999 has little in common with the first three Phantasm movies. Coscarelli and Avary instead likened it to Aliens and Dawn of the Dead. The influence of the Mad Max series is also quite evident. Avary’s script doesn’t truly begin to feel like a Phantasm until the appearance of Mike Pearson in the final act. The film was to have originally ended with a warm callback to Coscarelli’s original. After seemingly beating the Tall Man, Mike asks Reggie where they will go next. Reg answers, “I don’t know. We’ll figure that out when we get there.” Their short victory rings hollow as they encounter 1,999 Tall Men, who speak in unison: “BOY!” Cut to credits.

Not one for preserving mystique, Avary eschews series tradition by offering up bold answers to some of Phantasm’s greatest mysteries. What is the Tall Man’s ultimate plan? To fold his reality into ours, thereby transforming Earth into a Red Planet. How does the Tall Man replicate himself? Through something called a corpuscular projector, of course. Who or what commands this army of Tall Men? That would be a giant, grotesque head called Tall Mankind which connects to a series of biological computers as well as the aforementioned projector. How does the Tall Man communicate with his dwarves? Not through telepathy, but by speaking backwards-Vietnamese. And how does the Tall Man actually create a dwarf? Avary intended to show the entire process.

Phantasm 1999 was originally poised to become the fourth film in the series. When Coscarelli was unable to secure the necessary funding, he opted instead to make a scaled-down sequel - Phantasm Oblivion. Avary then re-wrote 1999 so that it could now function as a Phantasm V script. Curiously, this re-worked version does nothing to connect with Phantasm IV’s cliffhanger ending just as earlier drafts did nothing to connect with Phantasm III’s cliffhanger ending. In the wake of Coscarelli’s Oblivion, Avary saw fit to drop Mike from the story altogether and to ration out Mike’s dialogue between the commando characters.

Phantasm 1999 ultimately failed to materialize because there was simply no Hollywood business model to support it. Sequel budgets tend to rise and fall with the preceeding film’s grosses, which in the case of Phantasm were not stellar. The original film had been a terrific hit but Phantasm II had earned significantly less and Phantasm III even less than that. To follow up those poor earnings with a bigger budget sequel didn’t make fiscal sense to studio execs. That both Phantasm III and Phantasm Oblivion went direct-to-video only further diminished the franchise’s reputation and any chance of a theatrical release for future sequels. Coscarelli would later cut Phantasm 1999’s budget in half to $5 million in a last-ditch effort to get the film made. Even at this reduced cost, there were no takers.

Budget issues aside, the less acknowledged reason for Phantasm 1999’s failure was the quality of the script itself which was rife with questionable story choices. Leaving the ending of Phantasm III unresolved would have undoubtedly frustrated longtime phans. So too would be turning the Lady in Lavender into a dominatrix hooker with sphere-tits. Even the Tall Man becomes something of a punster this time around, uncharacteristically possessing a decapitated soldier’s head and quipping, “Don’t mind me, I’m just trying to get a head in life.” The script’s most cringe-worthy moment came when Reggie’s screaming monkey clawed out the Tall Man’s eyes. Phantasm has surely jumped the shark when Angus Scrimm has to wrestle a spider monkey named Titi. (Runner-up: The Tall Man hugs a crying dwarf whom he addresses as “my love.”) Cringe aside, the script’s worst sin was reducing Mike to a cameo as a mummified corpse in later drafts of the script.

Writing on WickedHorror.com, columnist Nat Brehmer called this blasphemy “something that would piss off the vast majority of the phan base. […] Mike Pearson is literally killed off screen between sequels like Newt in Alien 3. The difference here is that while Newt was a fan-favorite character, she was not the protagonist, whereas Mike has driven the narrative of the series forward since the beginning. Ending Phantasm without him doesn’t even feel like an ending at all. There was already too little of Mike in Phantasm IV. Having none of him in Phantasm’s End only makes it feel more like a spinoff and not a true final chapter.”

Behind the scenes, Phantasm 1999 was met with mixed reviews. The project’s biggest champion was Coscarelli. The cast, however, was split in their opinion. Avary’s detractors would argue that his epic Phantasm sequel spent too much time being epic and not enough time being Phantasm. Not that the full-on apocalyptic angle was bad, mind you. This was an entirely organic direction to head in. Where the project erred was in focusing too much on plague zombies and commandos and not enough on the beloved characters that have been at the heart of Phantasm since the beginning.

CHANGE OF PLANS

By late 1996, enough studios had passed on Avary’s Phantasm script that Coscarelli began to see the need for a backup plan. Not wanting the series to grow cold, he decided that a new Phantasm IV script was needed, which was ultimately titled Phantasm Oblivion. The new screenplay was far less ambitious than what Avary had proposed and, accordingly, much easier to fund. The story would pick up from the ending of Phantasm III, restoring the narrative focus to Mike Pearson in the process. Oblivion would continue with the Tall Man’s evil plot to transform a resistant Mike into his protégé, while the Regman would track them both to Death Valley, narrowly escaping several traps along the way. The finale would find Mike mortally wounded after an explosive encounter with his nemesis. This ending would cut away from our dying hero to an outtake from the original Phantasm in which a much younger Mike and Reggie hear a faint whisper in the night air (“Reg, I’m dying.”). Audiences would recognize this voice as the older Mike. With a knowing smile, the younger Mike dismisses it as “just the wind.” They sit quietly as Reggie’s ice cream truck rides off into darkness. Cut to black.

How strange that the cerebral Phantasm Oblivion would fill the void left by the bombastic Phantasm 1999. These two films could not have been any more different from one another. Oblivion was poignant, haunting and understated. The finished film is a genre-bender full of nightmarish visions and surreal flashbacks to events that may or may not have ever happened. Coscarelli employs an intriguing “show but don’t tell” approach to his storytelling on this sequel. For many phans, this more restrained take on the mythology was nothing short of brilliant. For others seeking concrete answers to Phantasm’s mysteries it was an exercise in frustration.

“I was always a little bit mystified when people would complain about Oblivion leaving them hanging with unanswered questions,” A. Michael Baldwin told Coffin Cuties magazine. “Man, we answered so many questions in that film. We freaking went back and gave you the Tall Man as a human being! We gave you so much in that movie. I think we answered a lot of questions. It’s easy to extrapolate answers from what is offered in Oblivion.”

There has been some confusion over the years as to whether Oblivion was intended to be the final Phantasm. Was this really the end or just a stepping stone to the unfilmed Avary project? The answer is a bit of both. Publicly, Oblivion was widely touted as the concluding chapter of the Phantasm saga, a claim that many cast, crew and phans genuinely believed. Privately, Coscarelli had kept alive the fires of the Avary script, which was re-written into Phantasm 2013 and eventually Phantasm’s End. The epic sequel project lived on behind closed doors, but to the outside world Oblivion represented the end. That the film concluded with the apparent death of Mike Pearson made it all the more believable. As Reggie Bannister told Fangoria in 1998, “This could very well be the last one. But then again, every one could have been the last one.”

Of his character’s death scene, Baldwin further told Coffin Cuties, “I recall that Coscarelli had been a little annoyed with me in that the only usable take of that extreme close up of my eye was ruined because my eye moved. All of a sudden, my eye got big, even though I was supposed to be dead. That really was a death scene. So at first he was kind of annoyed that the only usable take had eye movement at the end. Later on, phans started to notice it and say things like, ‘Well, he isn’t really dead because something happened right there at the end. You can see his eyes move. He still has at least one breath left in him.’ Then we all really started to embrace that idea as a saving grace and accepted it. Obviously, Mike continues on.”

Oblivion’s world premiere screening was held at the Bloor Cinema on Friday, July 31, 1998 as part of Toronto’s Fantasia Film Festival. Film critic Harry Knowles would publish a pair of early reviews to Ain’t it Cool News the following week, one positive and one negative. The first panned Oblivion as “a rather sad, disappointing and confusing conclusion to a series that was never very high on logic.” The second, however, praised the sequel as being “great” and sided with Baldwin’s opinion that Oblivion “cleared up a lot of questions you may have had from the earlier movies.” Phan reaction to the fourth Phantasm seemed to fall along these same lines. Either Oblivion was a clever and fitting end or a cheap, nonsensical mess.

The fourth film’s reputation has improved in the years since its release, bolstered by the fact that it is no longer the concluding chapter of the series. Yet at the time, the sequel was seen by many, including those who made it, as being the end of all things Phantasm. Angus Scrimm maintained for many years that he particularly liked how Oblivion concluded the story. While Coscarelli shared this sentiment, he immediately saw that the phans felt differently. “I thought Oblivion wrapped up the series nicely,” he told Uproxx.com. “But the first response I got after screening it was ‘When’s the next one? When’s Part V?’ So I knew that there was a demand for it.”

THE REMAKE TRILOGY

Roger Avary would eventually step away from Phantasm to write and direct 2002’s The Rules of Attraction. His void at Coscarelli’s side would be filled by a Texan screenwriter who also happened to be an enormous phan, Stephen Romano. The aspiring scribe first crossed paths with Phantasm’s players while organizing Phantasmania in April 2000 at the original Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. This three-day festival marked the first and, to date, only event dedicated entirely to Phantasm. Coscarelli screened deleted scenes from his archives. Angus Scrimm regaled phans with stories about the making of the films. Reggie Bannister performed an acoustic set and even served ice cream to audience members before a screening of Phantasm Oblivion. In short, it was a dream come true for attending phans.

Romano took this opportunity to share with Coscarelli four scripts he had written for a hypothetical Phantasm television series entitled Nightmare Hospital. The master of horror was impressed enough to encourage Romano to develop his scripts — not into a show but into a comic book. The first issue, Phantasm Overminds, would debut three years later. Though critically well received, the comic venture would unfortunately go bust after only one issue. Further impressed by Romano’s work on the project despite its failure, Coscarelli would take him on as a writing partner the following year. Their first collaboration together was a re-envisioning of the original Phantasm. This project sprang to life at the dawn of the horror remake craze following box office hits like The Ring and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the latter of which was originally offered to Coscarelli, who declined. These successes left New Line Cinema eager to helm a Phantasm remake. That “The House that Freddy Built” wanted a piece of the Phantasm franchise was nothing new. New Line had long sought the Tall Man for their horror line-up having unsuccessfully tried to produce and/or distribute each of the first four Phantasm’s. (Despite this, they passed on making Avary’s Phantasm 1999.)

Coscarelli met extensively with executives George Waud, Stokely Chaffin and Jeff Katz. Chaffin and Katz had overseen New Line’s Freddy vs Jason two years earlier. The tentative plan was for Phantasm’s creator to produce the remake but not direct. Katz would later reveal that one directorial contender was future blockbuster filmmaker and mega-phan J.J. Abrams. The remake would serve as the first chapter in a new trilogy that would culminate with an adaptation of Avary’s Phantasm 1999. While Coscarelli and Romano co-wrote the project’s first draft, Ain’t It Cool later reported that New Line wanted writer Stephen Susco (The Grudge, Texas Chainsaw 3D) to polish their script.

The new Phantasm was poised to focus primarily on young Mike, who uses his psychic abilities to do battle against the evil Tall Man. New Line’s trilogy was heavily touted as being “the Star Wars of the horror genre.” The one catch was that Coscarelli and Romano’s script was not strictly a remake. In a surprise twist, their story featured return appearances by the original Mike, Reggie, and Tall Man. This uniquely categorized the project as a hybrid sequel/remake, a fact that did not thrill New Line. The remake’s story found the older heroes still fighting the good fight, albeit separately with Mike studying dreams in academia as Professor Pearson and Reggie leading a ragtag group of road warriors still in search of the Tall Man. This would have allowed series elders to pass on the Phantasm torch to a new generation. While such an approach involved finding a new young cast to lead the film, Coscarelli was adamant that the Tall Man not be recast with a new performer.

“The general take these executives had was to do a generic remake and cast it with young actor types from the WB network,” Coscarelli told Sci-Fi Wire in 2005. “This did not appeal to me. But I did give it some thought and came upon an approach that I thought might work for the mall audiences these executives covet and at the same time also appeal to our hardcore, longtime phans. That’s no easy task, by the way.”

The Phantasm remake was announced to the public on the front page of the March 10, 2005 edition of The Hollywood Reporter. This move was ultimately premature as New Line had not yet finalized their deal with Coscarelli, who had begun to have serious reservations about the project. Phantasm’s creator had grown concerned that his voice would be marginalized on the remake and that the studio would not preserve the integrity of the franchise. This distrust grew across a series of disagreements, not the least of which was New Line’s seeming indifference to whether or not Angus Scrimm returned as the Tall Man.

In all likelihood, Coscarelli entered into remake negotiations with some pre-existing trust issues where studio executives were concerned. The releases of his first two films, Jim the World’s Greatest and Kenny & Company, were utterly botched by Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox respectively. His Universal woes continued with studio meddling on Phantasm II and a direct-to-video dump on Phantasm III. He would eventually walk away from the Phantasm remake without ever having signed on the dotted line. New Line would in turn erase all mention of the project from their website, though the initial press release remains posted on TimeWarner.com.

THE ROMANO SCRIPT

After suspending talks with New Line, Phantasm’s creator would turn his attention back to the four Nightmare Hospital scripts that Stephen Romano had given him in 2000. Coscarelli so liked Romano’s fresh approach to the mythos that he purchased rights to the scripts in 2004 after the comic venture fell apart. These stories would guide the direction of the next Phantasm V script. The two would have immediately begun adapting these into a screenplay were it not for Coscarelli’s invitation to direct an episode of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series. Coscarelli teamed with Romano from 2004-2005 to adapt Joe Lansdale’s Incident On and Off a Mountain Road novella into a television script. A new role was created specifically for Angus Scrimm in order to expand Incident’s runtime to a full hour.

Coscarelli and Romano spent much of 2006 adapting the Nightmare Hospital storyline into a script titled Phantasm Forever. (The V in Forever could be capitalized like the roman numeral five.) Nightmare Hospital’s four episodes translated into a story with four chapters, each divided by a title card similar to the format of Pulp Fiction. Romano’s screenplay contained four sections:  Morningside, Destiny in Darkness, World of Shadows and Overminds.

Phantasm Forever began with the shocking suggestion that the previous four Phantasm’s were all a bad dream. We find Mike Pearson jolted awake from a decades-long coma inside a hospital with Jody by his side. In this reality, Reggie died years ago of natural causes. Mike is repeatedly assured that the Tall Man is but a figment of his imagination. He remains extremely suspicious of his predicament, even more so when he meets his physician, Dr. Morningside, who looks exactly like the Tall Man. The difference is that Dr. Morningside is eloquent, kindly and eager to talk with his newly revived patient. Similarly, the hospital administrator is a dead ringer for the Lady in Lavender. Mike does eventually agree to a therapy session, which alarmingly concludes with Dr. Morningside transforming into the Tall Man. In a desperate attempt to escape this nightmare, Mike puts a handgun to his temple and pulls the trigger.

“It was one of the most intense moments I’ve witnessed in the series,” Reggie Bannister told Scream Magazine. “The idea of Mike deciding that the only way to get out of this nightmare is to blow his brains out is not too far from anyone’s imagination if put in the same situation. He can’t take it anymore. But I think if Reggie had been in the room, his logic and reasoning about why Mike shouldn’t pull the trigger would have been: ‘Dude, what makes you think this will end the nightmare? Maybe this is just a ploy and the Tall Man is just playing you into another trip, one that may be more horrific than the one we’re in now.’ That concept is what makes Phantasm so frightening. It’s as if there’s no way out, but you can’t give up and you can’t stop trying.”

This desperate suicide attempt does not kill Mike but instead thrusts him into a different reality, one seemingly without Dr. Morningside or the Tall Man. In this second chapter, Mike lives with Reggie and his family. They rendezvous with Phantasm III’s Rocky at a local bar where Reggie plays his music. This peaceful interlude is short lived, however, as the Tall Man’s forces soon descend upon Reggie’s home. Forever’s third chapter jumps ahead to an apocalyptic future set long after mankind’s downfall. This portion of the script calls to mind Roger Avary’s Phantasm 1999. Here Romano attempts to rectify Phantasm’s biggest inconsistency by pitting A. Michael Baldwin’s Mike against James Legros’ Mike from Phantasm II, who turns out to be evil. The script’s final chapter returns to the coma ward of the opening scenes as Mike is about to begin his session with Dr. Morningside. Their chat goes differently this time as Mike figures out the true nature of the Tall Man’s game, which allows him to escape it. Phantasm Forever ends with Mike, now Professor Pearson and author of the autobiographical Dreamers in Darkness, narrating over visuals of the Tall Man haunting a new group of young people. This ending could have lead directly into the aforementioned Phantasm remake.

Cast response to Phantasm Forever was divided just as on Phantasm 1999, albeit along different lines and for different reasons. The project was considered extremely high concept as it explored the dream-like nature of the series, which lead Baldwin to dub it “the thinking man’s Phantasm.” This direction marked a firm departure from the road movie template of the previous sequels. In true Phantasm style, Romano’s story raised twice as many questions as it answered. Unlike Phantasm 1999, Forever maintained narrative focus on Mike Pearson and withheld Reggie’s first appearance until page thirty-two. Romano’s approach was light on action and heavy on dialogue. In fact, it was by far the most dialogue heavy script in Phantasm history, which made the project a dramatic challenge for the cast.

Angus Scrimm, while a vocal fan of Romano’s body of work, voiced concern that too much screen time as Dr. Morningside might make him seem less imposing as the Tall Man. Though Scrimm relished the opportunity to play dual roles in Phantasm Oblivion, he ultimately felt that doing so came at a cost to his performance as an antagonist. “If I did the Tall Man once more, I think I’d like to make him darker and scarier again,” he told The Phantasm Archives in 2008. “Seems to me he softened up a bit in the last episode. I’m quite happy though with the existing quartet of films as a complete and final entity.”

Upon completion of the Forever script, Coscarelli arranged a table read with the main cast in early 2007. This was highly unusual as the film had not technically been greenlit yet. Far more unusual was his desire to stage this rehearsal in a studio setting in order to record the cast against a green screen backdrop. Portions of the resulting footage were to be outfitted with backgrounds, computer effects and music to form a sort of moving storyboard, a rough pre-visualization of the film itself. This enhanced rehearsal would be used to improve the script and to attract investors to the project. Now known as the infamous Phantasm V table read, this daylong shoot was overseen by producer Brad Baruh, who wrangled a six person crew for the day. A lifelong horror fan, Baruh would go on to produce several projects for Marvel Studios as well as Coscarelli’s John Dies at the End and Phantasm Ravager. Coscarelli would in turn produce Baruh’s feature directorial debut with 2017’s Applecart.

Phantasm’s core cast – Baldwin, Bannister, Thornbury, Lester and Scrimm – agreed to participate in the Forever table read with no compensation on the condition that the footage was for internal use only. As such, no release forms were signed. Phantasm Oblivion actress Heidi Marnhout was originally cast as Reggie’s wife, Celeste, but unavailable to participate in the table read due to a prior commitment. She was replaced by Hellraiser star Ashley Laurence. The part of Phantasm II’s Mike was read on-camera by Romano himself, who flew up from Austin for the day. Whether LeGros would have agreed to appear in Forever was not yet known. The cast ultimately read through the Forever script five times that day. Coscarelli would spend the next several months cherry picking from this gaggle of footage to create a rough draft version of the film. Few have had the privilege of viewing the full table read. Not even Romano himself has seen it, though Angus Scrimm did receive a private screening later that year.

Per Coscarelli, the Forever table read was a top secret affair that was not to be discussed in public. Ironically, he would ultimately be responsible for news of the project leaking onto the internet. June 2007 saw the closure of the original Alamo Drafthouse location where Phantasmania had been held several years earlier. Filmmakers from around the world made tribute videos to be screened during the Alamo’s final week of operation. Coscarelli recorded such a video in which he thanked Alamo founders Tim and Karrie League before being drilled by a silver sphere. This brief video began with twenty seconds of footage from the Forever table read featuring Baldwin and Scrimm. The Tall Man intones, “This is all just a dream,” to which Mike replies, “No, it is not.” He then puts a gun to his head and pulls the trigger. The camera pulls back to reveal that Coscarelli has been watching this on his computer monitor.

Coscarelli’s tribute video screened at the Alamo Drafthouse on Wednesday, June 27, 2007. Three days later, the video was uploaded to YouTube by an unauthorized party and posted to Ain’t it Cool News. Phantasm’s creator moved quickly to have the original upload taken down, though he allowed subsequent uploads to remain online after seeing the overwhelmingly positive phan response. He even allowed the video to be posted on the official Phantasm website.

Why was Phantasm Forever ultimately never made? The biggest reason seems to have been money… or the lack thereof. Though projected to be considerably less expensive than the Roger Avary script, Forever needed a budget significantly larger than that of Phantasm Oblivion. Apocalyptic cityscapes and visual effects did not come cheap. Anchor Bay Entertainment expressed some interest in financing the film, though these talks went nowhere.

Romano later summarized his feelings about the project on Dread Central: “Making Phantasm Forever was a great experience at the time. An experience like most people - most fans - will never, ever have. We had drama, comedy, tears and lots of pretty girls, too. I stood in a room with not just Don Coscarelli, but nearly every single key actor in all four Phantasm films - and the star of Hellraiser - and they acted out my whole damn script five times in a row in front of cameras for sixteen hours. All because they thought it was cool. Nobody paid them to show up. They weren’t promised anything. They just did it. In any language, that’s fucking awesome.”

Coscarelli later attempted to have the Forever table read included as a bonus feature on Phantasm Ravager’s home video release. Modest compensation was offered to the cast in exchange for the use of their performances. This effort hit a major snag when the Screen Actors Guild decreed that the rehearsal could not be classified as bonus material. They ruled that the table read footage constituted a legitimate production all its own. Using a camcorder to tape a script reading was one thing. Using professional grade cameras to capture actors reciting lines against green screen in a studio was too similar to actual filmmaking. The financial implication of the Guild’s decision made the footage cost prohibitive to include as a bonus feature and the idea was scrapped.

IT’S JUST NOT GETTING ANY EASIER

The unending struggle to finance new Phantasm movies; it’s a tired tale frustrated phans have heard all too often. Why are studios so quick to churn out cookie cutter sequels to nearly every other horror franchise on the planet? It is simple – studios invest in those films with confidence because they ultimately wield creative control over both the films and their filmmakers. As financiers, studio execs often have input about every step of the creative process from script to screen, assuming they don’t already own the franchise outright. Examples of studio meddling are legion even with masterful filmmakers. One notorious example was how New Line Cinema’s Robert Shaye assumed creative control over 1984’s A Nightmare on Elm Street to dramatically change Wes Craven’s original ending

As a true auteur of horror cinema, Don Coscarelli works best when he has complete creative control. On 1982’s The Beastmaster, he was forcibly removed from the editing room by a domineering executive producer. The final film was extensively recut until it no longer reflected Coscarelli’s vision for the project. Years later, he was subject to the whims of a powerful studio executive on Phantasm II, which led to several mandates including the unfortunate recasting of A. Michael Baldwin with James LeGros. By and large, auteur filmmakers tend to struggle when constantly being second guessed by controlling investors and micromanaging studio executives. Coscarelli is unfortunately not a blockbuster filmmaker. He is known far better for the quality of his films than for their box office grosses. He has publicly lamented how increasingly difficult it is to acquire decent budgets while retaining creative control. This has long been the greatest challenge in mounting a new Phantasm film.

Phantasm is unique for being one of the only creator owned franchises in the genre. The same cannot be said of series like Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc. That Coscarelli has never relinquished ownership of Phantasm has allowed for a striking persistence of vision, a creative continuity that is all too rare in film franchises. This kind of consistency is virtually impossible to achieve when every film in a franchise is made by a different team of filmmakers. Unlike its genre peers, Phantasm has followed the same core group of characters for three decades. Compare that to other franchises where the only constant is the villain, who is sometimes even recast from one film to the next. For Coscarelli, creative control is quality control.

CHAPTER TWO

GETTING THE BALL ROLLING

Phantasm Ravager’s long and unusual journey to the big screen first began back in 2008, an astonishing eight years before the sequel would arrive in theaters. To put that into perspective, consider how different the cultural landscape was in 2008. Fangoria was still a print magazine. The Walking Dead was only a comic book. The Avengers had yet to cinematically assemble. Michael Jackson, Forrest J. Ackerman, and Blockbuster Video were still with us. There were no FitBits, iPads or Instagrams. MySpace was still a thing. George W. Bush was president. Get the picture? The oldest scenes in Ravager date back to 2008. These were first envisioned not as part of a sequel or web series but as a standalone short film intended to boost the showcase reel of a rising filmmaker, David Hartman.

ENTER DAVID HARTMAN

By 2008, there had been two radically different directions considered for Phantasm V, neither of which managed to get off the ground. There was also the New Line sponsored remake, which fell apart shortly after the studio announced it to the press. After three failed projects, prospects for a fifth Phantasm seemed grimmer than ever before. A decade had passed since the direct-to-video release of Phantasm Oblivion, which had suffered the lowest budget of any sequel yet. Many wondered if Don Coscarelli could even deliver another installment for such a low sum. Phantasm needed more than just an ace screenwriter to invigorate the series. A new approach was needed behind the camera as well in order to sustain production values on an even smaller budget. The project’s ultimate champion would be artist, animator, musician and aspiring filmmaker David Hartman. By his own admission, he was not the most traditional candidate for the job.

Hartman first moved from Ohio to Los Angeles in 1995 after graduating from the Columbus College of Art & Design. His wife, fellow graduate Kathleen, joined him on the journey west. Hartman’s first gig was performing storyboard cleanup on Sony Animation’s The Extreme Ghostbusters. He would rise meteorically through the company’s ranks, next joining Godzilla: The Series as storyboard artist. By the show’s end, Hartman had ascended to full-fledged director. From there he would produce and direct episodes of The Jackie Chan Adventures and Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles. He would join Disney Television Animation in 2007 to helm more than fifty episodes of My Friends Tigger and Pooh.

There is no denying how strange it looks on paper that a Winnie the Pooh showrunner would make his live-action directorial debut with Phantasm V. Yet it would be terribly unfair to pigeonhole Hartman as “the guy who directs Winnie the Pooh.” This oversimplification does a grave disservice to the man’s dark side. He may have been a Disney director by day, but by night he was doing macabre work for Rob Zombie. Hartman’s wicked art sprang to life in music videos like “American Witch” and “The Lords of Salem.” He would later contribute art to the comic spinoff of The Devil’s Rejects including its award-winning cover. In his introduction to Hartman’s 2001 compilation book Sideshow Monkey, Zombie hailed his collaborator as “the king of monster makers.” High praise considering Zombie’s impeccable taste all things spooky. (By the way, Zombie is a huge Phantasm phan.)

Phantasm’s creator has often cited Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers as one of his all-time favorite films. Indeed, the Starship fandom of Don Coscarelli runs deep. He personally owns screen used props from the production and would later cast actor Clancy Brown in John Dies at the End. Circa 2000, Hartman was directing episodes of Sony Animation’s Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles, of which Coscarelli was also a fan. The future Phantasm V helmer first met his mentor around 2002 by way of Roughnecks editor Michael T. Smith, who had offered to provide visual effects on Bubba Ho-Tep free of charge. Eager for an opportunity to work with the master of horror, Hartman also volunteered to work on the production. As the story goes, Coscarelli asked the animation director if he knew how to digitally erase wires from special effects shots. Hartman quickly replied in the affirmative, securing him the job. He then rushed home to Google “how to do wire removal.”

Hartman may have been bluffing to Coscarelli, but it was a bluff he was willing to make good on. He quickly taught himself digital wire removal prior to his time on Bubba. His work in the film is so good that it is virtually impossible to tell which shots required his attention. In addition to wire removal, Hartman also helped create nearly all of the film’s digital effects which included the animated hieroglyphics that appear when the mummy speaks (“Eat the dog dick of Anubis, you ass wipe!”). Beyond this, he provided the vintage illustrations that appear within The Everyday Man or Woman’s Book of Souls that Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis consult in the film. Even his artist-wife Kathleen pitched in to provide Bubba’s carved stone logo. From this first collaboration, Coscarelli knew his multi-talented friend was a colleague worth keeping.

Hartman’s enthusiasm for working on Bubba Ho-Tep owed largely to having been a genuine “phan” for many years. His first exposure to Phantasm came at age seven while flipping through the pages of Fangoria’s second issue with its numerous iconic images from Coscarelli’s film. Hartman was immediately smitten with Phantasm, and later its sequels. He even wrote phan mail to Reggie Bannister in the ‘90s and received a personal reply from the actor. Hartman’s phandom later manifested in his work on Bubba. He snuck a Phantasm cameo into his illustrations for The Everyday Man or Woman’s Book of Souls. As Bruce Campbell flips through the book the camera moves across artwork of a giant soul sucker tearing the roof off a home. Near the bottom of the page, the Tall Man can be seen fleeing the carnage in a horse-drawn carriage.

Two years later, Phantasm’s creator enlisted Hartman as a production consultant for his entry into Showtime’s Masters of Horror series. Hartman storyboarded several tricky sequences for Incident On and Off a Mountain Road before taping and was present on set for general support. He also directed second unit material, which included the memorable slo-mo shot of slasher Moonface jumping over a highway railing. Unfortunately, union rules prevented him from receiving an assistant director credit on the show. Hartman would later contribute artwork to Incident co-writer Stephen Romano’s rollicking tribute to exploitation cinema, Shock Festival. Romano would, in turn, name a sleazy crime boss after the artist in his debut novel Resurrection Express. Although Hartman was not involved with the 2006 taping of the Phantasm Forever table read, he did composite in effects and backgrounds to the green screen footage. He also directed the infamous 2007 Alamo Drafthouse Tribute video.

Hartman did not go into animation as the result of a long held aspiration. Instead, animation directing was merely a career he stumbled into and happened to be quite successful at. His first passion had always been drawing monsters. His second passion was filmmaking, which he hoped to do as an adult. This was an ambition he could trace all the way back to the fateful day his father brought home the family’s first camcorder. Hartman has since created countless experimental short films. As years passed, these improved in every regard: scripting, editing, production design, special effects and cinematography. Not unlike Phantasm’s creator, the Ohioan was less an amateur filmmaker and more a one man production army. Hartman was also willing to be both behind the camera and in front it, often at the same time. He continued to hone his filmmaking craft at Sony where he managed to assemble a small band of likeminded colleagues. After working on their respective shows throughout the week, this group would gather on weekends to create live action shorts. With each successive project, Hartman would master a new function of filmmaking software such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects. He would soon come to embrace green screen and digital effects, which would elevate his work to a new level.

The online video explosion of the 2000’s soon gave Hartman a platform on which to share his weekend endeavors. Among his early collaborations was the webserial Laser Fart, which ran on Channel101.com throughout 2004. The plot involved a man gifted with the superhuman ability to shoot lasers from his anus. Created by and starring Dan Harmon (who would go on to create shows like Community and Rick and Morty), Laser Fart featured supporting appearances by Justin Roiland (voice of both Rick and Morty) as well as a young Jack Black. Hartman directed and produced much of the series, also appearing in several episodes along with wife Kathleen and young daughter Vivienne. This closing line from the first episode should be enough to sell anyone on it: “From now on, I will be responsible. From now on, I will use these lasers that come out of my butt to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. From now on, I am Laser Fart.” (Author’s note: It’s okay to put this down now and go watch a few of these fun episodes. I’ll still be here when you’re done.)

Hartman’s solo projects were a touch more sophisticated than Laser Fart, though still wonderfully bizarre. Subsequent webserials included the impressively animated Codename Embryo and the comically zany Adventurous Und Magick Haus, both in 2004. Standalone tales like 2003’s Freako Asylum and 2007’s Ghost Town reveal a willingness to home engineer special effects most amateur filmmakers wouldn’t even attempt. Shorts like 2005’s The Call of Echo Mountain show off a keen blend of practical and digital methods to depict everything from woodland monsters to flying saucers. One needn’t look hard to find the similarities in these shorts between Hartman and a much younger Coscarelli. Many of the former’s short films evoke the same can-do attitude that eventually emboldened the latter to make Phantasm. Neither filmmaker appeared to let budgetary constraints affect their vision. Their common creed seemed to be, “If it can be imagined in the mind’s eye, it can be depicted on the screen.”

A DIGITAL SHORT

2008 was a good year for Phantasm phans. Anchor Bay Entertainment ushered Phantasm Oblivion back onto DVD with a fresh transfer and new features. Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm were announced as co-stars for James Felix McKenney’s horror-comedy Satan Hates You. Phantasm’s original five cast members publicly gathered - for the first time ever - to celebrate the franchise with Don Coscarelli at Chicago’s Flashback Weekend convention. Similar reunions followed shortly after. The original Phantasm was even screened at Hollywood Forever cemetery with cast and crew attendance. Quite appropriately, the film was projected onto an exterior mausoleum wall. Plans were already underway to help commemorate the rapidly approaching thirtieth anniversary. Anchor Bay, which held domestic rights to Phantasm, Phantasm III and Phantasm Oblivion, hoped to release a domestic silver sphere set of all four films but were unable to pry Phantasm II away from Universal Studios.

Beyond box sets and reunions, phans vigorously clamored for a new sequel. Cast and crew were relentlessly deluged with Phantasm V questions at every public appearance. Ever the jokester, A. Michael Baldwin told phans that they were skipping over Phantasm V in order to concentrate on Phantasm VI. Sequel demand intensified following the Alamo Drafthouse video leak with online petitions and a letter writing campaign featured in the pages of Rue Morgue Magazine. With no script under consideration and no investors knocking down Coscarelli’s door, the chances of launching Phantasm V appeared nonexistent. As Angus Scrimm candidly told Fangoria in August 2008, “Don’t hold your breath. There is nothing in the works.”

During this time, David Hartman was still in regular production on his weekend shorts. The aspiring filmmaker was looking to assemble his best material into a showcase reel that might aid his directorial jump from animation to live action. Knowing that his mentor was approaching  Phantasm’s thirtieth anniversary emptyhanded, he suggested they work together on a Phantasm short film for possible release online or on special edition Blu-Ray. Coscarelli was intrigued by this idea. A short film, if shot digitally, could be produced for practically nothing. He already had all the necessary props in storage from spheres to spacegates. Though a digital short might not have been the full sequel most phans were hoping for, it was still something to celebrate the upcoming milestone, not to mention a valuable asset to Hartman’s directorial reel.

Coscarelli encouraged Hartman to plan several scenes to be shot across a single weekend in mid-October 2008. Although Phantasm’s creator was handing the reigns to a newcomer, he would remain heavily involved in a supervisory role. Hartman was tasked with figuring out logistics for the shoot including equipment and special effects. He wrote several scenes that depicted Reggie befriending a stranded motorist named Dawn, whom he predictably attempts to romance. She offers him lodging for the night in exchange for a ride home. The Regman briefly recounts to her his decades-long fight against the Tall Man. He then composes her an original song. He wakes the next morning to a bloody Dawn - literally. She has been drilled by a sphere during the night. The monstrous orb soon turns its blades upon Reggie who flees the house.

Hartman created the role of Reggie’s love interest specifically for friend and actress Dawn Cody. As a veteran of his weekend productions, she was a trusted colleague and a reliable talent. Cody previously appeared in 1998’s Pleasantville, which also featured Phantasm III’s Kevin Connors in a supporting role. Cody would become the third performer in Phantasm history to play a namesake character after Reggie Bannister and A. Michael Baldwin. “Don and Dave swore me to secrecy before we shot anything,” she told Six Strings Magazine. “They said I couldn’t talk about the project to anyone. At that point, I understood there were some pretty dedicated phans out there that would love any scrap of info they could get their hands on, which is especially tricky with social media these days. It was kind of a bummer because I was so excited about being in a Phantasm movie, but I couldn’t talk about it publicly. It’s like finding out you’re pregnant and not being able to tell people for the first few months. Only with this project I had to wait a few years!”

In many respects this digital short was an experiment. Foremost, it was a proving ground for Hartman’s writing and directing abilities. It was also a test of his microbudget approach to filmmaking, which made Coscarelli’s frugal productions look extravagantly wasteful by comparison. Furthermore, it was a trial run to see if Phantasm, which had seen four installments gorgeously shot on traditional celluloid, could make the jump to digital video. Fortunately, there were no strings attached. As with nearly everything related to Phantasm, the Hartman short was a top secret operation shared only on a need-to-know basis. If the resulting footage proved lousy for any reason, Coscarelli could simply trash it. He was under no commitment to release anything. If he did scrap the project, the phanbase would be none the wiser. While the initial plan called for only one weekend of filming, there was hope that the resulting footage would prove good enough to prompt additional scenes.

Coscarelli mentions on Ravager’s audio commentary that the digital short’s focus on Reggie was a simple matter of practicality as he lived in the mountain village of Crestline, California, roughly an hour’s drive from Los Angeles. A. Michael Baldwin, on the other hand, had recently relocated to Austin, Texas. Writing scenes with Mike Pearson would mean providing Baldwin with airfare and hotel, a prohibitively expensive burden for a short film that might never even see public release. While Bill Thornbury lived much closer, he was still four hours away in Fresno, California and taught music full-time. Telling a new story using the Pearson brothers might also have proven tricky from a scripting standpoint. The first four Phantasm’s had firmly established the franchise’s main conflict as being between Mike and the Tall Man. The Reggie character, however endearing, had grown increasingly peripheral to that conflict, especially across the past two sequels. Since Phantasm V was still a real possibility, it was important that Hartman’s project be self-contained. An anniversary short film was not the place to wrap up long standing storylines nor divulge groundbreaking revelations about the characters. Utilizing Reggie in a tangential storyline was a logical way to keep from complicating the narrative landscape.

Centering the new project on Reggie made sense from a narrative standpoint and a production one as well. Since 1994, Reggie and his spouse, Gigi Bannister, have supported independent filmmakers through their company, Production Magic Incorporated. Bringing the Regman onboard meant that Hartman and Coscarelli were getting more than just an actor. Reggie and Gigi were a package deal whose talents included producing, effects, location scouting, production coordination and much more. While brainstorming the project, the couple volunteered their mountain home as a possible filming location for Dawn’s cabin. Hartman and Coscarelli quickly seized upon this cost-efficient suggestion. The Bannister’s had already produced several features in and around Crestline, notably Small Town, Saturday Night and Bloody, Bloody Bible Camp, but never before had they allowed cameras into their home. For their involvement, Reggie and Gigi brokered a deal to receive producer credits on the short in addition to their various other roles. This was not unprecedented as Baldwin had effectively served as producer on Phantasm Oblivion two decades prior.

CRESTLINE FILMING

Filming on Hartman’s Phantasm short began Friday, October 10, 2008, almost eight years before Phantasm Ravager would land in theaters. Most of the weekend was spent capturing cabin interiors at the Bannister homestead, though the filmmakers also shot Reggie and Dawn’s roadside chat. The project’s skeleton crew included Hartman, Coscarelli, Brad Baruh and the Bannisters. Hartman ensured a smooth shoot by meticulously planning out the weekend with detailed storyboards and scene notes. The crew’s first order of business upon arrival in Crestline was to stage a rehearsal for the performers. While running through their lines in Bannisters’ living room, the two actors were said to have struck an easy chemistry with one another.

One of the weekend’s first scenes involved the Regman serenading Dawn with “In a Mountain Cabin,” a song meant to seduce her. She initially rebuffs his romantic advances, but eventually comes around. When Dawn returns to check on her guest, she finds him fast asleep and snoring on the couch, the joke being that when a woman is finally interested our luckless hero he is too tired to play along. This scene contains a fun easter egg for sharp-eyed phans. The blanket that Dawn uses to cover Reggie was last seen on young Mike’s bed in the original Phantasm, most notably during the cemetery nightmare in which he finds the Tall Man looming over him. Although Hartman had written original lyrics for Reggie into the scene, he readily agreed to let Bannister - an accomplished songwriter and musician – create his own lyrics. If Reggie’s guitar licks here sound familiar it’s because they first appeared in the original Phantasm as his accompaniment to Jody’s “Sittin’ Here at Midnight.” Just as on that song, “In A Mountain Cabin” was recorded live on set.

Dawn’s upstairs bedroom in the short film was, in reality, the Bannisters’ actual bedroom. Although she mentions to Reggie that her parents hail from Bulgaria, the cabin’s décor (particularly the dreamcatcher overlooking her bed) clearly suggests a Native American theme which we can attribute to Gigi ‘Fast Elk’ Bannister’s heritage. In the story, Reggie wakes to find his lovely host upstairs being exsanguinated by a sphere. Hartman’s take on this familiar Phantasm trope marks a departure from tradition as Dawn seems to have died in her sleep. Her expression and posture do not suggest her final moments were of terror, but instead of tranquility. She appears as peaceful as a casketed corpse, a tenuous but welcome connection to themes from the original Phantasm.

The character’s bloody send-off was only partly filmed the first weekend to keep from completely wrecking the Bannister homestead. Hartman would later digitally composite fake blood stains into the room such as the thick spray visible on Dawn’s ceiling. The filmmakers wouldn’t technically complete the sequence until years later with insert shots of the gory kill which were captured on a replica set of the Bannisters’ bedroom built inside Hartman’s garage. Critics of Ravager’s digital effects should appreciate that its multiple sphere drillings were achieved using old fashioned blood pumps. Not until the ball detaches from Dawn’s forehead and rotates to face Reggie does Hartman switch to a digital sphere. This sequence in the original short film contained a moment absent from Phantasm Ravager; Reggie was to have pulled a switchblade on the chrome sentinel before he fled. Reg quickly realizes the futility of his action as the sphere blades turn toward him. In Ravager, the scene merely skips ahead to Reggie rushing out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

A terrified Reggie stops to catch his breath in the stairwell. BAM! The sphere rams the door behind him, its twin blades breaking through the wood mere inches from his head. He then bolts downstairs. The close-up of the blades barely missing Reggie’s skull required a careful setup that left little margin for error. The filmmakers decided to stage the gag downstairs due to the treacherously cramped nature of the Bannisters’ stairwell. The breakaway door and stunt blades were fabricated by local handyman Bob Starr, who was on hand to monitor the effect. Reggie’s wife was put in charge of operating a specially built rig that would ram the sphere blades through the door. Such a stunt was not without risk. Had Gigi missed her mark she could have fatally stabbed her husband in the back of the head. Despite having only one breakaway door the crew managed to film the stunt twice by flipping it vertically. Fortunately for everyone, Gigi hit her mark both times.

EXPERIMENT RESULTS

Upon return from Crestline, David Hartman immediately assembled his footage into a rough cut with temporary music and placeholder effects. Response to this early cut was overwhelmingly positive. By all accounts, the experiment had been a resounding success. These scenes genuinely felt like they unfolded in the Phantasm universe. Dawn Cody was charming opposite Reggie Bannister, who was still as charismatic as ever. Hartman’s extensive storyboarding and thoughtful planning had paid off. Even the home engineered practical effects looked good. Best of all, these scenes had cost virtually nothing to shoot.

For Phantasm’s creator, there was something pleasantly surprising about the weekend. Don Coscarelli experienced something on set he hadn’t felt since making the original film in 1978. He had fun. Coscarelli has often remarked that while student filmmaking is enjoyable, Hollywood filmmaking is most certainly not. This was a key difference between the first film and its three sequels. The original Phantasm was leisurely shot and assembled across several years. Yet its three sequels were produced as professional motion pictures with considerably larger budgets and much tighter deadlines. That meant having to deal with things like contract negotiations, release dates, shooting schedules, guilds and unions, warehouse rental, location permits, set building, multiple teams of effects people and, in the case of the second film, meddling notes from studio executives. The cozy weekend shoot in Crestline had none of these things.

The decision to schedule additional weekend filming was reportedly an easy one. The secret project may have begun as a way to expand Hartman’s directing reel but the resulting footage was more promising than that. Yet the Crestline scenes were but a tiny sliver of a larger story. They constituted neither a beginning nor an end to the experiment. To expand this material, Coscarelli and Hartman would need to answer many questions. What transpired before Reggie arrived at Dawn’s cabin? What happened after the sphere chased him outside? How did all of this connect to the ending of Phantasm Oblivion? And where were Mike and Jody? Questions without answers… but not for long.

CHAPTER THREE

REBEL WITHOUT A BUDGET

PHANTASM: THE WEB SERIES

Hartman’s Phantasm short did not remain short for long as the project soon evolved into a web series. The possibility of doing multiple shorts had already been considered and the results of the Crestline shoot confirmed this idea. There was always the chance these early scenes might turn out poorly in which case the endeavor could be abandoned with ease. Fortunately, that was not the case. Preliminary material involving Reggie and Dawn was strong enough to serve as a launch point for additional stories. Hartman originally planned to call the project Reggie’s Two-Fisted Tales, which was briefly shortened to Reggie Tales as a play on the animated children’s program Veggie Tales. By the first production weekend in October 2008, the project was being referred to as Reggie’s Tales.

Right from the start, the creation of the webserial mirrored that of the original Phantasm in an unintentional way as both projects shot mainly on weekends for the better part of a year. Logistically, Hartman and Coscarelli approached the venture one weekend at a time. After each weekend’s footage had been edited to contentment, planning would begin for the next miniature shoot. Distribution remained an unknown during filming. Coscarelli gave serious consideration to monetizing the shorts online, possibly even on his newly redesigned Phantasm.com. This was fine in theory, but the plan had few specifics. How much would each webisode cost? What technology would be used to stream them? Would there be a download option? Public screenings? A home video release? Would the webisodes debut all at once or one per week? Production forged ahead despite these unanswered questions.

“David Hartman is brilliant at what he does and an enormous Phantasm phan,” Angus Scrimm told a Mad Monster Party Seattle audience in 2015. “He came to Don with plans to do a series of short films that could be screened on the internet for a modest dollar, something that would involve the Phantasm characters. But initially they were going to shoot these all non-union, which I can’t do. They call it financial core, which means you don’t have to abide by union rules. It also means that you don’t get all of the union benefits. The only actor who was available to shoot fi-core was Reggie, so they shot much of it with him. They got some delightfully funny moments and some scary moments too.”

Narratively, the story of Reggie’s Tales came together in pieces. New scenes initially branched out from the Crestline material to show what happened before and after the incident at Dawn’s cabin. This patchwork process resulted in changes to the webserial’s chronology as new scenes were added. Reggie’s Tales was originally poised to begin with the Crestline material, which was set at some unspecified point in the future. Shaken by Dawn’s death, Reggie would return to the open road for more adventures, interacting with a different guest-star each webisode. Hartman later decided to add scenes that would bridge the opening of Reggie’s Tales to the ending of Phantasm Oblivion. In doing so, the material at Dawn’s cabin was pushed forward in the chronology, more definitively placing it in the cinematic timeline.

Unfolding across thirteen chapters, the webserial’s general plot was this: the story begins with Reggie wandering the desert after the explosive ending of Phantasm Oblivion. He’s on foot as someone has carjacked the ‘Cuda from a hidden location in Death Valley. Reggie eventually finds the car thief, retrieves his chariot and fends off an attack by two silver spheres. He soon encounters a stranded motorist named Dawn, who offers him lodging at her mountain cabin in exchange for a ride home. After suffering a nightmare, Reggie wakes the next morning to find his host fatally sphered in her bed. The ball chases him outside to an adjacent farm where it fatally drills a horse and Dawn’s Bulgarian farmhand. Reggie escapes into a patch of woods and then through a spacegate. He emerges within a mausoleum where he soon encounters a familiar figure from an alternate past, the Lady in Lavender, whose fatal charms he barely manages to resist. He shoots her, then follows a deformed corridor into an unearthly looking cave. Inside, he is attacked by a hulking gigantic dwarf and saved at the last moment by sphere versions of Mike and Jody. The Pearson brothers deliver an ominous warning about the Tall Man and offer to aid Reggie with their sphere powers. Our hero exits the cave onto the stormy surface of the Red Planet where he comes face to face with ten thousand dwarves. Cut to black. End of series.

In the grand phantasmic scheme of things, the events of Reggie’s Tales were largely inconsequential to the Phantasm mythos. Hartman’s story takes great care not to stand in the way of a possible Phantasm V. The opening webisode does meet back up with Reggie following the last film, but not in a way that reveals where he was or how long he was there. These scenes accentuate the mystery as Reggie emerges from Death Valley looking far worse than when he jumped through the portal at Oblivion’s conclusion. Rather than advance the story, the webserial functions like Phantasm’s Greatest Hits in that Reggie’s Tales is, by design, quite derivative of what has come before. Reggie in the ‘Cuda? Seen it. Reggie fighting spheres and dwarves? Done already. Reggie picking up a girl in the middle of nowhere? Been there. Reggie trying to get laid? Numerous times. None of this is poorly conceived or executed. It is actually everything one might look for in a Phantasm web series.

To term this venture “microbudget” might suggest the filmmakers had even more money than they actually did. In truth, Reggie’s Tales had the smallest budget of any Coscarelli production to date, even lower than that of his feature debut Jim the World’s Greatest, which he began while still in high school. A budget this low might have led some filmmakers to supplant action scenes with flashback montages or excessive exposition, but not Hartman. Instead he sought to include as many of Phantasm’s signature elements as possible. Sequences like the sphere-versus-’Cuda chase would have been considered ambitious even on the bigger budgeted Phantasm’s II and III. For other filmmakers, such a chase would have been unthinkable on a show so strapped for cash. If Hartman was supposed to be matching the action to the budget, someone failed to give him the message. Production would resume the following month and continue intermittently through to the following summer.

RETURN TO CRESTLINE

The webserial team wasted little time returning to Crestline to continue their project. Production resumed mid-November 2008 with a weekend slate that included exteriors of Dawn’s cabin and barn interiors featuring her Bulgarian farmhand Demeter. Although Reggie and Gigi Bannister’s quaint mountain home sufficed for cabin interiors, it did not fit the bill for the planned exteriors. The script called for Dawn’s cabin to have an adjoining farm and nearby barn, neither of which were present on the Bannister estate. There was also the issue of neighboring homes being well within view of filming. Having production managed in Crestline previously, the Bannisters offered to scout for an alternative location near their home. They ultimately selected a property owned by Bob and Tobi Yeomans, whose isolated mountain abode fit the script perfectly and was conveniently situated near the couple’s Backyard Equestrian Center.

The Yeomans were especially supportive of filming and even allowed the crew to install a breakaway glass door for Bannister to crash through, a stunt the sixty-three-year-old actor performed himself twice. Despite appearing in a Phantasm Ravager promotional trailer, this brief moment of Reggie escaping Dawn’s cabin was ultimately cut from the film to improve pacing. The Yeomans’ property first appears as Reggie and Dawn drive up in the ‘Cuda. The tender soundtrack for their arrival recycles the score from Phantasm Oblivion’s “Last Perfect Day” scene. The Backyard Equestrian Center met all but one of the script’s location needs: none of the small barns matched Hartman’s vision. Upon learning this, the Yeoman’s generously offered to build a larger structure that would meet the director’s specifications. A new barn was up and camera ready in just three days! This would be Ravager’s only constructed set. Since the Yeoman’s ran a working equestrian center, filming was often interrupted by a rowdy chorus of curious horses, goats, and chickens. The Yeoman daughters, Meagan and Sarah, pitched in as production assistants throughout the weekend.

In this webisode, Reggie is chased out of Dawn’s cabin by the sphere that killed her. He immediately throws open the ‘Cuda’s trunk to reveal a weapons cache fit for an army. This scene contains multiple easter eggs for longtime phans. For starters, the yellow chainsaw is a throwback to Phantasm II (“Come get some, you mutha!”). The katana sword may allude to reference Gloria Lynne Henry’s Rocky, who wielded such a weapon in Stephen Romano’s Phantasm Overminds comic. Even if it isn’t, the nunchucks he soon reaches for certainly are. In the slightly longer Reggie’s Tales cut of this scene, our hero briefly considers taking along a toilet plunger, which he used to stop the Tall Man’s gold sphere in Phantasm III. Although not an easter egg, you have to wonder where Reg managed to find a German stick grenade, otherwise known as a stielhandgranate. The panicked hero crams several weapons into a duffel bag and sprints for a nearby barn.

Inside the barn, Reg has an unfriendly encounter with Demeter, Dawn’s farmhand. This scene’s initial tone is comic as he tries unsuccessfully to keep the Bulgarian menial from attracting the nearby sphere’s attention. (“Will you shut the fuck up, please!?”) Hartman cast versatile character actor Daniel Roebuck as Demeter, who phans might remember as a funeral home attendant in Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep. In addition to being an accomplished performer, Roebuck is an enormous horror fan whose massive personal collection includes the Demon Trooper mask from Phantasm Oblivion, which was gifted to him by stuntman Bob Ivy. Roebuck also produced and co-directed the 1997 documentary Halloween: The Happy Haunting of America, which features Coscarelli and Angus Scrimm.

The scene continues with Reggie peering outside the barn as Demeter angrily questions him in Bulgarian. Reggie watches in horror through a hole in the wall as the sphere takes down a barnyard horse. Although scripted well in advance, this kill was originally going to be a much smaller moment. In an early version of the scene, Reggie would only have heard the sphere’s shrill approach followed by the equine’s panicked cries. The only visual would have been an obscured view of the horse lying motionless in a pool of blood. Unbeknownst to the filmmakers, the Yeoman’s had chosen a rather playful show horse, Misty, for the scene. As it turned out, Misty loved rolling on the ground whenever water was sprayed. With the right sound effects, this could be made to look as though the animal were writhing in its own blood, which made for a more dramatic kill. Even better, the filmmakers learned Misty was a parade horse so she was accustomed to wearing elaborate headdresses with assorted attachments. Given this discovery, Gigi Bannister quickly fashioned a sphere onto Misty’s browband and the episode’s horse kill became a much bigger moment. The Phantasm series has now killed a dog, cat and horse - ironic considering the Bannister and Coscarelli clans are staunch pro-animal vegetarians.

Reggie and Demeter’s argument soon attracts the sentinel’s attention. Once inside the barn, the orb targets the axe-wielding farmhand. Hartman seems to be setting up a traditional sphere kill. Demeter briefly manages to fend off his chrome attacker but the ball ultimately prevails, stabbing into his throat. Los Angeles Times critic Charles Champlin famously dubbed Phantasm’s sphere the screen’s first “digital vampire” in 1979, an observation that seems doubly appropriate in this scene. The drilling culminates with the expected sanguinary geyser. Here the scene shifts tone as Demeter violently flails about. Unlike previous franchise sphere kills, he does not fall motionless onto his back with the ball obscuring his face. Instead, he slumps down against a support beam and locks eyes with Reggie. This petrifies our hero, who has been frantically dashing about the room. In this moment, he appears to feel the weight of this man’s death as fear gives way to profound sadness. He had his gun aimed at the ball just prior to the kill. Could Reggie have prevented this? Did he endanger Dawn and Demeter simply by entering into their lives? Reggie has seen so much death over the years yet this moment shows he is not yet desensitized to it. He still retains his humanity, a quality the Tall Man would deride as just another “frail human emotion.”

CANYON FILMING

On Tuesday, December 30, 2008, the production team gathered at Bronson Canyon in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park to capture the webserial’s cave sequence. This famous locale is the same cave from which Adam West’s Batmobile emerges in the 1960’s Batman show. More of a tunnel than a cave, this site has featured over the years  in countless productions including The Searchers and Invasion of the Body Snatchers ‘56. Horror fans may recognize it from the director’s cut finale of Army of Darkness in which Ash overdoses on a sleeping potion to awaken several centuries later. For Phantasm’s filmmakers, Bronson Canyon ranked amongst the project’s more difficult shoots. Contrary to Coscarelli’s penchant for guerilla filmmaking, he did actually acquire a location permit for the day but not one that would allow for electric generators or vehicle access. As a result, all equipment had to be battery powered and manually hauled across multiple trips from a distant parking lot. The entire team, actors included, were required to help schlep the gear to set. The crew would exit the cave later that evening to find the parking lot gates closed, locking them inside the park!

The cave sequence as it later appeared in Ravager bore little resemblance to how it was first envisioned and shot for Reggie’s Tales. In the 2016 sequel, Reggie wanders inside, fights a lone dwarf and the cave suddenly crumbles away to reveal the Tall Man. In Reggie’s Tales, our hero wanders in and shoots this same lone dwarf before encountering a much larger dwarf which nearly kills him. He is barely saved from certain death when the creature is fatally lasered by Mike Pearson in sphere form. Jody’s blackened orb soon appears and the reunited trio have a chat. Mike explains how his mind is now trapped within the gold sphere giving him many powerful abilities. He warns that the Tall Man is preparing for something big and offers to assist Reggie in his ongoing fight. Initially skeptical, the Regman eventually reaffirms his dedication to their cause (“Alright, then. Let’s kick some ass!”). Hartman originally planned for Reggie to then exit the cave directly onto the surface of the Red Planet where the web series would have abruptly ended.

The cave’s smaller dwarf was portrayed by Vivienne Hartman, the director’s young daughter. This was similar to how Chloe Coscarelli, Don’s young daughter, played the dwarf that sneaks up on Reggie at the end of Phantasm Oblivion. (Note to future Phantasm directors: make sure one of your children is willing to robe up and fight Reggie Bannister; This is now a mandatory job requirement.) The giant dwarf was played by stuntman-turned-actor Derek Mears, whose fearsome performance as Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th ‘09 wouldn’t hit theaters for another five months. At 6’ 5”, Mears stands as the tallest performer in Phantasm history, besting Angus Scrimm by several inches. The actor wore a grotesque mask (“The Freak”) sculpted by John Fuller, which appeared battle damaged and missing one eye. This sequence marked Reggie’s only use of the katana sword in the entire project.

Mike and Jody’s sphere cameos in the cave scene were important in helping the web series feel like part of the Phantasm universe. Without Scrimm’s Tall Man, Reggie’s Tales needed as many familiar faces (or voices) as possible. The two spheres were digitally added in post-production and neither performer was present for filming. A. Michael Baldwin’s lines were recorded some two thousand miles away at his Austin home and digitally submitted. Jody’s sole line (“Hey Reg,”) was recycled from existing material.

Mike’s dialogue makes vague reference to an impending catastrophe that would take place after the events of Reggie’s Tales. Specifically, he says that the Tall Man “is making preparations of some kind” and that his “forces are gathering” for “something immense.” Mike and Jody’s existence as spheres and their warning about the Tall Man did not align with the direction later chosen for Ravager, resulting in their being dropped from the cave scene altogether. While visually interesting, the concept of a giant dwarf conflicts with the existing mythology. The Tall Man’s previously human minions are shrunken down due to the heavier gravity of the Red Planet. Why then would there be a giant dwarf? Did the Tall Man locate a second planet with a lesser gravity? The issue is never clarified.

A FAMILIAR HAUNT

In December 2008, Don Coscarelli phoned actress Kathy Lester to catch up. During their call, he detailed his secret plans to produce a Phantasm web series starring Reggie Bannister. He then invited Lester to reprise her role as the Lady in Lavender in one of the webisodes. Not counting her silent cameo in the third film, three decades had passed since her portrayal of Phantasm’s signature femme fatale. She knew from her time on the convention circuit that phans were eager to see the Lady in Lavender return. In truth, it was a role she had always hoped to one day revisit. She gladly accepted his invitation.

The Lavender webisode finds Reggie stepping out of a spacegate into an eerily familiar mausoleum. He follows the sound of a scurrying dwarf around a corner before spotting the Lady in Lavender in the distance. She floats toward him with a seductive gaze. He lowers his weapon, bewitched by her spell. Now face to face, Reggie appears lost to Lavender’s charms… until he recalls the buried memory of their encounter thirty years ago when she stabbed him at Morningside. Lavender lets out a banshee scream as Reggie breaks from her trance. He fires off a kill shot, leaving her lying on the marble floor in a pool of yellow blood.

The mausoleum sequence was shot on Tuesday, January 28, 2009 at Angeles Abbey in Compton. This marked the establishment’s third consecutive appearance in a Phantasm film. This return location posed unique challenges for the small crew. The Abbey’s buildings lacked power and required the production to bring along several generators to run equipment. Its hallways were unusually dark, even in daytime hours. With few lights and limited crewmembers to haul such gear, the filmmakers chose the mausoleum with the most stained glass windows and skylights in order to best utilize natural lighting. Reggie’s Tales could only afford one day at the Abbey, which meant that the Lavender webisode had to be shot entirely and efficiently in mere hours. The scurrying dwarf that Reggie initially follows was played by animator and longtime Hartman associate Jay Oliva, who would soon direct a string of DC Comics animated movies beginning with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. His professional history with Hartman dates back to when they both worked as storyboard cleaners on Sony’s Extreme Ghostbusters.

While setting up at the Abbey, Hartman noticed a rollable scaffolding used to load coffins into the upper wall crypts. This gave him an idea on how to improve the scene. Instead of only showing Lavender’s upper-body moving in a ghost-like manner, he could now more fully depict her levitation by using the casket loader. Hartman instructed Lester to hoist herself onto the scaffolding so that her feet dangled off the ground. Crewmembers then rolled the apparatus down the hallway toward Reggie. Employing skills he learned on Bubba Ho-Tep, Hartman would later digitally erase scaffolding and crew from the shot. In the finished scene, Lester appears to float toward her costar without assistance. The effect is a testament to Hartman’s digital wizardry and to Lester’s upper body-strength.

“I came dressed in my lavender dress,” the actress told Dread Central. “David said it was going to be a relatively short shoot. I’d planned to go to dinner later that evening, which wasn’t a good idea. We shot a few scenes where I get hit in the head with a shotgun and fall back. Then David says, ‘Go and get your makeup fixed up a bit and come back.’ While I was sitting there I saw Gigi mixing these huge buckets of movie blood. I said ‘Wow, who is that for?’ She said, ‘You really don’t know?’ I said I didn’t. Well, I had to get down on the floor and she poured this blood all around me. It was seeping in underneath my dress and in my hair. I said ‘Do you have a robe, something I could change into?’ They did not so it was a disaster for me. It’s funny now but not so funny on the day we shot it.”

Reggie’s Lavender encounter is notable for being the longest sequence in Phantasm Ravager, nearly four minutes, without any spoken dialogue whatsoever. The scene succeeds because of ace camerawork, masterful sound design, and entrancing performances from both actors. As with the rifle shot that kills her, the demonic Lavender scream was a purely digital enhancement to the scene. The character’s yellow blood appears far less creamy than in previous films, perhaps due to the added brain splatter.

DESERT FILMING

Following a three month break, the production team reconvened in May 2009 to shoot a new introductory webisode that would pick up roughly where Phantasm Oblivion left off. We find a battered Reggie wandering Death Valley with his trusty four-barrel shotgun in hand. Where he’s been and how long he was there remain a mystery. Our hero is now on foot as his ‘Cuda has been stolen from its desert hiding spot. (Unfortunately, this is not the first time someone has stolen Reggie’s ride in Phantasm.) He isn’t hiking for long before the ‘Cuda thief pulls up behind him. Reggie manages to take back his muscle car at gunpoint and leaves the almost naked thief stranded roadside. Two silver spheres appear in the distance as Reg drives off. One orb slams into the carjacker’s skull as the other charges after the ‘Cuda. After employing evasive maneuvers, Reggie manages to destroy both sentinels.

The filmmakers were dismayed to learn upon arrival that their original location had been seized by another production, not that Reggie’s Tales had any legitimate claim to it. This was guerilla filmmaking after all. Rather than cancel the shoot, Coscarelli and Hartman sought out an alternate desert location. Their destination, just outside of Lancaster, met the scene’s aesthetic needs and was well isolated from civilization.

Location filming on Phantasm II and III had meant cozy dressing room trailers for the performers. Location filming on Phantasm Oblivion offered fewer comforts, though were still catered meals and mobile bathroom facilities. Location filming on Reggie’s Tales was indie filmmaking at its grittiest. No comforts were had this time around. The sun was scorching and the winds oft angry. There was no running water and no bathrooms. A mere three vehicles trekked out to location: the Bannisters’ Toyota Camry, Coscarelli’s minivan (which doubled as a camera car) and the temperamental ‘Cuda. The combined cast and crew comprised a scant six people. To put this into perspective, just the makeup effects team on Phantasm II outnumbered the crew that brought Ravager’s opening sequence to life.

The opening of Reggie’s Tales (and eventually Ravager) would find a battle-weary Reggie emerging from the desert wilderness. He was originally scripted to bump into the ‘Cuda thief immediately, but the filmmakers were inspired to improvise an additional scene once on location. While setting up, the crew noticed a nearby shack that was quite rundown. Hidden in the strewn garbage was an old teddy bear which they added to the sequence. This unscripted moment entailed Reggie slowly approaching the decrepit structure. He gazes down at the stuffed animal with a tired look in his eyes. Does the toy remind him of the daughter he lost to the Tall Man? Or perhaps Mike’s troubled childhood? Possibly even young Tim from Phantasm III? No. He brusquely kicks the bear aside to reach for the large sack beneath it. Hartman’s clever misdirection is revealed as Reggie loads his four-barrel into the canvas bag. Reg wasn’t being sentimental at all, merely practical. Who’s going to pick up a gun-toting hitchhiker in his battered condition? Better to hide the weapon.

Hartman cast actor Daniel Schweiger in the role of ‘Cuda Thief. Phans may remember Schweiger’s appearance as a hearse driver opposite Daniel Roebuck in Coscarelli’s Bubba Ho-Tep. The two Daniel’s have appeared in a handful of films together over the years. A lifelong film score aficionado, Schweiger served as music supervisor on 2004’s Straight Into Darkness, which starred Roebuck and Phantasm II actor James LeGros. The role of ‘Cuda Thief did not mark Schweiger’s first foray into the world of Phantasm. He had previously outfitted Phantasm Oblivion with a temporary soundtrack during editing before Christopher Stone’s score had been composed.

Filming the ‘Cuda Thief’s death by sphere was tricky as it required a mostly naked Schwieger to lay face down in the road covered in fake blood. Such a grisly sight if spotted by passing motorists would surely have drawn unwanted attention to the unauthorized film shoot, possibly even a police response. Gigi Bannister was stationed a ways down from filming and tasked with alerting the crew to any approaching vehicles. With advance notice, a bloodied Schweiger could dash into Coscarelli’s minivan to hide. Sure enough, a car came speeding through the area in between takes. The actor and crew dashed into the nearby vehicles. Hartman hurriedly retrieved the camera jib from the road, crushing his thumb within the mini-crane in the process. This production now had it all - blood, sweat and spheres. A huge proponent of practical effects, Hartman had wanted to utilize a blend of real and CGI spheres to depict the ‘Cuda Thief’s death. While the flying sentinels were entirely digital effects, the ball drilling into Schweiger’s skull was achieved the old fashioned way with carefully concealed tubing and an offscreen blood pump.

The Reggie’s Tales crew returned to Lancaster two weekends later to complete the sequence. While promoting Phantasm Ravager, Hartman often remarked that, as a phan, he long wished to see a chase involving the ‘Cuda and one or more spheres. On this second weekend of desert filming, he would bring that vision to life. The sphere-vs-’Cuda chase sequence is arguably the most ambitious in the web series, even more so when you consider that it was captured using only one camera. This required many dozens of setups, most of which were carefully mapped out beforehand. Hartman made this sequence even more of a logistical challenge by setting it in broad daylight, which meant that the spheres had to reflect positively everything around them. This marks the first time in Phantasm history that chrome spheres are seen outside in direct sunlight. Hartman initially designed a complicated bicycle-jousting rig that would have allowed for practical spheres to be utilized, though he abandoned this approach after initial testing proved cumbersome. He ultimately decided upon using all digital orbs for the chase, which were composited by 3D artist Craig Vance. Unlike the CGI swarm from Phantasm Oblivion’s opening, these spheres realistically reflect the mirror image of their environment.

This second weekend saw the return of another franchise veteran, actor and stuntman Bob Ivy, who had previously played Phantasm Oblivion’s Demon Trooper and had performed Phantasm III’s harrowing pink hearse stunt. The webserial enlisted him to execute several stunt driving maneuvers during the opening chase sequence. Doubling Reggie Bannister in the ‘Cuda meant having to wear an outrageous bald cap and wig. He also helped steer the car from the floorboard while Reggie is seen firing from the driver side window. As of this production, Ivy holds the distinction of being the only person to have doubled both Reggie and the Tall Man.

Auto enthusiasts may wonder why Ravager features Phantasm II’s 1971 ‘Cuda instead of the 1970 model last seen in Phantasm Oblivion. That Reggie is now driving Phantasm II’s hardtop muscle car instead of Oblivion’s convertible constitutes a goof on the filmmaker’s part, who simply wanted a different aesthetic for this film. Not unlike the original film’s picture car, the 1971 ‘Cuda was not in the best condition. This became painfully evident when Ivy accidentally blew out ‘Cuda’s transmission during a take, which brought filming to an abrupt halt. The filmmakers had to summon a tow truck to rescue the vehicle, which was hauled to a garage more than an hour away.

CHAPTER FOUR

OUR PATHS CROSS AGAIN

THE ANNIVERSARY YEAR

Phantasm was celebrated far and wide throughout its thirtieth anniversary year. HorrorHound Magazine dedicated its seventeenth issue to the series, Phantasm II made its long awaited DVD debut and the original film returned to the big screen for several special engagements, often with appearances by cast and crew. Unbeknownst to phans, these same phamily members had been gathering in secret to create the webserial project. Anticipating a barrage of Phantasm V questions, Don Coscarelli ordered his cast to keep absolutely mum on their venture. Reggie Bannister, who was at the heart of the new production, did his best to stoke optimism in the phanbase while still adhering to his friend’s dictate.

Speaking at Monster Mania in March, he commented: “We all feel real good about 2009. We sure would like to see some spheres, that yellow shit flying fast and furious, dwarves scittering around, and stuff like that. We’re going to do our best this year to bring you some new stuff.” Of course, the actor was playing coy with his comments, which were delivered mid-production on the web series. Reggie’s Tales was poised to offer up all of those things: spheres, dwarves and plenty of that familiar yellow shit. When pressed on the subject, Bannister and his castmates provided carefully worded denials regarding rumors of a “feature length Phantasm V.” The webserial was neither Phantasm V nor feature length so their responses were technically truthful.

By late summer, efforts on the web series had shifted from principal photography to post-production. David Hartman’s weekends were now spent editing and almost single-handedly completing the visual effects. The Reggie’s Tales moniker had officially been dropped by this time, relegated instead to a working title. The project’s new name and fate were tightly guarded secrets. Cast and crew were kept deliberately in the dark with regard to its progress. One performer would add the webserial as Reggie’s Tales to their official resume three years later unaware that a new title had been chosen. The only ones with less information than those involved were the phans, who were unaware it existed at all. Internally, a public announcement was expected by summer’s end.

In a bizarre episode, the secret project nearly went public in August 2009 with the upload of a set photo to Bannister’s official IMDb page. The image depicted the actor clutching a chrome plated nine-millimeter while dressed in a plaid shirt, bulletproof vest, and khakis. The photo caption was left intentionally blank. To the skeptical phan this photo could have been from any of the actor’s upcoming indie projects. To the hopeful phan it was confirmation of Bannister’s return to his signature role. Having fueled new Phantasm V speculation, the photo was swiftly removed from the IMDb, but not before being saved and circulated throughout the online community. The once controversial image can now be purchased with a personalized autograph from Bannister’s official website.

Phantasm and its makers were honored in late October at the inaugural Big Bear Horror Film Festival. Three decades earlier, Coscarelli had escaped to the small mountain community of Big Bear to write the rudimentary draft that would become Phantasm, which made this the franchise’s birthplace. He attended the festival along with Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm and original sphere victim actor Ken Jones. This would have been an appropriate time and venue at which to announce or debut the webserial. Yet in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Phantasm’s creator continued to quash any hopes of seeing new material by year’s end, citing issues with timing and finances. “I’ve been cooking up a couple of incarnations of things that I can’t talk about now, but hopefully in the near future we could get something in the Phantasm world happening.”

During this same interview, Scrimm was also asked his thoughts on Phantasm V. He diplomatically urged caution. The actor’s comments were intended as much for his colleagues as they were for the phanbase. Scrimm saw all too clearly the fervent demand for another sequel. “I’m a little protective of the Tall Man. I’d be reluctant to make a Phantasm that wasn’t up to the other four. I think it’s a very good quartet of motion pictures. If we did another one it would need to be just as original and sparkling in its ideas and freshness as the first and subsequent ones. That would be the deterrent. Then, of course, getting it financed in today’s film place would also be a challenge.”

Privately, Scrimm was already concerned that cameras had rolled on a new Phantasm project without a completed script. To him, this was unwisely placing the cart before the horse. Phantasm 1999 and Phantasm Forever were thoroughly fleshed out, their visions carefully developed across multiple drafts. Reggie’s Tales had no such conceptualization. This was not how Scrimm preferred to see a Phantasm come together. He feared that a creative misfire now might stain an otherwise proud cinematic legacy. The Tall Man performer had already declined to appear in the webserial once because it was not an official SAG production. He suspected that his colleagues would ask him again, and after careful contemplation, he decided he would play along if so as a favor to old friends. As he saw it, there would be no Angus Scrimm without Phantasm.

To the surprise of cast and crew, the anniversary year closed with no Reggie’s Tales announcement. This delay likely owed to the fact that Coscarelli had never before produced a webseries and was now trying to answer questions that had lingered since the start of filming. How could the project be released online and monetized? Circa 2009, video streaming services were still in their infancy. In Rue Morgue’s Authorized Phantasm Companion, Coscarelli explained, “We started looking around for a way to put it out, some website or whatever, and there was nothing. We didn’t spend that much money, but we thought we could get that money back. It was ridiculous.”

BRINGING IN THE TALL MAN

The struggle to find an outlet for Hartman’s serialized project continued into 2010. Rather than sit idly by, the filmmakers decided to add in the one crucial element missing from Reggie’s Tales. Although it starred Reggie Bannister and featured cameos by A. Michael Baldwin and Kathy Lester, the venture desperately needed the participation of Angus Scrimm. Without his archetypal Tall Man, the project would be a tough sell to phans. To this end, Hartman wrote two new scenes that entailed Reggie finally coming face to face with his longtime adversary, one set midway through the series and the other near the end.

The first vignette found Reggie stepping through the spacegate into a white chamber, the kind last seen in Phantasm II. The Tall Man would immediately reveal this to be Morningside Mortuary (“the funeral home where first we met”) in the year 1978, three days before Tommy’s funeral. Chronologically, this places their encounter just before the events of the first film. The alien mortician offers Reggie a Faustian bargain to gain back his dead wife and daughter if only the ice cream vendor will abandon his search for the Pearson brothers. The Tall Man then explains that he has a plan “to make things better for everyone” which needs to unfold without interference. At first Reggie is unsure how to respond. Sensing this, the Tall Man intones, “Perhaps you need time to think this over… But be quick. There’s little time left.” Still skeptical, Reggie backs out of the spacegate room, warily eyeing his nemesis.

Their second encounter takes place atop the ruins of the mausoleum cave, which has crumbled down around them. The Tall Man asks if Reggie has considered his offer. The ex-ice cream vendor answers by shooting the Tall Man point blank with an automatic rifle, which has no effect. A shocked Reggie then responds that he doesn’t want the “re-animated zombies” of his dead family. However, he will step aside in exchange for Mike and Jody. This elicits an irate diatribe from the Tall Man, “Why?!! Why are you so obsessed with these two friends?” Reggie calmly responds that the Tall Man would never understand. Reg persists out of loyalty, a concept his tall opponent mocks as “a frail human emotion.” Exasperated, the Tall Man dismisses Reggie as “an unwanted pawn in the game.”

Hartman initially drew up plans to capture these two scenes on a proper soundstage. When budgetary constraints ruled this out, he decided to film them inside his own home. He staged both locales in his kitchen using twelve-foot-wide photo backdrops, the kind you might find in a Sears Portrait Studio. With the later addition of special effects, sound design and music, the director’s kitchen became both a spacegate chamber and a ruined cave. These joint scenes were shot across a single day of filming that transformed Hartman’s entire home into a makeshift production facility. The garage became the makeup area, the dining room served as craft services and the living room doubled as rehearsal space.

Although Hartman had worked with Reggie Bannister on the webserial for more than a year, he had only recently met Angus Scrimm for the first time. The two men convened with Coscarelli over lunch at a Cheesecake Factory to discuss the new Tall Man scenes. “I was scared to death,” Hartman told Dread Central of Scrimm’s reaction to the script. “In real life, he’s the sweetest, nicest guy, but if you haven’t met him yet and you see him from afar… He was staring me down and I’m like ‘Oh my god, he’s going to read these lines!’ It was an amazing feeling eating my sandwich across from the Tall Man as he’s reading these pages that Don and I wrote together. And then Angus said, ‘This is exactly what the Tall Man would say. This is how he would react.’ Now that was a fantastic feeling. I always want input from the actors on their characters. The actors know if their characters would or wouldn’t say certain things.”

Interestingly, these scenes provide the Tall Man with more dialogue than ever before. Hartman and Coscarelli reveal on Ravager’s audio commentary that Scrimm and Bannister got into a heated dispute on set concerning their character’s scripted exchange. Speaking on the Without your Head podcast, Hartman said, “They both had different styles of acting. Angus was a classically trained actor. He was given a copy of the script, which he loved, and had a chance to change if he wanted to. But he was now locked into that script. He had memorized it and was ready to go with it. Reggie likes to play off the scene a little bit and improvise. There’s nothing wrong with either way. I think the dispute was that Reggie was changing certain words and Angus wasn’t ready for it. As director, it was a challenge to find the right middle ground for everyone. The answer was to first film it as written and then to have some fun with it. That was probably the biggest squabble we had on set.”

Filming at the Hartman homestead was top secret. No visitors were allowed on set, though Scrimm was granted high level permission to bring along a furry friend for support. Of filming these scenes, Scrimm said in his original Phantasm Exhumed interview: “Don does his best to allow pet visitors to his sets. My little Westie, Cappy, turned up from time to time at the Phantasm III soundstages and there’s a photo in Fangoria magazine to prove it. Sweetheart, my white American Eskimo, was vocally unhappy about being confined in another area of the home while we were before the camera. On one occasion, she caused a screen door to slam amidst a take, a glitch not apprehended till two years later when our bit of dialogue was rerecorded for looping.”

WEBSERIAL ON HOLD

With the addition of these two scenes, the webserial now ran more than forty-five minutes in length, half the runtime of a feature film. This new material strengthened the story of Reggie’s Tales, yet it did nothing to solve the ongoing distribution dilemma. As a result, the web series languished. This mysterious endeavor had been conceived, produced and then shelved all in total secrecy.

There was speculation behind the scenes that this possibly permanent hiatus might be for the best. After all, Phantasm had already devolved from a theatrical franchise to a direct-to-video one. The long struggle to get even a low-budgeted Phantasm V produced had been quite public. To downgrade the newest entry from feature film to webserial might reflect poorly upon the entire series. This was simply not the preferred trajectory of a beloved horror franchise, not that Reggie’s Tales was poorly made. Indeed, much of it was quite cinematic in nature. Scenes of the sepulchral Angeles Abbey corridors and the sphere-versus-’Cuda sequence feel much larger than the webserial format. Yet the story of Reggie’s Tales was derivative and inconsequential, the former by design. In this respect, Reggie’s Tales fell short of the Phantasm name. These scenes were heavy on style but short on substance.

David Hartman would next turn his attention to yet another secret project, this time for Hasbro Studios. In June 2010, he was announced as supervising director on the upcoming Transformers: Prime animated series. This modernized reboot of the classic cartoon was well received by critics and audiences alike. Hartman would remain a core member of the show’s creative team for three seasons. Two years into its run, Transformers: Prime would take home a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Special Class Animated Program, making Hartman a prestigious Emmy-award winning television director. Still, the Reggie’s Tales helmer never forgot about Phantasm following the webserial. He even wrote a special part for Reggie Bannister into the show’s tenth episode (“Deux Ex Machina”). Bannister voiced a museum security guard on duty when an antique sphere goes missing. The veteran horror actor was in good company on the show with co-stars like Jeffrey Combs and Ernie Hudson. Hartman would later bring in Daniel Roebuck to voice a character on the follow-up series Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

In October 2010, Coscarelli posted a cryptic message to Twitter; “Pre-production begins.” This set off a flurry of phan speculation. Many assumed he was referring to Phantasm V, especially in light of his next tweet: “Most only ride in a hearse once. Some are luckier.” The speculation then broadened to consider the possibility that he was working on another stalled sequel, Bubba Nosferatu & The Curse of the She-Vampires. In reality, the filmmaker was prepping an adaptation of James Wong’s cult novel John Dies at the End for which he had secured the rights several years prior. Casting-wise, Coscarelli teamed newcomers Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes with veteran actors Clancy Brown and Paul Giamatti. The film would include appearances by Reggie’s Tales veterans Daniel Roebuck, Daniel Schweiger, Bob Ivy, and Angus Scrimm. Filming would begin (in secret, of course) that same month.

Adapting John Dies at the End for the screen proved challenging due to the project’s extremely limited budget. Wong’s source novel contained a slew of nightmarish monsters and bizarre visions. In order to bring these to life, Coscarelli had to call in more than a few visual effects favors. One especially daunting task involved adapting the novel’s spider-pit sequence, which Hartman offered to animate in what became a winning stylistic interpretation. “If you reread that passage of the book, that scene would have cost tens of millions of dollars to pull off,” Coscarelli recalled on Reddit.com. “But as I began to see what David Hartman was doing with the material, I fully embraced it as the perfect creative depiction of the scene.” In animating the sequence, Hartman inserted cartoon cameos of himself, his wife Kathleen and their young daughter Vivienne. He would also voice the Meat Monster creature which was credited to “Headmaster Ernesto” (Hartman’s character from the Adventurous Und Magik Haus web series).

The phamily remained largely mum on Reggie’s Tales as Hartman and Coscarelli pursued other projects. Not until 2011, three years after the initial Crestline shoot, did anyone even acknowledge the existence of a secret project. The actors downplayed its significance and avoided calling it by name or words like “web series” or “webisodes.” They also gave no indication that phans would ever be able to see the material. Speaking to Big Daddy’s Horror Reviews in April 2011, Bannister said, “How many times a year do I get asked about Phantasm V? About two million. I get asked that a lot. We really don’t know what’s going on with it. Don Coscarelli is totally involved in a production right now called John Dies at the End. Paul Giamatti is in that film. We’ve talked about it and we’ve gone out and screwed around with cameras for it. We’ve asked ourselves, ‘How would we do this if we were to do this?’”

Well aware of Coscarelli’s attitude toward leaked information, Scrimm consulted his longtime friend before speaking publicly on the subject. At Monster Mania in June 2011, the actor commented: “I was given an official story to tell you and I mustn’t say another word. I’m forbidden to say more. It seems that Coscarelli has been out doing some experimental things. I think Reggie has been participating. I actually did one day’s work on something that I can’t discuss. He’s just trying out ideas. So nothing is truly gelled and there’s nothing that can be publicized.”

NEW HOPE FOR FIVE

In retrospect, the timeline of events suggests that Don Coscarelli decided to make Phantasm V his next priority sometime during the making of John Dies at the End. He even teased the long awaited sequel in John Dies with a carefully hidden easter egg. Just past the five-minute mark we see an assortment of DVDs collected beside a television. These fictional titles include  Don of the Dead, Weekend at Madoff’s, Youthful Frankenstein and Phantasm Ravager. This gag went largely unnoticed during the film’s limited theatrical run. When phans did finally spot it on home video they were wholly unaware of its significance.

Coscarelli had been considering Phantasm Ravager as a potential sequel title since late 2009 when actress Kathy Lester first suggested it to him. She had utilized the word Ravager in the lyrics of an eponymous musical tribute to her Lady in Lavender character (“I may be a ravager, but I seem to thrive on your adulation…”). Lester would include the Lavender tribute as a bonus track on her 2009 album Boudoir Rouge, a sizzling collection of sultry jazz. She suggested the Ravager title to Phantasm’s creator after noticing how the “V” could be capitalized to look like the roman numeral five. He was immediately smitten with both her tune and title recommendation.

The decision to hand off Phantasm V’s directorial reigns to another filmmaker was one Coscarelli made early during production. Hartman had proven himself a worthy successor years before in his handling of the Reggie’s Tales shorts. He got along well with the cast, had an unquestionable talent for visual effects, and could work well within the limitations of a microbudget. Additionally, he was now an Emmy-award winning animation director. His genuine phandom was but icing on the cake. Not that Coscarelli would be stepping away from the series completely, he intended to remain on board as co-writer and producer as he had on the web series. He would be present for every step of the filmmaking process, providing Hartman with guidance and creative feedback when needed. In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, the master of horror admitted, “I just felt it was time to let someone else play with my train set.”

Many phans were initially dismayed by this unexpected change in leadership. Publicly, Coscarelli had actually been floating the possibility for more than a decade. Such statements date back to 2005, often along the lines of, “How many Phantasm movies can one guy direct in a lifetime? I think four is probably good.” That Coscarelli would remain involved in the franchise was a comforting thought. The ultimate question was why step back now? And why use Hartman’s vision and instead of those by Roger Avary or Stephen Romano? The answer was that Hartman brought more to Phantasm V than just a blueprint. He brought a unique vision for how to realize that blueprint; an ultra-cheap, highly stylized method of filmmaking. As for why Coscarelli stepped away, his comments on the subject have often fallen on unwilling ears. Simply put, he had already told his essential Phantasm story across the arc of the first four films.

“I understood what he was doing,” A. Michael Baldwin told NuketheFridge.com. “I think Don knows you can only direct so many sequels before you feel you don’t have anything more to say. That’s when you need to bring somebody else in to put fresh eyes on it. I can appreciate that. Dave Hartman is an extremely talented artist and animator, so he comes to the table with a whole different skill set really. As an animator, he’s going to storyboard everything. He’s going to absolutely have every single scene mapped out because that’s what animators do. That brings a different kind of pace to your day to day production, which was interesting. And Coscarelli was there every single day as producer, so it wasn’t as if we went off and made the movie by ourselves or anything.”

The decision to move forward on Phantasm V had one major catch: Coscarelli decreed that the new sequel would have to incorporate the footage from Reggie’s Tales. This would finally allow him to recoup his investment on the webserial. Phantasm V would begin production with literally half the film already shot. That the webisodes were high enough quality to be incorporated was almost pure happenstance. Hartman almost shot the 2008 Crestline footage using a lesser 720p camera which would have made it technically unsuitable for a feature film. Fortunately, John Dies at the End producer Brad Baruh saved the day by loaning Hartman his own 1080p camera instead.

Hartman recalled first learning of Coscarelli’s decision to Comingsoon.net: “We got back together and I’m like, ‘What are we going to do with this footage? Should it be a web series or are we going to just put it on DVD as an extra?’ And Don’s like, ‘I’ve been thinking about it and I think we’re going to make part five.’ I’m like ‘Yes! Awesome! That’s going to be fun!’ And then he’s like ‘And you’re directing the film.’ And I’m just silent. I didn’t know how to react to that. I was just so excited.”

Starting work on a new Phantasm with forty-five minutes of previously shot material was a plus only from a budgetary standpoint. Narratively this stipulation posed an enormous challenge as the webisodes had not been conceived as part of an overarching storyline. There was no comprehensive theme connecting any of the vignettes together. Reggie’s Tales was designed to stand alone, not be incorporated into a fifth film. Unlike scribes Avary and Romano before him, Hartman did not have the luxury of a blank slate to craft his Phantasm V. Like it or not, he was now shackled to this earlier material. He would need to figure out how to make his sequel feel less like a Reggie spin-off and more like a standard Phantasm movie. This meant finding a way to meaningfully and seamlessly incorporate the Reggie’s Tales material. Hartman’s solution to this conundrum likely rates as his greatest achievement on Ravager.

Phantasm Ravager’s story would find Reggie in a predicament much like Mike’s at the start of Phantasm II. Reg would be hospitalized after telling stories of a sinister Tall Man that no one believes, not even his good friend Mike. Reggie has also been diagnosed with early onset dementia, a medical prognosis he rejects. He recounts the events of the webseries to Mike via a series of flashbacks. These eventually blur with Reggie’s present day reality at the hospital. Suddenly, the Regman is tripping through alternate dimensions seemingly at random. One moment he’s in a post-apocalyptic future where the Tall Man has already won, then the next he’s back at the hospital. Ultimately, Reggie must make a choice: will he waste away in a hospital until death claims him or will he challenge death with guns blazing in a courageous final assault against the Tall Man?

Tonally, Ravager’s screenplay straddles the line between psychological horror and science fiction. In so doing, it offers a fresh take on the mythos unlike anything we’ve seen before. While this Phantasm V contains broad strokes of originality, there is no denying it stands humbly on the shoulders of unproduced predecessors. Hartman’s vision seems to occupy a safe middle ground between Roger Avary’s action-heavy Phantasm 1999 and Stephen Romano’s more intellectual Phantasm Forever. Ravager’s shifting realities may owe to Romano’s Forever, which also moved between hospital and post-apocalyptic settings. The difference was that Forever saw Mike hospitalized instead of Reggie and had its dimensional shifts neatly separated into chapters. Ravager, on the other hand, changes dimensions with dizzying frequency. More prominent is the influence of Avary’s 1999, particularly in the film’s third act with its armored ‘Cuda and infectious head bursting disease. Appropriately, Avary and Romano are among the first names thanked in the end credits.

GEARING UP FOR PRODUCTION

Having cracked Ravager’s story, Coscarelli and Hartman set about creating a game plan to capture the expansion material. Production protocol on these new scenes would closely mirror that of Reggie’s Tales. They would utilize digital video instead of celluloid, secure location permits only when absolutely necessary, home engineer the special effects, and hire as few crew as possible. Both Coscarelli and Hartman’s wives would pitch in; Shelly Coscarelli wrangled costumes as she had on Phantasm Oblivion, and Kathleen Poirier Hartman fielded production design. Unlike the webserial, which filmed intermittently on weekends, work on the Ravager expansion would happen in longer bursts.

Ravager was poised to have more producorial talent than any previous franchise entry. Led by Coscarelli, this team of eight included several holdovers from Reggie’s Tales such as executive producer Brad Baruh as well as co-producers Reggie and Gigi Bannister. They were joined by several associate producers including Rick & Morty writer Mike McMahan, as well as Cesare Gagliardoni who portrayed the Meat Monster in John Dies at the End. Hartman then brought onboard Mathias Dougherty with whom he’d worked on Transformers: Prime and Transformers: Robots in Disguise. Finally, Andy Coscarelli, son of Phantasm’s creator, rounded out the associate producer lineup, though he was credited as Andy John. This did not mark the younger Coscarelli’s first involvement with Phantasm. He’d previously done a cameo on Phantasm III as a background player at the orphanage. On Phantasm Oblivion, he played a 13th Morningside Volunteer Infantryman.

In an impressive feat, Ravager managed to bring back all five poster-credited cast members from the original film. Contract negotiations with the actors have sometimes been a contentious issue on the Phantasm series, something true of many long running franchises. Not that anyone did particularly well off their participation in Phantasm. They accepted extremely modest recompense for their iconic performances, so it was no surprise on Ravager when the core cast received the lowest salaries of any sequel thus far. There was, however, one catch. In a unique agreement, the production offered certain key players a cut of the film’s profits in lieu of a larger upfront payment. With luck, Ravager had the potential to be the most financially rewarding sequel of them all. But realistically, the core cast returned out of loyalty, not profit. This final project was about finishing a legacy.

As pre-production commenced, there was some trepidation amongst returning cast members about the new director. Though Hartman was quite talented, he was about to cut his feature directorial teeth on one of the horror genre’s most anticipated sequels. Add to this the exceedingly high expectations of an overeager phanbase and the trepidation was more than justified. To cap off the franchise with a disappointing fifth - and likely final - entry would be crushing. Angus Scrimm in particular mused over the advantages of quitting while they were ahead. “I really don’t want to see another one made,” he told a Texas Frightmare audience in 2011, a year after having wrapped his scenes for Reggie’s Tales. “I feel the series works perfectly with the four originals. I defer all questions about another one to the director and producer Don Coscarelli, who tends to be very secretive about these things.” Speaking to Gizmodo years later, Coscarelli discussed his longtime friend’s Phantasm V anxiety: “He was concerned. Obviously, he didn’t want to make anything that would degrade the franchise or his performance.”

Filming on the Ravager expansion was slated to begin spring 2013. As with Reggie’s Tales, the project was cloaked in secrecy and involved the signing of numerous non-disclosure forms. Still, despite Coscarelli’s best efforts, early word leaked out in June 2012 when Dread Central posted that “wonderfully ghastly things” were happening in the Phantasm world. Their exclusive scoop was met with great skepticism considering all the false starts of the past fourteen years. Coscarelli immediately e-mailed a carefully worded statement to Bloody-Disgusting saying, “I have no solid news to report on a new project right now.” This did not technically refute Dread’s announcement. It only said that Coscarelli wasn’t yet ready to confirm such news.

These veiled denials required phans to read between the lines in order to discern the truth. In the case of A. Michael Baldwin, it was less about what he said and more about what he didn’t say. “Officially, I have no information about the topic of Phantasm V and I’ll have to leave it at that,” the actor said on The Plane Talking Radio Show. “I used to say ‘Don’t hold your breath!’ I don’t say that anymore.” The silence would continue for another three years, fanning speculation and anticipation to a fever pitch.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE RAVAGER EXPANSION

CHALLENGER PARK

In keeping with tradition, Ravager picks up where Phantasm Oblivion left off. Per the webserial, we find Reggie emerging from the desert wilderness on foot, four-barrel shotgun in hand. A shady carjacker has stolen the ‘Cuda from its hiding spot in Death Valley, though our hero soon recovers it. Reggie isn’t back behind the wheel for long before the film suddenly cuts to a different reality. We abruptly find Reggie asleep in a wheelchair outside a hospital on a sunny day. Our disoriented hero attempts to walk when a hand comes crashing down onto his shoulder, startling him. This echoes the moment in Phantasm when Jody first meets the Tall Man (“The funeral is about to begin, sir!”), however this isn’t the Tall Man behind Reggie, it’s Mike Pearson! Hartman’s slick transition between the two realities pays homage to a similar match cut from 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was a major influence for Coscarelli on the original Phantasm. In 2001, the ape’s spinning bone instantly becomes a spaceship. In Ravager, the spinning tire of Reggie’s ‘Cuda becomes the plastic mag wheel of a wheelchair. The 1968 Kubrick classic is a revered favorite of many in the Phantasm phamily including Roberto Quezada, Paul Pepperman and A. Michael Baldwin.

The hospital dimension finds Reggie older and quite disheveled. Mike reveals that Reg was found wandering the desert “like Moses” and subsequently hospitalized. Reggie has since been diagnosed with early onset dementia, a finding he dismisses. As they chat, Reg realizes that Mike has no memory of the Tall Man. His wild claims of killer spheres and ravenous dwarves have been interpreted as the delusions of a disordered mind. Mike, ever faithful to his aging friend, compassionately invites Reggie to tell his story “again.” The film then returns to the webisode material. Hartman and Coscarelli seed several Phantasm callbacks into these early hospital scenes. Reggie tells Mike, “I see it all now,” which he first said in the original film. He later says, “There’s this threat, have you seen it?” which references Bannister’s rock ballad, “Have you seen it?” that played over the end credits of Phantasm Oblivion.

Mike and Reggie’s hospital lawn chat was shot in early May 2013 at Simi Valley’s Challenger Park, more than an hour’s drive from the actual hospital location. The Ravager team employed a skeleton crew mainly because no filming permit had been secured. The producers contrived a convincing cover story in the event they encountered park staff or police. If questioned, they would claim to be filming a home movie of their senile uncle’s birthday party for relatives back east. Coscarelli’s wife even brought along a “Happy Birthday, Uncle Reggie!” cake to back up their story. Fortunately, they did not arouse suspicion.

The day spent at Challenger Park marked A. Michael Baldwin’s first time before camera on the new sequel. Thirty six years ago that week, Baldwin and Bannister had trekked down to Julian, California for Phantasm’s Tall Man on Main Street sequence. Baldwin was now fifty years old and the same age as Angus Scrimm when the towering thespian first suited up as the Tall Man in 1977. Appropriately, the production had a special visit from original Phantasm production designer David Gavin Brown. Noting a lack of crewmembers at the park, he pitched in to help his old friends for the day. This day’s filming saw the return of Phantasm’s oldest signature props, the chrome spacegate poles. Though lightweight duplicates were occasionally substituted over the years, these massive twin steel pillars have been used on every Phantasm film since the original.

LINDA VISTA

The bulk of the Ravager expansion was filmed at what may be Phantasm’s only truly haunted filming location, the shuttered Linda Vista Community Hospital in Los Angeles. Built in 1904 to care for sick railroad workers, Linda Vista fell on hard times in the 70s and 80s as the surrounding area declined into poverty, bringing in more gunshot and stabbing victims to its emergency room. The facility was sold in 1980 to a company that slashed its operating expenses. Many blamed the resulting spike in hospital mortalities on the increase of assault victims and the decrease in funding. Medical staff began to abandon Linda Vista in droves, forcing it to close its doors permanently in 1991. The subsequent owners were savvy enough to rent the property to production companies as a filming location. Linda Vista has since featured in films such as Pearl Harbor, Lords of Salem, Children of the Corn 666: Isaac’s Return, Day of the Dead 2: Contagium, End of Days, Killjoy Goes to Hell, and the Insidious series. On television, it has appeared in shows like E.R., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, True Blood, Dexter, and Criminal Minds. The property has also served as a backdrop for numerous music videos by artists including Alice Cooper, Nine Inch Nails, Fall Out Boy, Foo Fighters, Paramore and Garbage. These are but a small handful of the hospital’s numerous onscreen appearances.

More recently, Linda Vista has become the subject of several paranormal investigations. These stem from reports of ghostly specters and unexplained phenomena by production crews who once filmed there. The hospital’s three most popular spirits are said to include a lost patient on the third floor, a little girl in the old surgical unit and an orderly that still makes his hourly rounds. These apparitions have made the facility a notorious favorite amongst ghost hunters.

Since its closure in 1991, Linda Vista has taken on a chilling aesthetic in real life with its blood spattered walls, psychotic graffiti and outdated medical equipment. Nearly all of this was leftover from various horror film productions who seldom cleaned up on their hasty way out the door. Rob Zombie’s Lords of Salem, for example, forgot to take a wicked looking throne when they completed filming. Remember the darkened morgue in which Reggie finds a corpse rotting on the slab? This was not the faciliy’s actual morgue, but a facade created years earlier for a television show. The neonatal incubator full of spheres? Also a relic from another production. In fact, a great deal of the set dressing in Ravager was scavenged from throughout the ruined hospital. In the finished film, it is virtually impossible to tell where reality ends and Hollywood begins.

The former hospital proved to be a versatile location for the Ravager team, much like Angeles Abbey on Phantasm III. The property featured as the present day convalescent home, the destroyed facility where Reggie wakes up and a 1900’s dreamscape hospital. Scenes of Reggie’s dementia reality were filmed in sections of Linda Vista which still looked clean and operational. His antagonistic nurse in these scenes was played by Cean Okada, wife of Phantasm II cinematographer Daryn Okada. Might the fact that Mrs. Okada also played a nurse on Bubba Ho-Tep mean the Bubba and Phantasm universes are somehow interconnected? A phan can dream, no? Cean and Daryn’s son, Evan Okada, also worked on the expansion shoot as an electrician.

Ravager was ultimately one of the final productions to shoot at Linda Vista. The facility closed its doors to filmmakers in 2014 to undergo a forty million dollar renovation, reopening the following year as Hollenbeck Terrace Apartments, a retirement community for senior citizens. This means that if you are at least fifty-five and can pass a background check, you can actually live in a haunted Phantasm filming location, possibly even in Reggie’s very own hospital room! No word on whether or not Linda Vista’s ghosts are among the amenities. Probably.

IT’S NOT OUR HOME ANYMORE

In Ravager, the Tall Man does not take kindly to the titular hero turning down his Faustian offer. He angrily scolds, “You brought this on yourself. You were an unwanted pawn in the game!” A moment later, Reggie wakes up in a strange place strapped to an operating table. This is Ravager’s post-apocalyptic dimension. Two heavily garbed soldiers enter the room and cut him loose. They unmask, revealing themselves as Jane, a lady warrior who strangely resembles Dawn, and Chunk, a dwarfish tough guy. They escort Reggie through the now decrepit hospital to another group of soldiers led by… Mike Pearson! This joyous reunion is a brief one because of the need to vacate the area. Heading for an exit, Mike explains that Reggie has been asleep for ten years since the ending of Phantasm Oblivion, and that “everything is different now.” Mike throws open the exit door to reveal the outside, a hellish landscape of devastation.  Dwarves and gravers run amok through the burning streets. Giant spheres hover overhead in crimson skies. Flames fan the blackened hulls of abandoned cars. The air itself is scorched red. Mike concludes, “It’s really not our home anymore. It’s his.”

That the Tall Man has terraformed Earth into a Red Planet is reminiscent of Avary’s Phantasm 1999. Hartman had originally planned on depicting more of our world after such an apocalypse. He even went location scouting with Coscarelli in search of a small town to overrun with burning cars and strewn trash for a single day’s filming. This additional sequence would have seen Mike leading a team of survivors in a battle against the Tall Man’s forces. The filmmakers eventually decided that such an expensive and complex action piece would have drifted too far from what they felt was the main focus of the film.

Scenes of Reggie’s rescue in the future dimension were filmed across Friday and Saturday, May 10 and 11, 2013. Ravager pulls a phantasmic déjà vu with the Jane character, whom Reggie confuses with Dawn (killed earlier in the film.) This is the third time Coscarelli has attempted this with an actress on a Phantasm sequel. He originally wanted A. Michael Baldwin’s former wife Jennifer Bross, who appeared as a hospital receptionist in Phantasm III, to play the leading lady in Phantasm Oblivion, even naming the character after her. When she declined, he cast actress Heidi Marnhout as Jennifer instead. On Romano’s unfilmed Phantasm Forever, Coscarelli hoped to bring Marnhout back to portray Reggie’s wife Celeste in another bit of doppleganger casting. In Ravager, Jane comments that Reggie is “clearly delusional” for claiming to have already met her in some cabin, which means our poor hero is now considered crazy in two dimensions.

Ravager manages to turn a longstanding trope on its head with Chunk (arguably the most interesting new character since Rocky in Phantasm III). Coscarelli attributes the part’s creation to his longstanding guilt over always portraying little people as ravenous monsters throughout the series. As a diminutive warrior fighting alongside the heroes, Chunk is a step in a new direction. The role is played by actor Stephen “Hedge” Jutras, whom Hartman knew personally through his brother-in-law. That he commuted several thousand miles to location from his home in New Jersey made him the project’s most remote performer. Jutras also played the dwarf that leaps onto Reggie’s back in the morgue and is shot by Chunk a moment later. By playing two characters in the same scene, Jutras essentially shoots himself. This duality echoes how stuntman George W. Singer similarly threw himself out of a Volkswagen Beetle in the original Phantasm, playing both young Mike and the attacking dwarf.

Reggie wakes in this new dimension with his head inside what Ravager’s script calls “the contraption,” which is surely a prop out of Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory. The device’s main features are two chrome pillars which appear much like a miniature spacegate. The steampunk-esque machine behind the poles emits a familiar hum between belches of electricity. Although the contraption remains largely a mystery, Chunk does provide some background: “It’s like it just sucks everything out of you. Your hopes, your dreams, your memories.” He then reveals that the Tall Man uses the contraption to extract information from people’s minds. The prop itself was built by production designer Kathleen Poirier Hartman.

The long tracking shot through the ravaged city street marks Phantasm’s first ever fully digital environment. This impressive moment depicts a scattered band of survivors fighting off dwarves and spheres. The massive orbs that loom overhead strongly evoke the alien tripods from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, especially as one of them fires a laser down onto the street. Hartman has likened the smaller sentinel spheres to encompassing the front line of the Tall Man’s invasion. That would make these enormous spheres the battleships of his planetary assault. Since human brains power the smaller balls, what might power these giant spheres? A conglomeration of brains? The brain of a gigantic interdimensional denizen? Hartman has remained tight-lipped on the subject.

The street sequence was astonishingly created solely by Ravager’s director on a MacBook Pro in a mere two months. The original plan was for Reggie to simply gaze upon a matte painting of the devastation, which Hartman did not feel was epic enough for the scene. Instead, he single-handedly built the street environment in Maya 3D with more than seventy layers of incredible detail. He and Coscarelli both have blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos in the street skirmish, which were filmed against green screen in Hartman’s garage.

Later in the film, Mike narrates an apocalyptic montage showing how the Tall Man managed to cripple modern civilization. This sequence gives us one of the film’s most striking visuals as a giant sphere makes short work of a skyscraper. The entire montage makes good use of stock footage to represent the Tall Man’s assault on our world and the sphere-versus-building effect is striking. Rather than painstakingly animate another entirely digital shot, Hartman simply added a giant sphere into stock footage of a real life demolition. This clever blend of practical (the building) and digital (the sphere) makes for a memorable image. The actual skyscraper was a university tower in Frankfurt, Germany, leveled by developers in February 2014, one month before Ravager’s public announcement.

Mike’s revelation that a “full blown invasion” has taken place references the dozens of spacegates he saw in Phantasm Oblivion. A deleted line by Jody in that sequel spoke to this more directly: “Soon there will be thousands. The invasion is about to begin and it will be a blight upon this land.” The sequence wades deeply into Phantasm 1999 territory by telling how governments collapsed when an alien virus was unleashed. Though not directly named, this strongly evokes 1999’s bag plague. “People were sick and eventually their heads would swell until they popped. The body count was immense and there was no cure.” Shots of military forces battling spheres, dwarves, even the Tall Man himself heavily allude to the Avary script.

FIRE IN THE MOTHERFUCKING HOLE

Ravager’s third act finds Reggie tripping through alternate realities at a much faster pace. At one point, he zaps back into the future dimension wherein he is choked by a graver. This yellow-blooded henchman was played by animation director Vinton Heuck, who had worked alongside David Hartman on Transformers: Prime. When Reggie returns to this dimension a short while later, he is found by two soldiers under Mike’s command played by Hartman colleague, Tim Divar, and Ravager associate producer Andy Coscarelli. Hearing an approaching sphere, the soldiers all duck for cover except for Divar’s character who goes to investigate. He soon becomes the victim of Phantasm’s newest macelike sentinel, which the filmmakers have dubbed the “suicide sphere.” Covered in spikes, this crimson kamakazi orb was designed to slam into its victim’s head, then explode, raining death in every direction. Our heroes are witness to this grisly scene.

Reggie then shifts back to the hospital dimension where he receives a visitor. A rattled Mike confesses that he has dreamt of the Tall Man. “Reggie, I had your dream, that whole story you told me about last week.” He describes the Tall Man’s devastating assault upon our planet through the aforementioned montage. During this revelatory conversation, both men somehow transport back into the future dimension, pushing a very confused Reggie to a spiritual breaking point. Teetering on the edge of sanity, Reg backs away from Mike with his hands in the air: “I cannot tolerate this anymore. I’m done. I’m out of here!” His words are cut off by the sound of footsteps… the Tall Man. Reggie freezes as a graveyard gang appears alongside the unearthly undertaker. Before Reggie can react, Mike and Chunk step forward with a rocket-propelled grenade and fire it directly at the Tall Man.

Actor Stephen Jutras appears twice in this hallway confrontation as different characters. He is first seen as the lone dwarf flanking the Tall Man. A moment later, he appears again as Chunk to help load Mike’s rocket launcher (“Fire in the motherfucking hole,”). This marks the second time in Ravager that Jutras plays both Chunk and a dwarf in the same scene.

There was one huge complication to the production’s time at Linda Vista: Angus Scrimm was battling a serious respiratory infection, an ailment he was frequently prone to during his final years. The filmmakers had scheduled several Tall Man scenes for the location, not the least of which was his hallway standoff against Mike, Reggie and Chunk. As originally written, the Tall Man was to have had a much larger presence in this scene, walking about and even chasing the heroes. On the day of filming, Scrimm’s illness was full blown. Spending an entire day in a ramshackle abandoned hospital, much less stalking through lengthy hallways after much younger actors, seemed much too strenuous an activity for the octogenarian actor.

Scrimm discussed his experience performing with an ailment in Phantasm Exhumed: “I have no secret stores of energy, maybe a bit less than the average human truth be told. But there is, of course, a theatrical adrenaline that kicks in the moment a performer steps onstage or before a camera which can be a blessed resource. I remember an instance when I was playing Pickering in a college production of Pygmalion directed by USC Theater head William C. de Mille. On the day of opening night I somehow managed to strain a ligament that made walking very painful. I told Papa de Mille that I’d have to play Pickering with a cane, but he said, ‘You won’t need it. The minute you step onstage the pain will be gone.’  He was right. I sailed through all three acts without a limp or a twinge. Only after the last of the evening’s curtain calls did the discomfort return.”

Might the eighty-six-year-old Scrimm have been able to endure the strain of filming using this performer’s adrenaline? Perhaps, but at what cost to his overall health? With this concern in mind, Hartman and Coscarelli modified their plans to accommodate Scrimm’s absence. Yet they could not entirely shoot around his character at Linda Vista. The Tall Man was still required in some capacity for the hallway standoff. The filmmakers settled on using associate producer Cesare Gagliardoni, who was rather tall and lanky, to double Scrimm for the confrontation. Dressed in an ill-fitting black suit and Tall Man mask, the producer was strategically backlit to conceal the deception. Hartman would later digitally composite Scrimm’s head over Gagliardoni in post-production. The effect is convincing save for one detail. As Gagliardoni’s Tall Man first walks into the light, he casts a distinctive shadow on the wall at frame left. This shadow reveals the mask’s much longer hair, which did not match Scrimm’s shorter hairstyle.

WRAPPING THE TALL MAN

Early in Ravager, Reggie falls asleep on Dawn’s couch and suffers a disturbing nightmare in which he envisions himself as a patient in a turn of the century hospital. He is soon startled to find a doppelganger of the Tall Man resting in an adjacent bed. Though this old man seems kindly, not at all evil, and introduces himself as Jebediah, Reggie remains guarded. Their cordial chat abruptly turns ominous as an unseen force possesses the elderly patient. His face takes on a nefarious scowl as he growls. “You’ll never be safe. I’m always watching you!” A terrified Reggie glances down to see the Lady in Lavender ensconced in the shadows beneath Jebediah’s bed. Attired in period garb, she clutches Morningside’s hand with an inhuman grasp, nightmarishly fusing them together. They speak now as one. Reggie bolts awake to find himself back on Dawn’s couch.

Though the scene at Dawn’s cabin hailed from the 2008 filming, the nightmare sequence did not. The dream was captured during the production’s time at Linda Vista. Angus Scrimm was still too ill to suit up as the Tall Man but he was willing to appear as a bedridden Jebediah Morningside in Reggie’s nightmare. Unlike the aforementioned hallway confrontation, Scrimm could deliver his performance while resting comfortably in bed. Chronologically, this scene marked Scrimm’s first appearance in Ravager. In reality, it marked his final day before camera. His respiratory illness would worsen into pneumonia after filming and require a brief hospitalization. It would also force him to cancel a July 2013 convention appearance in Indianapolis. Fortunately, he would eventually make a full recovery to participate in more travels, appearances and performances.

Ravager’s creative team reflected on Scrimm’s final Phantasm scene at the film’s Austin premiere. “The final sequence we shot with Angus was his first scene in the film,” Coscarelli said. “We didn’t really know how ill he was at the time but we had a sense that he wasn’t going to be as vigorous as he used to be. So that’s how the scene was conceived. It was amazing watching David direct that and of course Reggie brought so much to the scene. But Angus, even laying flat on his back, still had that commanding voice and presence. He drew you in. He had it right up until the end.”

“I remember sitting there with the crew when we did that scene,” Hartman added. “We all got chills the very first time Angus raised his eyebrow. We were elbowing each other like, ‘Holy cow, it’s the Tall Man! He’s right here!’ It was really freaky.”

If Jebediah’s hospital room in Ravager looks at all familiar, it’s because the production team reused the same space for Reggie’s modern room later on. Sepia tinting and a little set dressing go a long way toward masking any similarities. Jebediah’s room features period drapes, an antique clock and metal frame hospital beds. When we return to this space later in the film, the furnishings appear modernized and a giant rug covers the distinctive floor design. The filmmakers leave small clues that these spaces are one and the same, such as Reggie’s wheelchair sitting in exactly the same spot as Jebediah’s. Despite phan speculation to the contrary, this antique wheelchair is not the same one that appeared on Jebediah’s porch in Oblivion nor in the Fortuneteller’s home in the original Phantasm.

SHOWDOWN ON THE RED PLANET

One of Ravager’s most anticipated moments was a new trip to the Red Planet, which had not been seen since the conclusion of Phantasm II. Don Coscarelli scripted and even partially shot such a sequence for Phantasm III, but that film’s limited budget kept him from completing it. As originally envisioned, Reggie’s Tales would have ended with our hero accidentally landing on the crimson world surrounded by thousands of dwarves. As with the web series, Ravager’s excursion to the Tall Man’s planet occurs near the film’s end.

As the story draws towards a climax, Mike explains that Jane has been kidnapped and that they must travel to the Red Planet to rescue her. Reggie believes this is a trap but goes along anyway. After donning oxygen masks, they spacegate onto the stormy alien surface, emerging at the edge of a large canyon. At the opposite ledge stands the Tall Man flanked by a posse of dwarves, a graver and a captive Jane. “BOY, my need for you is now finished.” He warns that killing him will prove futile since there are thousands of Tall Men “in dimensions you cannot possibly imagine.” Shouting across the canyon, Reggie asks why he hasn’t killed them yet if he is so powerful. The Tall Man replies that Mike was his “subject” and Reggie merely “an amusement.” He then launches a gold sphere sphere, revealed on the audio commentary to be the orb plucked from Mike’s skull, across the canyon toward Mike. The younger Pearson summons a mysterious power to deflect it. In response, the graver snaps Jane’s neck, much to Mike and Reggie’s horror. Unbeknownst to the Tall Man, Chunk has infiltrated his ghastly gang and reveals himself upon Jane’s death. He quickly dispatches the dwarves and graver before turning his attention to the Tall Man. “Hey Tiny, where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Throwing off his robe, Chunk reveals a suicide vest lined with grenades. Pulling all the pins at once, he rushes at the Tall Man as the grenades explode. Mike and Reggie make a quick exit via the spacegate.

Hartman and Coscarelli tweaked the climactic Red Planet showdown right up until filming and even beyond. An earlier version of the scene would have involved Mike attempting to sacrifice himself to save Jane’s life, possibly suggesting a relationship between the two. This development would have greatly alarmed Reggie, who only moments earlier had reunited with his oldest friend in the future dimension. “This is okay,” Mike would have told him. “This is the way it was meant to be.” Ignoring Mike’s words, Reggie would have made a desperate plea to the Tall Man: “You offered me a deal. I’ll take it! Send us all back to a better time!” As he would soon learn, the alien mortician’s bargain would long since have long expired, assuming it was truly ever genuine.

Ravager’s Red Planet sequence features a newly regenerated Tall Man. This detail did not match the original scene as it appeared in the shooting script. As first filmed, this would have been the same Tall Man that Mike blasted with a rocket-propelled grenade several scenes earlier. The Tall Man was to have been so battle-damaged that his face would have half melted away, revealing the skull beneath it. The first version of this scene was filmed with Cesare Gagliardoni wearing a burnt Tall Man mask sculpted by Justin Mabry. The filmmakers disliked how the effect looked and later replaced Gagliardoni with green screen footage of Scrimm.

In planning this ambitious sequence, Hartman visited the Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale, California where Coscarelli had staged the original Phantasm’s Red Planet scenes. Those fleeting glimpses of the alien world had been accomplished through a camera trick known as forced perspective. In real life, the landscape of the Red Planet did not extend horizontally outward to the horizon but upwards like a steep hill. This hindered where the camera could be placed in order to maintain the illusion. Ravager’s visually dynamic finale required a more versatile location that would support filming from multiple angles. Hartman eventually settled upon utilizing green screen photography.

Coscarelli was initially skeptical of Hartman’s green screen method, though he later called the Red Planet showdown “the pinnacle of the movie” on the film’s audio commentary. Hartman’s approach involved filming the actors separately and combining their performances. Baldwin and Bannister were photographed together as were Dawn Cody and the graver. Angus Scrimm was filmed solo (prior to his respiratory illness) as was Stephen Jutras, who also performed each of the dwarf roles. This marked the third time in Ravager that the New Jersey thespian played more than one character in the same scene. Hartman built a temporary green screen behind his home to utilize natural light for the Red Planet. He would later travel to Nevada’s Valley of Fire to capture background plates for the sequence.

HOSPITAL ESCAPE

After escaping the Red Planet, Reggie lands back in the hospital dimension. Picking himself up off the front lawn, he notices that his clothes and appearance have also changed back to robe and slippers. Several alarmed nurses and a sedative-toting doctor approach from behind. Reorienting himself, Reggie sees a figure materialize out of thin air. Through a fiery dimensional portal steps Future Mike, who tosses him the four-barrel shotgun. Catching it, the Regman spins around to find three gravers standing in the place of his former caregivers. He dispatches them with a single blast. Joining Mike, Reggie is now back in the war-torn future wearing his tattered ice cream uniform. “Good to have you back, Reg,” Mike welcomes at his side. With this, the hospital dimension merges with the future dimension. The once pristine facility is now burning. When our heroes seem hopelessly pinned down by gravers, a weaponized version of the ‘Cuda rounds the corner to save them with its side-mounted Gatling guns. Mike and Reggie rush inside the muscle car. Jody, at the wheel, turns to them and smiles. “How’s it hanging, Reg?”

Linda Vista exteriors were filmed on Monday, July 29, 2013. The adrenaline-fueled hospital escape required enormous attention in post-production. Since Ravager had neither the budget nor the crew to physically distress Linda Vista’s exterior, the filmmakers needed to digitally insert fire, debris and other grime effects for Mike and Reggie’s escape. The graver attack was coordinated by veteran stuntman Kim Robert Koscki, who also portrayed one of the attacking ghouls. Koscki had previously appeared alongside Bob Ivy playing followers of the Largeman (portrayed by Daniel Roebuck) in John Dies at the End. For Ravager, Koscki’s graver trio included stuntman Robert Anderson and producer Cesare Gagliardoni. Unfortunately, Koscki would pass away unexpectedly in October 2014 without ever seeing the finished film.

The hospital escape sequence introduces what Ravager’s script refers to as the “Cudanator,” a militarized version of the phan favorite muscle car. This is a variation on the “Battle ‘Cuda” concept first introduced in Roger Avary’s unproduced Phantasm 1999 script. Whereas the Battle ‘Cuda was strictly an armored transport, the Cudanator rates as an assault vehicle with its side mounted Gatling guns. Both rides feature reinforced steel plating and protective window shields. Conceptualized by Hartman and built by his production designer wife Kathleen, the Cudanator slowly came to life across several months inside their home garage. The filmmakers prudently rented an auto-trailer for transporting the Cudanator to and from locations. Openly driving such a heavily weaponized vehicle on Los Angeles roads would surely have attracted unwanted attention, be it gang, police or otherwise.

REGGIE DIES AT THE END

Near film’s end, the Regman and Pearson brothers speed away from the hospital pandemonium in the Cudanator. A euphoric smile crosses Reggie’s face. “I’m just so grateful to see you both.” Exhausted and battle weary, he slumps against the backseat. The setting sun flares into the camera lens as he stares contentedly into the distance. Fade to white. Coming out of the fade, we see Reggie in a hospital bed looking very pale and near death. This does not appear to be the same hospital from earlier in the film as this is clearly a medical unit. Also, Reggie is being watched over by Mike and his brother Jody. In the earlier hospital dimension, Mike mentioned that Jody had died long ago. The room is silent, the mood quite somber. The Pearson brothers are visibly distraught. Jody tries to comfort his old friend (“Hey, bro…”), but words fail him. Reggie’s breathing grows labored as the heart monitor begins to stutter. He convulses briefly and the monitor flatlines. Mike bows his head.

Reggie’s passing at the end of Ravager is one of the most wrenching moments in the franchise. Earlier in the film, Reggie ponders whether he will die “a crazy old man in some bed” or “on his feet” in battle. The answer is neither. Reggie dies peacefully surrounded by his lifelong friends who love him very much. This even appears to happen in a dimension where there is no Tall Man. In this dimension, Reggie and the Pearson brothers have presumably lived long, normal lives. What should we make of the film’s earlier events and that of the other four Phantasm’s?  Were they all the final dream of a dying man? Ravager won’t directly hand its audience that answer, but perhaps the pieces are all there to support this interpretation.

Foreseeing the emotional depth of such a tragic sequence, the filmmakers cleared the set at Linda Vista to allow Bannister, Baldwin and Thornbury some time for privacy. The actors shared personal remembrances of losing friends and family to prepare for the scene. During filming, one emotional take was interrupted by the sound of an ice cream truck passing through the nearby Boyle Heights neighborhood. What could be more appropriate to usher Bannister’s character into the beyond than the beckoning music of an ice cream truck? Surely this incident proves that God is a Phantasm phan.

THE AUSTIN SHOOT

As with Reggie’s Tales, the opening of Ravager begins with what has become of Reggie following the conclusion of Oblivion, but it withholds what has become of Mike. The fourth film ended with the younger Pearson brother presumably dying on the desert floor after the Tall Man had ripped a gold sphere from his skull. His actual fate would be revealed much later in Ravager. In the hospital dimension, Mike recounts a surreal dream, “Reggie, I had your dream.” Hartman’s film shows that Mike actually survived the sphere extraction, afterwards wandering into a nearby ghost town. Breaking into an abandoned home, Mike uses a sewing needle to crudely stich up his massive head wound, which still oozes yellow blood. At some point, he reunites with an incarnation of Jody, who appears mercifully free of the Tall Man’s influence. Years later, the Pearson brothers join with other survivors like Jane and Chunk to lead a coordinated fight against their common foe.

This post-Oblivion dream sequence, which was really more of a flashback, almost didn’t make it into Ravager. While Hartman managed to capture several shots of A. Michael Baldwin tromping through the desert, he was unable to shoot interiors with the actor due to time constraints. The producers ultimately decided that flying the Austin-based performer back to Los Angeles for such a brief scene was not cost-effective. However, Baldwin wanted to see this moment included in Ravager as it provided closure to Oblivion’s ending. He offered to assemble a small crew of Texan filmmakers to shoot the scene in Austin. Hartman liked the idea and sent the actor detailed notes on how to stage the scene.

Ravager’s Austin shoot on Saturday, August 24, 2013 marked an unusual first in Phantasm history; it stands as the only sequence ever shot outside of California. Even more unusual was that neither Hartman nor Coscarelli were present on set during filming. That they allowed Baldwin to oversee this remote operation spoke volumes of their trust in the Phantasm star. The Austin shoot included one of the sequel’s most important makeup effects - the stitching of Mike’s head wound. This gag was prefabricated by effectsman Doug Field and applied on set by Benjamin Ploughman.

THE MID-CREDIT SCENE

Like Oblivion before it, Ravager bucks Phantasm tradition by ending not with a shock reappearance by the Tall Man, but with our heroes riding off into the horizon. Oblivion turned this western movie trope on its head by having Mike and Reggie drive off not into the sunset of a happy ending, but into the darkness of an uncertain future. Ravager goes for a more upbeat finish with the Cudanator headed for a desert sunset. Depending on one’s point of view, this may or may not be the hallucination of a dying man. Cut to credits.

If you hapened to leave the theater at this moment, you missed out on a scene that changes everything.
After listing the film’s chief creative team, Ravager returns to the desert to find a lone spacegate. Moments later, Chunk, badly wounded from his grenade attack on the Tall Man, stumbles out of the portal. He is greeted by none other than Rocky from Phantasm III! She dresses his wounds and, after a comic exchange, they head for a rendezvous point where they’re picked up by the Cudanator. Inside the car sit Mike, Jody and Reggie. “Oh for the love of God, Baldy. Move over!” The five heroes then speed toward camera in the black muscle car. As Ravager cuts to a reverse angle, we see what they are racing toward – a burning metropolitan city with multiple behemoth spheres looming overhead. Cut once more to credits.

Ravager’s mid-credit scene was filmed late in production. The filmmakers returned to the same deserted stretch of Lancaster highway where they had filmed the ‘Cuda thief scenes four years earlier. Upon arriving at location, they discovered the abandoned shack where Reggie finds the duffel bag had since burned completely to the ground. In the film, Rocky and Chunk can be seen sitting in the shack’s charred rubble. Gloria Lynne Henry, much like Kathy Lester, had long wished to reprise her role as Rocky and very nearly did so in Stephen Romano’s unfilmed Phantasm Forever. The official Phantasm camp kept her surprise cameo a secret heading up to the film’s premiere, though distributor Well Go USA absent-mindedly leaked her name in the film’s official production notes.

CHAPTER SIX

THE LONGEST 927 DAYS

In promoting the original Phantasm, distributor AVCO Embassy fabricated a handful of stories that suggested the film’s production had been cursed. These stories, as A. Michael Baldwin stated in Phantasm Exhumed, were mostly “bullshit.” Assertions that Phantasm’s production was cursed are patently unfounded. Yet if one were to claim the same of Ravager’s post-production, a halfway plausible case could be made. Between announcement and release, its most iconic performer passed away. Additionally, the film’s director, star, and co-producer all faced serious injuries/hospitalization. Beyond that, there were unforeseen delays and unauthorized leaks. Ravager, at the very least, suffered from rotten luck and several bad decisions. For eager phans, the wait for release was the longest 927 days ever

ANNOUNCED TOO SOON

On Tuesday, March 25, 2014, Ain’t It Cool ran a brief news story titled, “Phantasm V is Real and Here’s the Teaser Poster!” Published just three days shy of Phantasm’s thirty-fifth anniversary, this post finally announced to the world that a new sequel was in the works. The article’s only misstep was in teasing phans that Ravager “may be ready for you to see sooner than you think!” As it turned out, the new Phantasm wouldn’t hit theaters for another two-and-a-half years. Two days later, the official camp debuted Ravager’s teaser trailer. This preview gave phans their first look at returning cast members Reggie Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Kathy Lester and Angus Scrimm. With no dialogue, there was little information about the plot. Certainly the most iconic franchise elements were on display: the ‘Cuda, the four-barrel shotgun, an eerie mausoleum, spheres, dwarves, gravers, etc. Lasting merely a minute, the video offered fleeting glimpses of numerous scenes from the film. Several shots were especially intriguing such as the Tall Man on the Red Planet and a giant sphere hovering above Reggie.

Nothing in these initial announcements alluded to just how unfinished the project truly was. Although filming had wrapped months earlier there was much to do in post-production. Ravager holds the distinction of having more special effects shots than any previous Coscarelli production, even the effects-laden John Dies at the End. Yet many of these elaborate sequences were unfinished. This first trailer even contained shots with temporary or altogether missing effects. Hartman hoped to hire several visual artists to help complete the film. He would soon learn that the project’s miniscule budget could not accommodate the addition of outside talent.

Due to such limited funds, Ravager’s effects workload fell on the shoulders of its director. Accepting this daunting challenge meant significantly expanding his digital skill set. Like Paul Pepperman and Roberto Quezada on Phantasm, Hartman proved exceptionally good at creative problem solving and learned best by doing. He almost single handedly created the film’s digital landscape with the exception of the silver spheres, which were farmed out to CGI artist Craig Vance. Such an undertaking took tremendous time to create and render. Take, for example, the apocalyptic street scene which Hartman labored over using his personal laptop. It took him two months to create this entirely digital environment. The final sequence rendered out at a rate of one frame per twenty minutes. Even by conservative math, that equates to over a week of export time for a single shot.

Had Ravager been Hartman’s only professional commitment, there still would have been a long way to go before completion. As it was, Hartman was still holding down a full time position on Transformers: Robots in Disguise, in addition to his duties as a father and husband. When Hartman and Coscarelli realized the film wouldn’t be finished by year’s end, they elected to release a message online acknowledging the delay. Uploaded in mid-December 2014, nine months after the initial announcement, the YouTube video was entitled “Unwrapping the New Phantasm Sequel.” The filmmakers directly addressed the phans and offered a glimpse at ten more seconds of Ravager footage. Hartman ended the video by promising, “This thing’s gonna be in the can in 2015. For sure, we’re gonna have it out.” In reality, the year of release wouldn’t be until late 2016.

Hartman had every intention of finishing Ravager as soon as possible. But the massively overworked filmmaker contracted an intestinal superbug in May 2015 that led to multiple hospitalizations across the next year. To put it mildly, this was a prolonged and life threatening illness. His affliction would bring an already slow post-production to a near standstill. Without Hartman at the helm, Ravager could not move forward.

Announcing the new sequel in time for Phantasm’s thirty-fifth anniversary made for good publicity but it also created the unrealistic expectation that it was, as the official website promised, “coming soon.” Releasing a teaser trailer prior to project completion was not unprecedented in the history of Phantasm. Rolling out the preview prior to securing a distributor was an unusual first. In retrospect, it was an enormous blunder. The promise of a film “coming soon” is empty without a scheduled release date.

“Part of me wished we had released things later than we did,” Hartman told ComingSoon.net, “because I still had a ton of effects work to do in post. I thought, ‘I’m just not going to get this done in six months!’ And then I got really sick and was in the hospital, which slowed things down and was one of the many reasons why there was a delay in the film coming out.”

MARKETING FOLLIES

If Ravager’s first mistake was a premature announcement, its second error involved an abysmal lack of communication from the official camp. Phantasm has long held authorized social media accounts on the internet (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube). However, Coscarelli seldom used them, other than the December 2014 video, to inform phans of Ravager’s status. Phantasm’s creator and cast weren’t hiding from the phans. Just the opposite, in fact. After announcing Ravager in March 2014, the phamily began a nationwide convention tour. Cast members were strictly forbidden to reveal anything about the new sequel, even about updates on its status. They were hardly kept well informed as it was. Coscarelli’s tight-lipped convention appearances throughout 2014 and 2015 created an awkward situation. He was more than happy to sell phans Ravager posters and t-shirts, but reluctant to provide honest updates on the film’s progress. This made for a tense, frustrated phanbase.

“I hear it is finally almost complete,” Angus Scrimm told a Mad Monster Party Seattle audience in October 2014. “Don at conventions has said that he knows Phantasm phans are going to love it. He says he doesn’t know if anybody else will care. I haven’t seen it. Like you all, I’m eager.”

In May 2015, Coscarelli reunited with his original cast at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas to host what was billed as the last ever 35mm screening of the original Phantasm. The evening began with the now iconic trailers for the first four films followed by an unannounced treat, an extended preview of the upcoming Ravager. The sold-out crowd responded uproariously to the new Ravager trailer, the first in over a year. With such an overwhelming reception, Coscarelli screened it yet again after begging the audience not to record it with cell phones as this preview was a sneak peek for their eyes only.

Releasing an event exclusive trailer to spark word-of-mouth excitement is not uncommon. It is a popular practice at Comic Cons in San Diego and New York City. Movie studios will often later release these previews online within days, weeks or months of the exclusive reveal. However, Coscarelli screened Ravager’s extended trailer in May 2015 with seemingly no intention of releasing it online. Consequently, the new Phantasm wouldn’t have another official trailer released until September 2016, an agonizing sixteen months later! If phans weren’t at the Alamo Drafthouse that special night, they were expected to wait over two years between the initial teaser and the next officially sanctioned trailer. Instead of hyping the film, this long wait fractured the phanbase. Instead of generating excitement, the exclusive Austin preview caused tempers to flare. The internet pushback was vitriolic.

As luck would have it, phans wouldn’t have to wait another year to see new footage. The exclusive Alamo Drafthouse trailer leaked to the public on August 13, 2015. This leak wasn’t due to an impatient phan, Russian hackers or a stolen laptop. The extended preview had been hiding in plain sight, unwittingly uploaded two months prior to Vimeo by its editor. Upon discovery, the trailer was posted to a Phantasm Facebook group where it spread like wildfire. Several cast members even shared it on their personal social media pages, unaware that its upload had not been authorized. Coscarelli was reportedly furious at the leak. By the time Phantasm’s creator managed to get it taken down, the video had been viewed thousands of times and saved by countless phans. Coscarelli even instructed some of the film’s producers to go after unauthorized uploads of the video, apparently unaware of the “Streisand effect” whereby attempts to remove something from the internet result in said thing being spread more widely. Although legal takedown notices flew fast and furious, they could not match the speed at which the video was being re-uploaded by eager phans. One frustrated producer even took to Facebook to directly chastise phans for sharing the trailer. This immediately descended into a rather nasty back-and-forth in a since deleted post.

Not everyone connected to Ravager was upset about the trailer leak. Angus Scrimm delighted in the video’s unauthorized release, which marked his first opportunity to see it. Although he had attended the Alamo Drafthouse event at which the preview was originally shown, he was not present in the main theater during its screening. Only upon hearing the audience burst into howling applause from the lobby did he realize what had just been shown. His subsequent attempts to see the video were unsuccessful.

Phan enthusiasm over the new trailer in August 2015 soon gave way to widespread pessimism as the year ticked on with no news of the film’s completion or distribution. The lack of an official update on Ravager’s status was widely interpreted as a negative reflection on the film’s quality. Many assumed the project was now technically complete but unable to find a distributor. Writing on CutPrintFilm.com, blogger J. Tonzelli mused, “Some think this inability to secure distribution might point to Phantasm Ravager being an artistic disaster, and the longer it takes for the film to see the light of day, the harder that fear becomes to refute. After all, why release a teaser trailer so far in advance if the filmmakers weren’t confident it was close to completion and could easily find a home? ‘Warning shots are bullshit,’ Jody says while handing Mike a gun in the first Phantasm. This phrase seems ironically appropriate.”

Another speculation was that the filmmakers had simply run out of money and were unable to complete the film. Assuming this to be the case, one zealous phan launched a rogue Kickstarter page to help Ravager reach the finish line. With an outrageous fundraising goal of $15 million (twice the budget of all five Phantasm’s combined), he managed to raise $860 before Coscarelli asked that the charity be shut down. For those wondering if Phantasm’s creator ever considered crowdfunding the fifth entry, he once told Fangoria: “Yeah, I have. A lot. It seems there might be passion for that kind of thing. When you’ve got something that has a committed fanbase, you can get pretty creative with the perks. For a fifty thousand dollar donation, the Tall Man could strangle you on film!”

Surely there is an intriguing debate to be had here on fandom’s culture of entitlement. When phans buy a movie ticket, they’re owed nothing but the film itself. When phans buy a Ravager t-shirt, the only strings attached are the ones in the thread count. Filmmakers are under no obligation to be transparent about any part of the filmmaking process. Yet there is also an insightful discussion to be had about best marketing practices for beloved cult film franchises. Ravager generated enormous good will upon first announcement, which was subsequently squandered through poor communication and bad marketing. Anticipation and enthusiasm have a shelf life and it’s a hell of a lot shorter than 927 days.

FEAR IS THE KILLER

The anxiety over Ravager’s delayed release went well beyond the phanbase. The unease extended to those who actually worked on the film. This was simply not how anyone was accustomed to making a Phantasm. Ordinarily cast and crew would have begun filming with a completed shooting script in hand. Not so on Ravager where most cast members only received “sides” (pages relevant to their character) as shooting progressed. This constrained their understanding of the film’s plot and direction. Ravager’s long creation may have mirrored the original’s wonky production in a charming kind of way, but there was one major difference: Don Coscarelli began Phantasm with a fleshed out vision. That vision may have changed throughout filming, but it certainly was in place from the start. David Hartman, on the other hand, had to partly assemble Ravager from an earlier project, Reggie’s Tales, retroactively ascribing new context to years old footage. The burning question… was such a hodgepodge approach going to work?

The cast’s uncertainty was compounded by other discrepancies between Ravager’s creation and those of previous Phantasm sequels. Where was the production warehouse? Where were the hearses? Where was Kerry Prior with his wondrous mechanical spheres? Where was the celebratory wrap party or the customary phamily screening? And ultimately, when would they see the completed film? Coscarelli did screen a cut for Blair Witch director Adam Wingard in October 2015, who tweeted out a positive review. Most of the cast would have to wait another year to see the film.

Still concerned about the project’s fate was series patriarch Angus Scrimm, who had little concept of how the sequel would turn out. His experience on Ravager had been jarringly different than on previous Phantasms. Only one of his scenes in the film was shot on an actual set (Jebediah’s hospital room chat with Reggie) while the remainder were captured against backdrops inside Hartman’s home. Consider also that one of the Tall Man’s appearances was shot without Scrimm even present using a body double. The majority of his performance in the film originated from a single day of shooting five years earlier when the project was still named Reggie’s Tales. This was all so very different.

Yet Scrimm had enough faith in Coscarelli and Hartman to look past these irregularities. He understood that filmmaking is an evolving creative process. Heading into the project, his chief concern to friends was “Will Phantasm V be as good as the other four?” Awaiting the film’s release, his concern had changed to “Will it even matter?” Having frequently interacted with phans over the years, he had began to worry about the misguided expectations of an overly eager audience. For him, to finally spell out Phantasm’s mysteries would be to ruin the fun of the franchise. Yet to the preserve that mystery might disappoint those actively seeking answers after nearly forty years. Scrimm understood that as the new guy, Hartman might well be walking into a no-win situation.

“You see the phanbase and you can’t help but be frightened a little bit,” Hartman told Comingsoon.net. “A new guy coming in is almost a recipe for disaster. If anything, I’d be an easy person to blame if things didn’t work out too well. I’m hoping they dig it and really get into it. For me, it was really about getting Don’s blessing, because to be honest, he’s the biggest fan and then after him it was Angus. Those two guys love the series just as much as any phan does.”

PHANTASM REMASTERED

Years before Ravager or even Reggie’s Tales, Don Coscarelli encountered an ardent phan who was pitching a new action drama to the ABC network. The enterprising phan wished to contact Angus Scrimm to hopefully cast the actor as a mysterious CIA interrogator on his show. The Tall Man performer accepted the role and appeared on the show’s pilot, which was soon picked up for a full season. This phan was future A-list filmmaker J.J. Abrams and the show was Alias. It starred Jennifer Garner and ran for five seasons. Scrimm’s ominous interrogator, SD-6 Agent Calvin McCullough, would become a recurring character.

Flash forward several years as J.J. Abrams is preparing to relaunch the Star Wars franchise with The Force Awakens. Costume designer Michael Kaplan presents him with a unique all-chrome look for an unnamed stormtrooper captain. Remembering the silver sphere from Phantasm, Abrams names the character Captain Phasma in tribute to the horror franchise. As word spreads of Phasma’s origin, Abrams realizes that many of his Bad Robot colleagues have never seen Phantasm. To remedy this he invites Coscarelli to screen the film at the company’s headquarters. Abrams is dismayed to learn that no high definition version of the film exists. Coscarelli’s only screening options are a standard DVD and a badly aged 35mm print. In a remarkable move, Abrams offers his company’s state-of-the-art resources at virtually no cost to help restore the film with a new 4k transfer. To date Phantasm is the only title to receive such special treatment from Bad Robot.

The subsequent restoration process was world class and flawless. Post-production chief Ben Rosenblatt digitally scanned Phantasm’s original 1979 camera negative in order to painstakingly clean up each individual shot. The result is a transfer that looks considerably better than it did upon initial release. The company also gave attention to the film’s sound by upgrading the original mono track to stereo. The restoration was so thorough that it actually unearthed some previously hidden details in the celluloid. For example, the scene where Mike spies the Tall Man effortlessly lifting Tommy’s casket into the hearse. The cast and crew filmed this scene during a rainstorm which did not register on film back in 1978. Bad Robot’s stunning 4k transfer actually brought this detail to light, forcing Coscarelli to add in rain sound effects to match the visual. Phantasm’s creator also took this opportunity to digitally tweak several irksome effects, which included replacing the silver sphere with a CGI ball in one shot.

Entertainment Weekly announced the restoration, retitled as Phantasm Remastered, in December 2015. An unfinished version screened at Harry Knowle’s Butt-Numb-A-Thon festival the same month along with a new Ravager trailer. The screening kicked off with silver sphere drones flying over the audience. Coscarelli and A. Michael Baldwin then took the stage to introduce the new version of the film. Remastered officially debuted in March 2016 at the South by Southwest film festival. The late night premiere was introduced by Coscarelli, Baldwin, Kathy Lester, Paul Pepperman, and J.J. Abrams himself.

“At Bad Robot they have a really nice high-end system that they use a lot of times,” Coscarelli told Gizmodo “But sometimes it’s sitting around not used. Over about a year, I’d get these calls from Ben: ‘Can you come over tonight at seven? The machine’s open!’ There are some really nice, talented people over there who worked on it when they had some time off—and a couple of them were really die-hard Phantasm fans, including the top audio engineer over there, who took it upon himself to completely restore the audio. He was able to get a gorgeous stereo sound out of the music, which may be one of the things I enjoyed the most out of the restoration. It’s really thrilling.”

What does any of this have to do with Ravager? Coscarelli would later reveal that remastering Phantasm with Bad Robot took his attention away from the new sequel. Ravager was nearly complete when the series creator stepped away to focus his attention on the first film. While Phantasm’s 4k restoration was wonderful news, there was a palpable disappointment from phans that it came at the cost of further delaying the already tardy Ravager. Coscarelli was essentially putting Ravager on hold to work on a film he’d completed more than thirty-five years prior. This was not what eager phans wanted to hear.

Like Ravager, Phantasm Remastered would experience its own trailer leak on August 29, 2016. That initial preview, prematurely uploaded by Mondo Tees, was pulled within hours. The project’s officially sanctioned trailer would drop several weeks later.

A DEATH IN THE PHAMILY

Kept private from most, Angus Scrimm’s health had been steadily deteriorating throughout 2015. The physical decline became quite noticeable by autumn. His final convention appearance was in late July at Days of the Dead Indianapolis, the same show from which he had withdrawn during Ravager’s production due to a respiratory illness. His final public appearance, looking quite gaunt and frail, was at a Slamdance screening of I Sell the Dead on October 18 alongside co-stars Larry Fessenden and Ron Perlman. In early December, Don Coscarelli arranged a special screening of Ravager for the ailing performer. The limited guest list included Coscarelli, Hartman and the Bannisters.

“One of my fondest memories was when I picked him up at his house to see the film,” Hartman told WithoutYourHead.com. “It felt like a scene out of Tim Burton’s Ed Wood like where Johnny Depp goes to pick up Martin Landau’s Bela Lugosi. Here’s this idol of mine ever since I was a little kid and we’re going to see my movie that he’s in. I remember he looked at me and said, ‘David, who’s going to drive me home after the film?’ And I said, ‘Well, if you like it, I’ll drive you home. And if you hate it, Don’s driving you home.’ Because there’s no way I would be able to handle that. It would just tear me apart. So we start the movie and Angus is just sitting there straight faced through the whole thing. I sat in the back of the theater so that I could watch him and there’s no reaction at all. I’m clenching my fists, white-knuckling it going ‘Oh my God.’ But after the movie, he comes up and grabs me by the hand and says, ‘David, you are taking me home.’ I almost teared up.”

At 6:40 PM on January 9, 2016, Angus Scrimm passed away peacefully at Providence Tarzana Medical Center surrounded by friends and loved ones. Just before 10 PM, Coscarelli publicly announced his friend’s passing. In a late night statement to Entertainment Weekly, the filmmaker said, “His performance as the Tall Man is a towering achievement in horror film history. He was the last in a long line of classic horror movie stars. He was a terrific actor and an even better friend. He will be missed.” Hartman, who was himself hospitalized with an ongoing illness, woke the following morning to learn of Scrimm’s passing. Taking to social media, the Ravager filmmaker wrote, “With all the Ravager and horror movie memories I have working with this great man, my fondest will always be talking about our love for pastries. We will miss you. Thank you for allowing this phan to enter your red world.”

Online tributes immediately began to pour in from friends, colleagues and phans. Scrimm was fondly remembered by genre luminaries such as Charles Band, Doug Bradley, Doug Jones, Joe Lynch, Tom Savini and Ti West. Bruce Campbell, who starred opposite Scrimm in Mindwarp, tweeted, “Angus Scrimm. Class act. Soft spoken. Old school. Honored to work with him. Credit to his craft. Safe passage.” Ron Perlman wrote, “Sweet, gentle, cultured American artist. Got to call him friend and bask in his glow.” Phantasm II femme fatale Samantha Phillips said, “Rest in peace, my dear friend. I know that you are charming those angels as I type this post.”

Former Fangoria editor Tony Timpone remembered the actor in a touching eulogy: “The flood of online tributes to the late, great Angus Scrimm, who passed away at age 89 on Saturday night, all say the same thing: He was the nicest guy in horror and a true gentleman. He made everyone he ever met feel special. Of all the celebrities I crossed paths with during my long Fangoria tenure, Angus ranks as one of the few who became a true friend. […] Dear Angus, I want you to know how much joy your support and kindness meant to me. Thank you for making this dark universe a much lighter one.”

Scrimm’s death had a profound effect upon the collective attitude towards Phantasm Ravager. There was a noticeable shift in tone - a kind of softening - as frustration and doubt gave way to sadness. His passing cemented something that many phans had already suspected, that there would be no more new Phantasm movies with the original Tall Man actor. Ravager was no longer just another horror sequel but a poignant farewell to a beloved genre icon. It was now part of a very real mourning process for many. Although Scrimm was gone, phans knew they would have one last opportunity to spend time with the legendary actor on the big screen. Ravager’s production notes later revealed that the film would be dedicated to the memory of Phantasm’s fallen Tall Man. Yet it would not be his final performance. That distinction would go to Donald F. Glut and Dan Golden’s Dances with Werewolves for which he filmed a small role after completing his work on the fifth Phantasm. Dances would premiere in November 2016.

In a truly harrowing incident, Reggie Bannister nearly became the second Phantasm actor lost in 2016. On Sunday, June 5th, Reggie and his wife took a traumatic fall from a treacherously steep stairway leading up to their bedroom, which can be seen in Ravager. The Regman sustained life-threatening injuries, not the least of which was a broken back and multiple broken ribs. An intensive five week hospitalization followed, though he would eventually make a full recovery. And while it sounds like a bad joke, Reggie and Gigi had a bannister installed to safeguard against future staircase accidents and ensure that Phantasm’s ice cream man would be around for years to come.

DISTRIBUTION SECURED

On July 28, 2016, Entertainment Weekly exclusively revealed that distributor Well Go USA had acquired the domestic rights to the Phantasm series. This came as a surprise to many, especially because Anchor Bay Entertainment had been heavily rumored to distribute the film (Coscarelli had publicly considered them a contender prior to making Reggie’s Tales). Fortunately, Well Go’s plans for Phantasm went beyond condemning Ravager to a direct-to-video fate similar to Phantasm III and Phantasm Oblivion. Instead, they would roll out the new sequel with an unusual distribution strategy, one that bucked traditional industry wisdom.

The Entertainment Weekly announcement indicated that Well Go would release Ravager in select theaters on October 7th. The film would also be available to screen on-demand the same day. The distributor later amended this plan to an October 4th digital rollout, three days before Ravager’s scheduled theatrical release. DVD and Blu-ray editions would later follow in December. Well Go Senior Vice President Dylan Marchetti has long been an outspoken proponent of such bold distribution strategies, arguing that they can greatly benefit what he calls “event films,” which Ravager qualifies as.

“The Phantasm films are iconic and Well Go is ecstatic to have them,” Marchetti told Entertainment Weekly. “We get to bring a classic to a whole new audience with Phantasm: Remastered, and with Phantasm: Ravager we get to bring the die-hard fans — of which I am one — the closure they’ve been waiting for. This is the kind of deal that every distributor dreams of doing, and when you get to do it with a true independent like Don, well, that’s just the extra cherry on the sundae.”

With the Well Go announcement, the long wait for Ravager was nearing an end. Further speaking to WithoutYourHead.com, Hartman described his feelings leading up to the film’s release: “The months before the film came out were gut wrenching. I was ripping myself apart and scared to death that everyone would hate it. I just spent six years of my life on this labor and love. Did I let Don down? Did I let Angus down? You’re constantly running that stuff through your head. It’s very personal.”

This is the part of the filmmaking process, the completion and securing of distribution, where phans have come to expect a contentious fight over the film’s MPAA rating. Coscarelli won this battle on the original Phantasm by successfully appealing its initial X-rating. The MPAA would exact their revenge on Phantasms II and III by forcing him to trim several violent scenes. On Ravager, the filmmakers ultimately won by virtue of not even submitting the film for a rating in the first place. Industry wisdom previously dictated that an MPAA rating was absolutely necessary for a project to secure theatrical or home video distribution. Not so, apparently. The times they are a’changin’. Ravager would be released to audiences without an MPAA rating.

CHAPTER SEVEN

UNLEASHING THE RAVAGER

Searchlights illuminate the night sky. Stretch limos wrap around the block. A red carpet filled with Tinseltown’s brightest stars. The paparazzi snap away. Reporters quiz cast members about the new film. An adoring crowd cheers from the sidelines. This might describe the quintessential Hollywood premiere, but it doesn’t describe a Phantasm premiere, which is a much stranger affair.

The release of the original Phantasm was celebrated with multiple premiere screenings the world over. Both Don Coscarelli and Angus Scrimm toured extensively in support of the film with Scrimm often appearing in character as the Tall Man. Phantasm’s Los Angeles debut offered attendees an unusual party favor - a yellow plastic finger. Universal Pictures would stage Phantasm II’s premiere at the Hollywood Pacific Theater nine years later. Hosted by radio station KCAL, the event included a hearse stuffing contest, sphere throwing dartboards and a special appearance by the Tall Man himself. Sadly, neither Phantasm III nor Phantasm Oblivion received domestic premieres as a result of their direct to video rollouts. As if trying to make up for this, Phantasm Ravager managed to score not one but two ghoulishly fun premieres.

THE ALAMO PREMIERE

Phantasm Ravager’s world premiere took place at Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse on Sunday, September 25, 2016 - nearly eight years after the project began filming as a digital short. The screening was part of Fantastic Fest, Alamo’s annually held genre film festival. Special guests included Don Coscarelli, David Hartman, Reggie and Gigi Bannister, A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Kathy Lester, Stephen Jutras, and Daniel Schweiger. Baldwin, now an Austin local, attended with his children and sister. For most of the cast, this was their first opportunity to view the completed film.

The previous night had seen Phantasm return to the big screen not only at Fantastic Fest but at more than one hundred theaters nationwide as part of Art House Theater Day. The Alamo Drafthouse devoted three auditoriums to Phantasm Remastered and held a post-film discussion panel that was also broadcast into theaters nationwide. This Q&A was preceded by a Ravager featurette that included a touching tribute to Angus Scrimm. Mondo Tees helped commemorate the event by offering new limited edition swag including a silver sphere enamel pin, a Phantasm Remastered T-shirt and an art print by Randy Ortiz.

In a surprise move, Coscarelli used his personal cell phone to broadcast portions of Ravager’s premiere onto the internet using Facebook Live. The master of horror made several streams throughout the day with Hartman and the cast both before and after the premiere screening. He also fielded questions from viewers, which poured in from as far away as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Spain and Sweden. Phans inquired about Ravager’s upcoming theatrical release and plans for a five-film box set. More than a few commented “Reggie for president!” and one lovestruck admirer even asked for the Lady in Lavender’s hand in marriage. Baldwin eventually began his own live stream during Coscarelli’s broadcast for an alternate look at the event. That Phantasm’s creator allowed thousands of phans around the world to be part of Ravager’s premiere was a marvelous gesture, especially following years of agonizing secrecy and dodginess concerning Ravager’s status.

Ravager’s big screen debut was preceded by a campy short called Phantasm and You from the fictional “Silver Sphere Institute of Science.” Directed by and starring Hartman as Dr. Wit Zorgon, Phantasm and You spoofs the cheesy educational films of the 1950s. The short briefly recounts the events of the first four movies for those who either haven’t seen them or don’t remember their specifics. Dr. Zorgon’s black-and-white presentation ends when a sphere slams into the side of his skull, spewing blood onto the camera. Variety’s Joe Leydon praised Hartman’s satirical effort, writing in his review that “Well Go Entertainment would do well to keep this short attached to the feature during upcoming theatrical, digital, and home-video releases.”

Choosing Fantastic Fest for Ravager’s world premiere was a risky move. The film would be playing to an audience comprised largely of journalists, bloggers and filmmakers. As such, the newest Phantasm was set to debut before an notably critical group. While many in the audience were longtime phans, many more were not. For some, this would be their first time ever seeing a Phantasm. Had Ravager tanked in Austin, the film could have suffered a barrage of negative reviews before ever reaching the general public. In an earlier live stream Baldwin joked, “I’m going to see Ravager tonight for the first time in front of a live ticket buying audience, which is a huge mistake! But that’s what I’m doing!” Coscarelli chimed in, “That’s what we call scary.” For Ravager’s director, the Austin premiere was an excruciating experience.

“It was one of the worst moments of my life,” Hartman told the Without Your Head podcast. “The movie started and there were all these cheers, but then the audience got quiet, almost dead quiet. And the horse gets killed and I hear a couple ‘ewws.’ I’m sitting there white knuckling it, looking over at Don like, ‘Oh no, we’ve lost the audience!’ Harry Knowles from Ain’t It Cool News was there along with a lot of bloggers and reviewers and I’m like ‘Oh my God, this is the kind of movie where people should be cheering throughout.’ It wasn’t until the end that people started cheering. I was really surprised. All of the sudden it was a big blowout. Harry immediately put on social media how much he loved it and I’m just like, ‘I didn’t get that vibe from the screening at all.’”

Within minutes of the film’s conclusion, Knowles tweeted one of the first reactions to Ravager’s premiere: “Phantasm Ravager is a blast! Long live the Tall Man!!!  God I love #FantasticFest!”

THE EGYPTIAN PREMIERE

Ravager’s Los Angeles premiere took place on Saturday, October 1, 2016 at the historic Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre as part of Beyond Fest. Nearly a century old, the Egyptian was host to the first ever Hollywood premiere in 1922 with the Douglas Fairbanks-starring Robin Hood. The October evening began with a screening of Phantasm Remastered at 8 PM followed by Ravager shortly after. Unlike the Austin premiere, which saw other films screening alongside Ravager, the Egyptian’s sole focus this night would be upon all things Phantasm. Most of the venue’s six-hundred seats were made available to ticket-buyers and quickly sold out. These lucky phans would witness the largest gathering of phamily in series history, a massive guest list of cast and crew from all five films.

The Egyptian’s phantasmic double-feature was preceded by a hilarious pre-show hosted by Beyond Fest programmer Grant Moninger who had wrapped himself in aluminum foil for a homemade silver sphere costume. Prior to screening Remastered, Moninger judged a Phantasm-themed costume contest, the winner of which was a “Tall Woman.” He and several co-hosts then used tennis rackets to catapult souvenir spheres into the audience, some of which were signed by Coscarelli. In another fun touch, the night’s signature snack was a silver sphere donut hole filled with blood-red jelly.

The intermission between Remastered and Ravager saw filmmaker Joe Lynch (director of Wrong Turn 2: Dead End and Chillerama) host a discussion panel with the casts of both films. Unfortunately, the onstage presence of Gloria Lynne Henry spoiled her surprise appearance in Ravager’s final moments. The panel ended with Bill Thornbury strumming an acoustic version of the Phantasm theme before segueing into “Sittin’ Here at Midnight.” Lynch also took a moment to pay tribute to the memory of Angus Scrimm, telling the crowd, “There’s a bit of a tall elephant in the room. Someone is missing from tonight. I’m talking about the amazing Angus Scrimm. (cheers) He should be here tonight. Because this is Beyond Fest, and because you guys are arguably the biggest, loudest, rowdiest, most passionate motherfuckers in Hollywood tonight, I think we can all talk to Angus for just one moment if we just give him one giant ‘BOY’ together on the count of three. 1, 2, 3. ‘BOOOOY!’ (cheers) That was for you, Angus.”

Unlike the Alamo screening, which was attended by much of the local Austin filmmaking community, the Hollywood premiere was designed with the most diehard phans in mind. This made for a much different vibe. The Egyptian’s energetic crowd clapped, cheered and chuckled along with the film. At its conclusion, the audience gave a standing ovation. Such a lively reaction was not entirely unexpected. In hopeful anticipation of such a response, the filmmakers rigged the Egyptian to record a 5.1 soundtrack of the audience. This reaction audio was later included as a bonus feature on Arrow Video’s Phantasm Blu-ray Collection titled “The Los Angeles Premiere Experience.”

GENERAL RELEASE

The late night hours of Monday, October 3, 2016 saw phans eagerly hunched over laptops, tablets and internet-enabled televisions. Shortly after midnight, Phantasm Ravager began showing up for rental and purchase on streaming services such as iTunes, Amazon Video and Google Play. The official Ravager Facebook page encouraged phans to send in photos of their viewing parties the following evening. Phans with the most interesting or creative photos received release night calls from Coscarelli, Hartman and actress Kathy Lester. Even Rob Zombie took to social media to get the word out: “Hey, my buddy David Hartman, yes the same guy who does all the killer monster art for me, has directed the new Phantasm. If you love this series and the Tall Man like I do, go check it out!”

Well Go USA released Ravager into select theaters three days later on October 7. The film would play in more than fifty cities throughout October, often on a double-bill with Phantasm Remastered. That Phantasm was back on the big screen at all marked a special occasion for the series, which had not seen a proper theatrical run since Phantasm II in 1988. This early October weekend also marked the franchise’s return to the small screen as well. The SyFy Channel celebrated Phantasm with marathon broadcasts of the first, third and fourth films.

The newest Phantasm arrived on DVD and Blu-ray on December 6, 2016. Retailers drastically underestimated demand for the title which quickly sold out in many locations and even online at Amazon.com. David Hartman took to social media to lament the fact that, as co-writer and director of the film, he was unable to locate a copy of Ravager on its day of release for this very same reason.

IMPRESSIONS

Initial reviews from the Austin premiere were heartening. Variety’s Joe Leydon wrote, “Franchise fans should enjoy this latest installment as the cinematic equivalent of a greatest hits album.” IGN included the sequel among its “most fantastic” of Fantastic Fest. Blair Hoyle of Cinema Slasher hailed the film’s performances as its greatest strength, saying that Ravager’s “charm goes a long way and something has to be said for that.” JoBlo’s Eric Walkuski wrote that although the film was “a very rough item,” it “undeniably has its heart in the right place. […] Ravager is just energetic and crazy enough to put a smile on your face and keep it there.”

Even the film’s less than glowing reviews found something to praise. Screen Anarchy’s Michelle Galgana wrote that while Ravager “disappoints,” it was “impossible to overlook the fun that you see all these guys having, and their hearts are all in the right place.” Similarly, AV Club’s Katie Rife wrote that the sequel was “heartfelt but clumsily handled.” Perhaps the film’s most brutal Austin review came from Geek League’s Johnny Donaldson who wrote that Ravager was “straight, undiluted garbage” and “a giant slap in the face of anyone who calls themselves a phan.”

Most of Ravager’s early reviews appeared online in the wake of its Hollywood premiere. Los Angeles Times critic Noel Murray wrote that, “More than any of the other sequels, Ravager upholds the mind-bending originality of the first Phantasm.” The Hollywood Reporter’s Frank Scheck claimed that “Hearing [Angus Scrimm] intone that ‘humans are skin sacs of organ and meat’ [sic] is worth the price of admission all by itself.”

Sadly, famed critic Roger Ebert passed away during filming and thus did not have the opportunity to view Ravager. Phans may recall his scathing opinion of Phantasm II, which he included in his book I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie. (Fun fact: A. Michael Baldwin delights in referring phans to Ebert’s Phantasm II review.) Fortunately, Ebert’s legacy lives on through his official website which is still updated with new reviews written by a team of his peers. In a move that surely had Ebert rolling in his grave, RogerEbert.com reviewer Simon Abrams gave Ravager two-and-a-half stars out of four, categorizing the sequel as “fan-service” with “lots of pleasing callbacks to the previous films.” Abrams also hailed the first film as a “horror gem” despite Ebert previously calling it a “bad movie” with “great moments.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

DECONSTRUCTING THE STORY

Near Phantasm Oblivion’s end, the Tall Man stalks toward the heroes with the intention of ripping out Mike’s cranial gold sphere. Reggie tries valiantly to stop him but fails as his four-barrel shotgun jams. Grabbing Reggie by the throat, the Tall Man remarks, “Ice cream man, it’s all in his head.” Within the context of the scene, this line seems to imply Mike’s cranial sphere or perhaps that Mike is merely dreaming. Yet within the retroactive context of Phantasm Ravager, this quote foreshadows Reggie’s impending dementia. As in, “It’s all in the ice cream man’s head.” Was Oblivion setting up a Reggie-centric storyline with this scene? Of course not. But Ravager’s direction has now given new meaning to the Tall Man’s words.

A wise man once said, “Seeing is easy. Understanding? That takes a little more time.” Reading this, you’ve probably seen Ravager at least once since its original release. We’ve all seen the film. Now let us strive to understand it by examining Ravager within the context of the entire Phantasm saga.

THE DELUSION OF A DISORDERED MIND

The original Phantasm waded deep into surrealist waters by asking “Was it just a dream?” and never conclusively answering its own question. The second and third Phantasm’s would dial back the original’s “only a dream” angle in favor of a more straightforward horror-action approach. Not until the final moments of Phantasm Oblivion does the series revisit the possibility that this has all been the delusion of troubled boy. “Hey, did you hear something?” “It was just the wind.” Ravager strongly embraces this surrealist approach to the material. Wrapping up the series with a deeper exploration of the original’s themes is not only highly appropriate, it demonstrates the brilliance of Ravager.

Coscarelli’s ending to the original Phantasm suggested that Mike, in coping with the loss of his parents and brother, had created a fantastical story about a grave robbing Tall Man from another planet. This delusion of a disordered mind served as an emotional defense mechanism for the boy. In Mike’s fantasy, Jody was not lost to him in a car wreck but fighting alongside him against a supernatural evil. Hartman’s sequel mirrors the original film by depicting a similar scenario for our favorite ice cream vendor. Ravager suggests that Reggie, in coping with a degenerative brain disease, has created a fantastical story about a relentless Tall Man. In this fantasy, Reggie’s recent diagnosis and hospitalization are all a conspiracy orchestrated by the alien grave robber. (“That son of a bitch put me here! He put you here, too! Wake up, man!”) That the first and fifth films are both coming of age stories gives them a special connection. Phantasm is about the hardships of growing up. Ravager is about the hardships of growing old.

At first glance, Ravager seems to be suggesting that Reggie needs to figure out which of its dimensions represents true reality. As the story continues, the film’s central theme comes more into focus Throughout the story, Reggie is grappling with a terrible existential crisis. He can no longer trust the things he sees, not even his own memories. His most basic understanding of the world around him is crumbling. Partway through the film, he happens upon the only true way to solve this dilemma. The trick is not to figure out which dimension is real, but to decide which dimension is most real to him. Which dimension does he want to be real? Reggie’s internal conflict recalls a line by Austrian psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl: “The meaning of life is to give life meaning.” This is exactly what Reggie must do; a choice he has to make. “I don’t know, Mike. Do I want to die here… a crazy old man in some bed, my body eventually thrown in a box and stuffed in a wall somewhere, rotting away to nothing? Or do I want to go out on my feet, shoving four barrels of fucking hell down their goddamn throats?” Is it any coincidence that upon asking this question Mike vanishes from Reggie’s side and the dimensions collide to make way for Reggie’s chat with the Tall Man? No, Reggie has found the right path, but his nemesis immediately seeks to distract him by offering to resurrect his slain family.

“Dave was insistent on letting the audience see Reggie’s choice,” Coscarelli told Collider.com. “Is Reggie going to decide, ‘I’m an old man dying in a rest dump or am I out in the desert by myself or am I fighting with a resistance group to save the world?’ So there are at least three paths he could be on. Which one was real and which one did Reggie want to be real? It’ll be interesting to see.”

Reggie must take a stand in order to reclaim his fate from the Tall Man. In doing so, he will again become the master of his own destiny. This parallels Mike’s story arc in Phantasm III and Oblivion. Had these characters chosen to do nothing, Mike would have become an evil Tall Man and Reggie would have withered into a husk of his former self, rotting away in a convalescent home. By choosing the apocalyptic dimension, Reggie finds meaning in his fight against the Tall Man. Does Reggie choose this reality for the thrill of that fight? No, he chooses it because this dimension allows him to live with loyalty and conviction, spending his remaining days alongside his dearest friends.

With most other films, solving an existential crisis and reclaiming one’s destiny would have resulted in the hero triumphing over the villain. Not so in Phantasm. In truth, Reggie will never beat the Tall Man. Neither will Mike. Their nemesis is death incarnate. But that doesn’t mean the heroes have to go down without a fight. The question becomes: What will the Tall Man ultimately break first, one’s spirit or body? And that is where we find Reggie in the new film, in spiritual crisis. Across Oblivion and Ravager, Mike and Reggie both resoundingly prove that their spirits will not be broken. Nor will their bond to one another.

THEY BRING US HERE TO DIE

In the original Phantasm, Coscarelli plays on our perceptions of the death industry by perverting it into something horrifying and ghoulish. For young Mike, grieving the loss of his parents and brother, the local Morningside Mortuary is not merely a place where corpses are prepared for burial. Instead, it is a front for a nefarious operation that shrinks and re-animates the dead for use as slave labor on another planet. In Ravager, Hartman expands on Coscarelli’s formula to focus not on where we go when we die, but where we spend our final moments before we die. For Reggie, now suffering from dementia, the local convalescent home is not only where aging citizens go to receive geriatric care. Instead, it’s part of a conspiracy by the Tall Man to keep him from reuniting with his friends. His doctor and nurses instead of being healthcare professionals are undead henchmen carrying out their master’s will. Like the “only a dream” angle, this corrupted institution gloriously echoes the original film.

In his book Horror Films FAQ, film journalist John Kenneth Muir touches upon why Coscarelli took this fantasy approach to begin with. Paraphrasing Muir’s point to include Ravager, he writes, “Charting the disturbed mental landscape of a grieving boy or dying old man, the Phantasm films get to a simple emotional truth about humans. It is often easier to live in a fantasy world, even one with monsters, dwarves and giant spheres, than it is to face the fact that we are all going to lose our loved ones and eventually die ourselves. Because these films deal so sensitively with that tough, hard-to-accept idea, Phantasm remains one of the horror genre’s shining jewels.”

Ravager shrouds itself in mystery by disclosing so little about its central location. Is Reggie in a retirement home? A skilled nursing facility? A regular hospital? He calls it a “rest dump,” but most rest homes don’t have their own morgue on site, do they? (That there isn’t a sign out front that reads “Morningside Retirement Home” is a missed opportunity.) At any rate, this place represents a living hell for Reggie. Its hallways are eerily void of other people save for the sketchy nursing staff. Reggie only ever encounters one other patient, an old man wandering aimlessly down the corridor with a walker. Dazed and barely upright, he is a withered shell of a human being. His desperate eyes lock briefly with Reggie’s before he shuffles away. Ravager’s director has since revealed that this wandering patient represents what Reggie has to look forward to should he remain in this dimension. This might even be Reggie in the future if he remains here. The old man was played by Joseph Jefferson, whose wife Edith played the mummy’s first victim in Bubba Ho-Tep. At ninety-one years old, Jefferson was the oldest performer to appear in a Phantasm film. Sadly, he would not live to see its release. Jefferson passed away on August 1, 2014.

And what of Reggie’s dreamscape encounter with Jebediah Morningside in the turn of the century hospital? That he mentions having been here “for such a long time” might suggest the Tall Man has trapped his alter-ego in this dream prison. Might this have been his benevolent spirit reaching out to help a troubled soul? The old man is soon possessed by his evil doppelganger, leading us to question whether or not this was ever truly Jebediah to start with. “I believe they bring us here to die.” This ominous warning reminds Reggie that he cannot stay in the hospital dimension and must find a way to escape. Or this could be a trick by the Tall Man to further weaken his opponent’s sanity. Jebediah’s warning might actually be Reggie’s own subconscious projecting his fears about the rest home. Ravager leaves it to the viewer to assign the appropriate significance. Another mystery is how Reggie knows of Jebediah in the first place. The Regman mentions him in the opening narration (“He was a scientist in a past life who crossed the threshold to a red world and came back changed.”) despite not actually being present for this revelation in Phantasm Oblivion. He might have learned of Jebediah by reading Mike’s journal from that film (“Last Will and Testament of Michael Pearson”) but we never see him so much as pick up the oversized tome.

THE WANDERING WARRIOR

Ravager’s most important character is obviously Reggie as he appears in every scene of the film, which is a Phantasm first. After decades of playing slapstick sidekick to the Pearson brothers, Reggie is finally given his due dramatically and not a moment too soon. By Phantasm Oblivion, the character had devolved into a tired caricature of his former self. Any affection audiences still had for the part clearly owed to Bannister’s charming portrayal and not entirely what was on the script page. Other than in his appearances in the film’s opening and closing sequences, Reggie’s scenes with Jennifer and the Demon Trooper served little narrative purpose beyond keeping him in the film.

In contrast, Hartman and Coscarelli create a fascinating character study of the Reggie role in Ravager. The new sequel explores the ice cream vendor’s thoughts and motivations as never before. Viewers are finally privy to what drives and scares him. The story also delves into an oft overlooked aspect of the character - his pain. Reggie is a man who has lost more than most, a trait easily forgotten when he’s relegated to fighting boob spheres in a seedy motel room. Narratively tapping into his lifelong suffering helps restore pathos to the role. His loyal friendship with the Pearson brothers would not compare to the sacred bonds of marriage and fatherhood which have been cruelly severed. Ravager succeeds by treating Reggie like an actual person and not an oversexed clown.

For many phans, the realization that Ravager was switching focus from Mike to Reggie was cause for concern since this major restructuring was not an organic one. As Coscarelli has solidly confirmed, the Reggie’s Tales shorts focused on Reggie as a matter of practicality; Bannister lived much closer to Los Angeles than Baldwin or Thornbury. When work began on Ravager with over forty minutes of Reggie-centric material to incorporate, it only made sense to continue in the new direction. This placed an enormous burden on the filmmakers to craft a thoughtful story that justified the promotion of a supporting character to leading man. This burden also extended to Bannister as the film’s success would hinge as much on the quality of his performance as it would the script.

Fortunately, all parties managed to deliver standout work. The writing does great things with the character, not the least of which is the subversion of his traditional hero role. Whereas in previous Phantasms Reggie is constantly trying to save Mike from sinister forces, in Ravager it’s Reggie who needs saving, not just in a physical sense but spiritually as well. His greatest struggles in the film don’t involve spheres, dwarves or gravers, but in keeping his sanity intact and coming to terms with his own mortality. And what of the performer? Bannister gives the most singularly captivating performance of his entire career. His frequent appearances in schlocky but fun genre fare like Spring Break Massacre and The Mangler Reborn make it easy to forget that Bannister possesses some serious acting chops, even if he doesn’t get to flex them that often. Make no mistake, his talents are on full display in Ravager.

Ravager‘s story stands out from earlier Phantasm’s for its unique vantage point. Unlike its predecessors, the narrative seldom breaks from Reggie’s point of view, which means the audience has no more knowledge than our four-barrel toting hero. “The whole point was to keep the audience as disoriented as Reggie was,” Hartman said on the Without Your Head podcast. “If the audience knew what was going on then I don’t think they would have related to him as well. The film could be considered a jumbled mess or something deeper, which is what we were hoping and striving for.”

Despite the new focus on Reggie, Ravager never tries to retool Phantasm’s mythology of Mike versus the Tall Man to give Reggie increased relevance to the central conflict. He is, as the alien mortician explains in the film, “an unwanted pawn in the game.” Near story’s end, Reggie finally asks the Tall Man, “If you’re so powerful, why haven’t you killed us yet?” The mortician replies, “Every Tall Man deserves an amusement.”

THE IMPERFECT FLESH

Hartman and Coscarelli had many details to sort out before resuming the story from Phantasm Oblivion. The most important may have been the fate of Mike Pearson. Most Phantasm V pitches implied that Mike did not die in the fourth film’s final moments as was originally intended. The explanations varied in how the character would continue on. Hartman originally suggested in Reggie’s Tales that Mike’s body had died off but his spirit lived on inside the gold sphere the Tall Man had plucked from his skull. He would take a different approach with the character in Ravager.

The inherent challenge in bringing back Mike was that Coscarelli had wrapped his story arc in Phantasm Oblivion. Mike’s journey began in Phantasm when he uncovered the Tall Man’s operation at Morningside Mortuary. In Phantasm II, he came to realize his own special abilities, which included a psychic connection to his nemesis. In Phantasm III, he was horrified to learn of his own transformation into a Tall Man. And in Phantasm Oblivion, Mike rejected his dark fate and used his newfound powers to fight back. This tetralogy depicts a version of the classic hero’s journey. To then continue Mike’s story with an entirely new arc would risk undermining his struggle throughout the first four films. Ravager’s screenwriters wisely resolved to continue the character as we’d last seen him, courageous and defiant in the face of ultimate evil. Mike is now the badass leader of a resistance group in a never ending fight against the Tall Man. This development echoes John Connor’s arc throughout the Terminator series. Both men were thrust into terrible situations as adolescents, survived an apocalyptic event as young adults and later took on leadership roles in resistance movements.

Having played these roles for over three decades, Phantasm’s core cast have grown understandably protective of their characters. This certainly describes A. Michael Baldwin’s attitude toward his namesake protagonist. In all likelihood, he would have been the first cast member to walk away from a sequel that he felt disserviced the character of Mike. This stems from his negative experience on Phantasm III in which a much more passive Mike is constantly being chased or kidnapped by the Tall Man. The third film transformed the once spunky hero into a helpless victim in need of saving. Heading into Phantasm Oblivion, Baldwin was insistent that Mike take on a more active role in the story, which he certainly did. The actor made a similar push on Stephen Romano’s Phantasm Forever after Roger Avary erased Mike altogether from later drafts of Phantasm 1999. Baldwin reportedly found much to like about his part in Ravager, not the least of which was getting to explore new versions of his old character.

Ravager catches up with Mike roughly ten minutes into the movie, only this version of Mike is unfamiliar to us. Neatly dressed in a corduroy suit jacket, he is first seen pushing Reggie in a wheelchair toward a serene natural area outside a hospital. Now middle aged, Mike appears well adjusted and we soon learn why - this Mike has never before encountered the Tall Man! In this dimension, he truly was taken in by Reggie after Jody’s death back in 1978. “Reggie, you’ve been my rock. [..] I will owe you forever for that.” Now thirty years later, the role of caretaker has switched as Mike reveals Reggie’s diagnosis of early onset dementia. The former ice cream vendor was found wandering the desert, spouting insane tales of an alien mortician. Ravager shows that Mike is actively involved in Reggie’s treatment, consoling him: “We’re together. You’re not alone.”

Hartman and Coscarelli jam so much gravitas into this first interaction between old friends that it is positively surreal to see an adult Mike Pearson not haunted by a lifetime lived under siege from the Tall Man. This reality depicts the normal life he could have had at the conclusion of Phantasm, being raised by Reggie. The mature Mike Pearson now sports a ponytail in the style of his surrogate brother. His love and concern for Reggie’s well being is clearly evident in these scenes. Mike treats Reggie with patient gentleness even when angrily asked, “Why the hell am I here!?” Given the nature of Reggie’s diagnosis, this is a conversation they have likely had more than once. Still, Mike carefully breaks the bad news to Reggie while compassionately trying to instill hope. “There are therapies and treatments. There’s this beautiful place. And we’re together.”

One especially telling moment between these old friends is when Mike invites Reggie to share his crazy story “again.” On a functional level, this allows to filmmakers to transition back into the Reggie’s Tales material. Within the scene, we realize that the doctors have told Mike to keep Reggie’s mind engaged by whatever means possible. Even more telling is that Reggie’s story doesn’t fall on deaf ears. Mike listens, absorbs and even researches his friend’s wild claims. He shares with Reggie his newfound knowledge of parallel universes and membrane theory, ideas that actually validate Reggie’s experiences. This version of Mike recalls “Professor Mike Pearson” from both the abandoned New Line remake and the ending of the unfilmed Phantasm Forever.

BROTHER’S KEEPER

When last we saw Jody Pearson, he was in a dark place. His return in Phantasm III revealed that he was now among the Tall Man’s ranks, albeit with a rogue agenda for good. Jody tried to warn Mike of the Tall Man’s approach in that film and even charged his master in a brazen act of defiance. In Oblivion, Mike comes to seriously doubt his brother’s intentions. “Reggie has always been there for me, but you… you I can’t trust.” Jody’s actions later confirm Mike’s worst fears when Jody delivers him to the Tall Man and restrains him during a procedure to remove Mike’s cranial sphere. Mike slashes his brother’s throat and escapes. As Jody lays mortally bleeding on the mausoleum floor, he delivers a halting confession, “I died in the car,” referencing his actual passing years earlier.

Jody has always been a difficult character to profile. Mike resented his brother in the original Phantasm for trying to abandon him. In a heartwrenching turn of events, the film’s ending revealed that Jody had not left town but had instead perished in a car wreck. When Jody returned from the dead in Phantasm III, he was no longer the brother Mike once idolized. Instead, Jody had become an undead agent of the Tall Man but still with some measure of loyalty toward his brother. He appeared to be helping the heroes by imparting cryptic advice (“Seeing is easy”) and by leading a rescue mission into another dimension. In Oblivion, Jody is still working for the Tall Man, though the older Pearson appears to struggle with this dual allegiance. By the time Jody delivers Mike into the hands of the Tall Man, it’s unclear whether Jody has been a mere puppet of his master’s will all along.

“Honestly, I would have preferred that the Pearson brothers always be true to one another,” Bill Thornbury said in Phantasm Exhumed. “I never wanted to see Jody lie to Mike or deceive him because they really did care for one another and I wanted it to stay that way. I thought that was the strength of Phantasm, the relationship between the brothers. But the story has to eventually change, so I understood the direction Don was taking us in.”

Hartman withholds Jody from Ravager until the very end. Out of ammo and pinned down by gravers, Mike and Reggie are in need of a quick escape. Right on time, the souped-up Cudanator arrives on scene and guns down the attacking henchmen. As Mike throws open the passenger door, Jody turns to greet him from the driver’s seat. Reggie is shocked at this reunion. When last they met, Jody was not to be trusted, yet here he is swooping in to the rescue. As the trio drive off together, the older Pearson shows no hint of dual allegiance. He is squarely on Mike’s side of this fight. Reggie senses this too. “It’s so good to see you, Jody. […] I’m just so grateful to see you both.”

The question this scene raises is: How did Jody manage to break from the Tall Man’s control? Ravager never directly addresses this. To do so would steer the focus too far from Reggie’s story. Divulging the details of Jody’s salvation from the Tall Man might also have spoiled his surprise return. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter how Jody is back and firmly on their side, only that he is. Looking back over the five Phantasm films, the Tall Man clearly had plans for Mike, Reggie and Jody. He intended for Mike to become his protégé, for Jody to become his slave and for Reggie to waste away in isolation, unable to hinder the first two plans. In the end, all three manage to reject their dark destinies and remain true to one another. In the world of Phantasm, loyalty is most important. Jody’s return in Ravager speaks wonderfully to that frail human emotion.

DESPICABLE HE

Like previous installments, Ravager offers a new take on Angus Scrimm’s iconic character. The Tall Man’s appearances throughout the series may not constitute a full arc, but they do provide increasing insight into his motivations. In Phantasm, the Tall Man was a relentless boogeymen that refused to let his young voyeur get away. In Phantasm II, the mortician appeared to be luring the heroes for some unknown purpose. In Phantasm III, his plan to transform Mike into something inhuman finally comes into focus. And in Phantasm Oblivion, we see the Tall Man’s composed yet unrelenting efforts to win over his reluctant protégé. In Ravager, we find the alien mortician in much different circumstances. The heroes have proven unyielding in their efforts to stop him. All his plans for Mike, Jody and Reggie have failed. Ravager’s Tall Man is frustrated, almost desperate.

Hartman delays the Tall Man’s first full appearance in Ravager longer than in any other Phantasm film. Ignoring the mortician’s brief shadowy presence outside Dawn’s cabin, the Tall Man doesn’t fully appear until the thirty-six minute mark. In this mesmerizing encounter, the Tall Man offers to resurrect Reggie’s slain family if only the ice cream man will abandon his search for the Pearson brothers. Reggie later refuses, exasperating the Tall Man. A lightning strike punctuates his anger. “Why!? Why are you so obsessed with these friends?” Unable to dissuade his opponent from his loyal search, the Tall Man decides to attack Reggie’s spirit. “You brought this on yourself. You were an unwanted pawn in the game!” Phans have witnessed the Tall Man in multiple situations across the Phantasm series that could have drawn his ire but didn’t. That Reggie’s refusal elicits such an irate reaction is astonishing.

What of the Tall Man’s offer to Reggie and his plans to “make things better for everyone?” Might there have been substance to that? Likely not. The Tall Man is a deceiver. Recall his promise in Oblivion that if young Mike were to cut him down from the hanging tree, he “would go away and never come back.” Even if his offer to resurrect Celeste and little Bonnie was sincere, Reggie recognizes this as being outside the natural order of things: “You think I want your reanimated zombies!?” And what horrible world would Reggie be reintroducing them to? That he declines the Tall Man’s offer was the right choice in a critical test. Also worth noting is that this offer was made not in the present, but at Morningside Mortuary circa 1978 (“the place where first we met”). This was a significant moment in the Phantasm timeline just before Mike, Jody and Reggie became entangled in a monstrous web. That the Tall Man returns here with Reggie recalls another Oblivion tagline: “Before you can go forward, you have to go back.”

One cannot help but ask: If the Tall Man is so powerful, why hasn’t he killed the heroes yet? It’s a question Reggie himself asks. His opponent responds that Mike was his “subject” and Reggie his “amusement.” There may be truth to that, but there also may be more to the story. In this same exchange, the Tall Man reveals his “need” for Mike is finished. That he previously needed Mike is a significant clarification of their relationship. Consider also that in Phantasm III’s opener, the Tall Man instructs Reggie to “take good care of him,” as if assigning him to be Mike’s guardian. This might explain why, up until now, the Tall Man has not killed them. He needed Mike and therefore also needed Reggie to protect Mike. The Tall Man may also have spared Reggie’s life to keep from dealing such a serious emotional blow to his protégé, who was already so opposed to his transformation.

Ravager’s finale finds Mike firing a rocket-propelled grenade at his nemesis, incinerating him. A short while later, he and Reggie encounter a new Tall Man on the Red Planet, whom Chunk destroys using a suicide vest. Some viewers have criticized how a new character was allowed this final strike against the Tall Man, but this complaint is flawed. That was most certainly not the last or only Tall Man and Chunk’s valiant sacrifice does so little in the scheme of the story. As the alien mortician explains, “There are thousands of me, tens of thousands, in dimensions you cannot even fathom.” Should Mike and Reggie be allowed instead to “finally” destroy the Tall Man? In the next chapter, that expectation will be shown to be misguided. The hero’s victory in Ravager is not in destroying the Tall Man, but in fighting him together as a united team in spite of all he’s done to tear them apart. (“Hell of a way to start a trio.”) Phantasm was never exclusively Mike’s story, never his battle alone.

THE ENDING

Reggie spends the latter part of Hartman’s film tripping through time and space seemingly at random. Spiritually and psychologically disoriented, he is powerless against these dimensional shifts. Finding himself back in his hospital bed, Reggie is soon visited by an unsettled Mike who reveals that he has somehow shared Reggie’s dream about a grave robbing Tall Man. (“It was a very real dream, Reggie.”) This is the moment where Mike essentially says, “Reg, I know you’re not crazy.” Focusing on Mike’s actions going forward will be key to understanding this part of the film.

By the time Mike finishes recounting his dream, both men have shifted out of the hospital setting and back into the post-apocalyptic world. (“What a fine use of our time that was.”) They soon encounter the Tall Man and his minions, whom they blast with a rocket-propelled grenade. After this battle, Reggie materializes back in his hospital bed, completely alone. Seconds later, Mike rushes into the room to take his friend back to the fight. (“We gotta go!”) Back in the warzone dimension, they spacegate onto the Red Planet where Chunk destroys a new Tall Man clone. Taking cover from the explosion, Reggie lands face down on the hospital’s front lawn; the dimensions have shifted yet again. At this point, you have to wonder if our hero isn’t doomed to repeat this nightmarish cycle forever. He is constantly being forced back to the hospital despite Mike’s rescue attempts.

Several nurses rush to help a confused Reggie to his feet. He stumbles forward, oblivious to the needle-wielding doctor behind him. Here something incredible happens. The hospital yard begins to fill with smoke. Sensing his friend, Reggie calls out Mike’s name. Several yards ahead, fire scorches the very fabric of this world, revealing the warzone dimension. Stepping through this rift, Mike has brought along a present — Reggie’s four-barrel shotgun. Mike has literally torn a hole through time and space to get to Reggie. We see the post-apocalyptic reality overtake the hospital, transforming the clinical staff into gravers. This is the last we will see of the hospital world. How did Mike manage this interdimensional feat? We might chalk it up to his special abilities, which have been developing since the days of Phantasm II.

Pinned down by gravers, our heroes are rescued at the last moment by Jody in the Cudanator. The trio speed away from the war torn hospital in the weaponized muscle car. Flash forward once the heroes are down the road a piece. Mike and Jody strategize about their next move in the front seats. (“We’re gonna fight harder. We’ll fight smarter. We’re gonna change tactics. We’re gonna go north where it’s cold.”) In the back seat, Reggie seems disconnected from their conversation, cutting in, “I’m just so grateful to see you both, man.” He smiles euphorically at his friends. Mike returns the smile with a tinge of sadness. Closing his eyes, Reggie slumps back against the seat. “Hell of a way to start a trio.” Sunlight flares into the camera lens and fade to white.

The film emerges from the fade into an all new dimension. This is clearly a hospital, but different from the one before. A heart monitor follows a slow beat as a deathly pale Reggie lays motionless in bed. He is flanked on either side by the Pearson brothers, each of whom hold him by the hand. That this staging mirrors the previous scene in the Cudanator is no accident; Mike on the left, Reggie in the middle, Jody on the right. Reggie convulses slightly as the monitor flatlines. The music swells as we see a flash of images from throughout the series. This emotional montage ends with Reggie slumped down in the backseat of the Cudanator. The heroes ride off into the horizon.

The implication of this ending is clear: the Regman has shuffled off this mortal coil. His passing is felt throughout all the dimensions we’ve seen thus far. This moment is tantamount to Mike’s awakening at the end of Phantasm (“Mike, you had a bad dream.”) For a moment, everything seems to make sense. Had the film stopped here we would have a conclusive ending to the series just as if Phantasm had ended with Mike and Reggie’s fireside chat. But as we know, Phantasm never ends neatly. Mike went upstairs to find the Tall Man in his bedroom, doubling back on the “only a dream” angle. Ravager similarly follows suit. After twenty seconds of credits, we’re treated to another scene. Chunk, who miraculously survived the Red Planet showdown, meets up with Rocky from Phantasm III before rendezvousing with Mike, Jody and Reggie in the Cudanator. This motely crew of five then drive toward an apocalyptic horizon lined with battleship spheres. The story continues!

So which is it? Was it all a dream inside Reggie’s head or does he live on to fight another day? It’s both. And neither. Reggie’s exclamation at seeing Chunk and Rocky (“How the hell?”) is hilariously on point. He is practically speaking for the audience in this moment. We’ve been conditioned by every other film we’ve ever seen to expect a finite ending. Nevertheless, Phantasm stays true to itself. Ravager, like the original film, throws a curveball in its final moments. And, just as with the original, viewers are ultimately in charge of deriving the film’s true meaning.

CHAPTER NINE

IN DEFENSE OF RAVAGER

With Phantasm, it’s always the same old story. Phans appreciate these films while critics seem not to. At least this was the case until Phantasm Ravager. Evidence suggests that critics actually enjoyed the new outing more than audiences did. Consider the film’s standing on Rotten Tomatoes. As of this writing, Ravager holds a 54% approval rating with critics and a mere 31% approval rating with viewers. Critically, it is the highest rated Phantasm on the site behind Coscarelli’s original. Ravager is also the only installment that critics seem to favor more than phans. Stranger still is the sequel’s reception on Bloody-Disgusting where it ranks among the Best and Worst Films of 2016, the only film to hold such honors that year.

Film criticism, whether academic or journalistic, is a crucial part of the discussion of any film. Negative reviews may either challenge or reinforce what we appreciate about a film. A cursory study of Ravager’s less flattering reviews reveals some common criticisms. As the most divisive entry in the franchise, these complaints are worth exploring. Ravager’s mixed reception, for better or worse, is a part of its legacy.

CGI EFFECTS

Both phans and critics have criticized the quality and abundance of Ravager’s computer generated effects. Most genre fans would likely prefer practical effects over digital ones. David Hartman has even vocally included himself in this camp. So why does his film contain so many CGI elements? Cost effectiveness, plain and simple. Advancements in technology have made digital effects more accessible and affordable than ever before. CGI software is now a common standard in the storytelling toolbox of modern filmmakers. The challenges of film production are often the same: should filmmakers forego a scene detail because they cannot realize it practically or should they turn to CGI for help in bringing these ideas to life? Numerous masters of horror have utilized computer effects including Sam Raimi, George Romero and Wes Craven. Don Coscarelli included multiple CGI effects in John Dies at the End.

To be honest, even the original Phantasm’s effects were a mixed bag with regard to quality. None of its crew, not even sphere maker Willard Green, were trained in the art of visual effects. The comical finger-bug creature was modified from a store-bought model kit. Coscarelli was so unsure of the bug that he nearly deleted it before test screening the film. Recall also the profile shot of a sphere travelling down the hallway. Technical limitations resulted in the orb’s chrome surface reflecting a stationary image despite the ball being in motion. This flaw plagued Coscarelli for decades until he digitally corrected it for Phantasm Remastered. Not that audiences in 1979 were complaining. We tend to overlook the original film’s rough edges because we consider it a classic. The budget was miniscule yet the filmmakers made do with what they had. This was part of the film’s charm.

Why then are we so tough on Ravager‘s visual effects? Is it simply because they are digital? Suppose Hartman had photographed an actual fiberglass sphere against black velvet as Coscarelli had on Phantasm. Would a chrome ball that doesn’t reflect its surroundings really trump a more dynamic digital one that does? Ravager attempts things with spheres that no Phantasm has done before, not the least of which is a ball-vs-’Cuda chase in broad daylight. Will a digital sphere ever match the visual power of Kerry Prior’s mechanical creations? Of course not. Will CGI ever be able to top the nightmarish makeups of Mark Shostrom? Never. The problem is that these legendary artisans and their wondrous creations don’t come cheap. On a project like Ravager, such effects artists are unaffordable.

Slamming a micro-budgeted production for its effects hardly seems fair. Obviously, Ravager’s CGI cannot possibly approach the kind of cutting edge work we’re used to seeing in franchises like Avatar, Lord of the Rings and Planet of the Apes, but it gets the job done. Those films spent millions on teams of visual artists whose work was rendered out by entire rooms of high powered computers. Ravager, on the other hand, spent chump change so that its director could almost single-handedly create and render out its visual effects on a personal laptop. It would be ridiculous to judge the new sequel’s CGI against any of those blockbusters. Many Hollywood productions spend more on catering than was spent on all of Ravager. According to Forbes, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy spent $380k on coffee alone! Even by Phantasm standards, the new film was incredibly cheap with the lowest budget in series history when adjusted for inflation. The filmmakers delivered Ravager with just three percent of what Coscarelli originally sought to make Roger Avary’s Phantasm 1999.

Consider the hospital escape sequence near film’s end. The formerly pristine facility is now battle worn and burning. The ground itself is scorched, trees aflame. Mike and Reggie blast away at gravers, who explode in yellow blood. Empty shells fly from the ‘Cudanator’s Gatling guns. This is a large scale action sequence, one which the Ravager crew had a single day to capture along with other hospital exteriors. To create these images practically would have required an enormous budget expenditure. The production would have needed a scenic crew to distress then restore the location, a pyrotechnic team to manage the fires, a weapons expert to enact the live muzzle flashes, and a licensed effectsman to plant the yellow blood squibs. Capturing all of this would have also required far more than a partial day of filming, not to mention the necessary prep time. The cost of going practical for this sequence alone might easily have exceeded the project’s entire budget.

Are we to grade Ravager’s effects on a curve? Absolutely. The spirit of the original Phantasm was fun yet fiercely ambitious. The fledgling crew operated as though nothing was impossible. If it could be imagined it could be depicted. One could easily argue that its motley crew was striving to create visuals well beyond their budget. If we can get past the hilariously cheesy finger-bug creature then, we can surely get past Ravager’s CGI now. Three decades later very little has changed. The Phantasm series is still reaching far beyond its budget. We ought not disparage Ravager for keeping that bold spirit alive.

THERE ARE NO ANSWERS

Effects and CGI weren’t Ravager’s only “failing.” More than a few dissatisfied phans also bemoaned Ravager’s lack of answers in their critiques. CultureCrypt.com’s Ian Sedensky complained that “zero longstanding questions are advanced, answered or resolved.” Nick Peron of the Trouble City blog wrote that the new sequel failed to “tie up loose ends” and finally “solve the mystery of the Tall Man.” But tying up loose ends has never been the nature of Phantasm. This series has always posed questions and then let the audience decide the answers. Even when Phantasm does resolve a question it usually raises several more in the process. To ultimately solve the mystery of the Tall Man would be to rob the character of his power and the story of its mystique. Phantasm resides in the realm of nightmare, so shining the light of reality would evaporate its surreal dreams.

Phantasm by design unfolds with a certain level of narrative ambiguity. Was it all a dream? When did Jody actually die? Was Alchemy an agent of the Tall Man all along? Did the mortician implant a gold sphere into Mike’s head or was it always there? Think back once more to Jody’s final words from Phantasm III: “Seeing is easy. Understanding? That takes a little more time.” Jody may well have been speaking to the audience directly. Not having all the answers is part of Phantasm’s unique appeal. No one walks away from a Friday the 13th or Halloween pondering the same questions as after Phantasm film. Phantasm discussions are lively and wildly imaginative, especially with the advent of internet discussions.

As mentioned in Chapter Six, the expectation that Phantasm V would finally divulge answers to long held questions was one of Angus Scrimm’s biggest concerns about the project. To clarify these mysteries would spoil so much of what had come before. Yet to preserve the mystery would undoubtedly disappoint a vocal segment of the audience. Scrimm feared this was a no-win situation. The tall thespian voiced his thoughts during his original interview for Phantasm Exhumed: “The problem with the Phantasm series is that it’s about death and all those people out there want a film with some answers. Unfortunately, there are no answers about death. What can you do? Give them your version of what death is? Heavenly angels? What could it be? What if the Tall Man turned out to be Jesus? I don’t know. I think it should forever remain a conundrum. It’s more fun that way.”

“We don’t really know the answers to these questions and neither does anybody else,” A. Michael Baldwin told Coffin Cuties magazine. “We don’t honestly think about the answers. That’s the magic of it, what makes it work and gives it legs. It’s part of the dynamic between the audience and the film itself. It works for people because we don’t answer these questions, nor do we try to. This kind of open-ended storytelling allows the audience to fill in all the gaps much more interestingly than we ever could.”

“We tend to want everything explained for us in the movies,” Coscarelli told The Sci-Fi Movie Page. “There’s nothing wrong with that. But I think there’s a part of the audience that likes chewing over interesting questions, and as long as you ask them in an interesting way, that audience is going to respond. I studied at the feet of the master as far as that goes, Stanley Kubrick. 2001: A Space Odyssey - it’s my favorite movie from eighth grade on, and let me tell you, they don’t explain a lot in that movie. I’m still pondering those questions and loving it. I try to achieve that same feeling with my films. I try to leave a little mystery for the audience to ponder.”

THIS IS NOT THE END

Beyond answers, a large segment of Ravager’s audience arrived expecting a definitive ending to the series. Todd Crawford of The Odyssey Online wrote, “The real issue is that the whole time you’re waiting to see Mike and Reg’s journey come full circle as they take out The Tall Man once and for all, but that finality just never comes.” That finality never comes because the series has never been about finality. Not even death is final in Phantasm. The Tall Man did not jest in Phantasm III when he said “It’s never over.” This nightmare will forever continue. Ravager’s story extends well beyond the end credits just like every other Phantasm movie you have ever seen.

“You couldn’t just have the hero’s journey come to an end where the hero kills the bad guy and stands on his corpse raising a sword in the air,” Hartman said on the film’s audio commentary. “That’s not what Don’s world was meant to be from the very beginning. And much like life, we don’t have all the answers. Ravager’s slightly dark and ambiguous ending is hand-in-hand with the Phantasm world.”

Most of the disappointment over Ravager’s ending is rooted in a difficult truth. Hartman’s film, like the web series it evolved from, is not truly a sequel to the first four Phantasm movies. Rather, it’s a tangential adventure. The main conflict of the first four films existed between Mike and the Tall Man, and was effectively finished in Oblivion. Coscarelli has admitted this in numerous interviews. Audiences witnessed Mike Pearson firmly reject the dark destiny forced upon him. He stops running, accepts his strange alien transformation, then uses his newfound powers to fight back. Mike also dies for this bold rebellion, and with that his arc is complete. While Hartman’s film resurrects Mike from the dead, it does nothing to undermine the significance of Oblivion’s ending. When we reunite with Oblivion’s Mike in Ravager, he is exactly as we last saw him – a badass warrior giving hell to the Tall Man.

So Ravager isn’t really a sequel, at least not in the classical sense. It’s more like an ancillary epilogue. In that regard, Hartman’s film is a fine complement to the first four Phantasm films, a cinematic coda that allows us to revisit this weird, wonderful world. Ravager is not a thematic conclusion but rather a fond farewell. It is a heartfelt excuse to see the old gang reunite on the screen one last time without taking away from what has come before. This isn’t the end of the ride. The adventure continues! This is simply where we get off. And yet there is a poignant beginning in this ending. Our heroes have spent the past three decades fighting the Tall Man, often separated from one another. For the first time since the original, Mike, Jody, and Reggie are shoulder to shoulder again and on the same side – now joined by Rocky and Chunk. This wonderful non-ending is emotionally resonant for those who have followed these characters across so many years.

Frustrated viewers may ask why anyone would ever want to watch a film series that intentionally lacked a definitive ending. This brings to mind a famous line by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Life is a journey, not a destination.” The same is quite true of Phantasm. One would be hard pressed to get concrete answers on any Phantasm film’s ending from the cast and crew, especially from Coscarelli. Yet in January 1999, Phantasm’s creator gave a surprisingly straightforward interpretation in an interview posted on the official website. He was referring to Phantasm Oblivion’s ending, but the same observation holds true for Ravager:

“As always with these films, different viewers have different ideas and opinions about the endings,” Coscarelli said. “In this formulaic, pre-digested, pre-packaged world of ours it may take several viewings of Oblivion to comprehend. For me it is very definite. The Tall Man triumphs. Reggie will never give up. And Mike is back where he started, heading off into the dark future with the best friend anyone could ever ask for by his side.”

That is your ending. Mike will never escape this nightmare nor will Reggie ever give up on him and, at the end of the day, the Tall Man is going to win every time. As the Joker tells Batman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, “I think you and I are destined to do this forever.” This could well be a line from the Tall Man. The nightmare will never end and it’s unclear when it even began. Phantasm plays by a different set of rules and always has. There is no finish, only the phantasmic truth that Coscarelli spoke above. Of the film’s non-ending perhaps Bloody-Disgusting’s John Squires said it best: “A satisfying ending to the decades-long saga? It was the only ending.”

THE ROOT OF ALL DISAPPOINTMENT

Prior to Ravager, the most polarizing Phantasm was arguably Phantasm Oblivion for its surreal storytelling. Before that, the distinction went to Phantasm III for its dark humor. Angus Scrimm liked to joke that nothing boosted a Phantasm film’s reputation like the release of a new installment. That way phans and critics alike could say, “The new one is alright, but it’s not as good as the last one.” Scrimm first noticed this trend with the original film after the release of Phantasm II. This pattern unfortunately does nothing for Hartman’s film which, at the moment, appears to be the final chapter. Sorry, Ravager, you’re on your own.

Imaginative and engaging. Convoluted rubbish. A heartfelt encore. A nonsensical digression. Upon release, Phantasm Ravager divided the phanbase as never before. How are we to explain this enormous disparity in reception? Simple: expectations are the root of all disappointment. Many phans came to Ravager expecting a different film than the one they received. Bias is a risky mindset to bring to any Phantasm film. Better to keep an open mind and allow these tales to take you where they may. Entering the theater with the wrong set of expectations predisposes phans to have a miserable time.

What set of factors could possibly have led to so many misguided expectations? On several occasions, Coscarelli did tease that Ravager would contain answers and Entertainment Weekly even published this promise. That kind of talk may sell tickets but it pins the film to an expectation that it might not meet. Also, there was the poster’s highly problematic tagline: “The final game now begins.” While catchy, the suggestive finality of this slogan was a false promise. This tagline also recycles a line best forgotten from the start of Phantasm Oblivion, a line completely negated by Ravager’s very existence. “Careful how you play. The final game now begins.”

To dislike Ravager for not providing enlightening answers is to condemn it for simply being a Phantasm film. To dislike it because Mike and Reggie fail to permanently vanquish the Tall Man is to miss the point of all that’s come before. Why are we so frustrated that Ravager behaves like a Phantasm? A surprising lot of the film’s negative reviews seem rooted in this disappointment. Naturally, viewers are entitled to their own opinion about the film and it’s perfectly fine to dislike it for any reason they prefer. But at its core, Phantasm isn’t about silver spheres or dwarves. It isn’t about hearses or ‘Cuda’s, mausoleums or zombies. Those are marvelously fun elements but they’re not the heart of this incredible tale. Phantasm has always remained centered around the characters. We have become so invested in their story that when Reggie leans back in the Cudanator’s leather seat, basking in the tranquility of his reunion with the Pearson brothers, we too feel the triumph of his victory. How Ravager treats the characters is arguably the most important metric by which we should measure this film. To that end, the new sequel is incredibly faithful to and respectful of the mythology.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ravager left phans with more than a few questions about both its plot and production. This section will answer some of the more common questions, though most of these answers can be found within the text of this book.

Q: Did Angus Scrimmís death affect the film?

A: No, it did not. Although he fell ill with a respiratory illness during filming in 2013, he was able to wrap his work on the film that same year. He was able to view a completed version of Ravager in December 2015.

Q: Why is there so little Tall Man in Ravager?

A: That’s simply how the script was written. The irony is that the Tall Man actually has more dialogue in Ravager than in any of the previous films! It’s just that his dialogue is compressed into fewer scenes. Essentially, the Tall Man has three main speaking scenes (white chamber, destroyed cave and Red Planet). He then has two silent scenes (outside Dawn’s cabin and the hallway standoff). Lastly, he has the Jebediah scene.

Q: Why is the Tall Man’s hair shorter in this film?

A: Angus Scrimm ultimately only worked a few days on Phantasm Ravager, which were separated by several years. He personally disliked having to grow the character’s long locks and did not wish to keep them around waiting for production to start up. When Reggie’s Tales became Phantasm Ravager in 2013, the filmmakers opted to keep Scrimm’s shorter hairsyle from 2010 in order to better match the earlier footage.

Q: Why is Reggie suddenly driving P2’s hardtop ‘Cuda instead of P3/P4’s convertible ‘Cuda?

A: Within the story, this is indeed a goof. Though Don Coscarelli still owns both ‘Cuda’s, the filmmakers decided upon the hardtop ‘Cuda in 2008 when beginning Reggie’s Tales for aesthetic reasons. This was probably for the best as a convertible would have been more difficult to transform into the Cudanator for the 2013 expansion filming.

Q: Why are there different runtimes listed for the film?

A: Well Go USA’s official production notes, which make curious mention of Jody’s recasting on Phantasm II, list the film’s runtime as being 97 minutes. It is literally the first thing in the notes before even cast, crew, plot or release date and it is wrong! There is no official cut of Phantasm Ravager that lasts 97 minutes. The film was trimmed ever so slightly upon acquisition by Well Go to improve pacing, but nowhere near ten minutes was removed. Ravager ‘s actual runtime is eighty-six minutes, despite what some websites, theaters and home video retailers might tell you.

Q: Why weren’t there any hearses in this film?

A: The in-universe answer is that the new story didn’t call for any hearses. In reality, however, Don Coscarelli no longer owned the pink hearse from Phantasm III, which was painted black for Phantasm Oblivion and later seen in Bubba Ho-Tep. Additionally, Guy Thorpe, who served as hearse coordiantor on Phantasm III and Phantasm Oblivion, no longer owned his signature coach. (Awful difficult to park those on city streets, you know.) As it stands, Ravager is the only film in the series not to feature a hearse.

Q: I don’t understand the ending. Is Reggie dead or not?

A: That’s up to you to decide. Are there multiple Reggie’s in multiple dimensions? Did only one Reggie die while others lived? Or perhaps the entire film is the fever dream of a dying old man? In Phantasm, the viewer has never been a passive observer. This is especially true of Ravager. You must draw your own conclusions as to the ending!

Q: Doesn’t Membrane Theory explain the entire series?

A: Early in the film, Mike says to Reggie: “There’s this one theory called membrane theory. It’s the idea that thousands of universes are all sort of spherically stacked against one another and ours is just one of them.” That may sound like the start of a really sensible explanation of Phantasm, but it gets complicated as hell super fast. If you’re up to reading some extremely academic text, check out books by Brian Greene and Michio Kaku. Multiverse or membrane theory is certainly one way to explain Phantasm, but it’s just one of the ways Ravager suggests.

Q: Which scenes originally came from the Reggie’s Tales web series?

A: As a general rule, most any scene where Reggie’s hair appears darker comes from Reggie’s Tales. Scenes involving Dawn, Demeter, and the ‘Cuda thief hail from the web series. Scenes involving Mike, Jody, Jane, Chunk or the hospital are from the 2013 expansion filming. The film is almost evenly split between web series footage and expansion material. The sphere graph below depicts a mostly accurate breakdown of the film’s runtime.

SOURCES

Much of Further Exhumed was written from the author’s own conversations with cast and crew during the making of Reggie’s Tales/Phantasm Ravager as well as during the creation of the first Phantasm Exhumed. Other sources include public appearances by phamily members at conventions, film festivals and Ravager’s two premieres. Quotations pulled from online sources have been noted within the text.

BOOKS

Rue Morgue’s Authorized Phantasm Film Companion by John Bowen

Phantasm Overminds by Stephen Romano

Sideshow Monkey - The Art of David Hartman by David Hartman

Horror Films FAQ by John Kenneth Muir

DVDs/BLU-RAYS

The Phantasm Collection (US) by Well Go USA

Phantasm 1-5 Sphere Set (UK) by Arrow Video

MAGAZINES

Starburst Magazine #127

Fear Magazine #2

Coffin Cuties Magazine #3

Fangoria #174

Scream Magazine #31

Six Strings Magazine #9

ACKNOWLEDGEMENETS

Thanks to the cast and crew of Phantasm Ravager

Special Thanks to Michael Baker, Paul Bunnell, Jim Carl, Roselle Chen, Anna Hanks, Grant Hunter, Ted Johnson, John Krieg, Chris Ness, Payson Alexander Power, Thomas Price, Mel Shiner, Guy Thorpe, Steve VanMeter

Very Special Thanks to Kristen Deem, Peter Marullo, Scott Pensa and Natalie Tomaszewski

Thanks to Tony Todoroff for putting up with me! And thanks to Jon Lachonis for being cool.

Cover design by Stuart Manning / Shadow illustrations provided by Rohan Jha / Wardrobe illustrations provided by Dillon Floyd / Vector illustrations by Dino Goodman

Love and thanks to my wife, Lindsay, for all the support and encouragement.

Love and thanks to Carly Roberts for always being a fun distraction from writing precisely when I need it.

Table of Contents

- Further Exhumed: The Strange Case of Phantasm Ravager

- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- INTRODUCTION FROM THE AUTHOR
- CHAPTER ONE
- CHAPTER TWO
- CHAPTER THREE
- CHAPTER FOUR
- CHAPTER FIVE
- CHAPTER SIX
- CHAPTER SEVEN
- CHAPTER EIGHT
- CHAPTER NINE
- Frequently Asked Questions