MovieChat Forums > Phantasm: Ravager (2016) Discussion > Gets better the second time...

Gets better the second time...


Watched it again yesterday and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot more on second viewing. I think I didn't let myself enjoy it as much as I should have the first time because I kept anticipating it would dive into "terrible" territory. I was practically watching it on pins and needles, and that's not the best frame of mind to judge a movie's merits.

This is a story I have loved and followed since I was a kid, and like anything that's sacred to me, I worry it will be defiled. It wasn't. Nothing will ever come close to the first Phantasm, but I consider Ravager to be just as good as (if not in some ways better than) the sequels.

Reggie's "old man" scenes were my favorite, and I think in those scenes alone Bannister put forth the best performance of his career. I thought the dialogue in the first couple of scenes with Reggie and Mike were very well written and touching. Watching Angrus Scrimm's final performance was a privilege. If you didn't like Ravager on first viewing, do yourself a service and watch it again before you make up your mind for good.

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Watching it twice is like getting hit by a train, surviving, and then laying back down on the tracks. This is one of the worst movies ever made in any genre. Terrible acting, effects, plot, sound, *beep* that don't even make any sense (how can someone blow themselves up with grenades and live?) I love these movies, especially 2, but i'm not making any excuses for this travesty.

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You are way too dramatic and clearly haven't seen many films.

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Hahahahahahaha perfect response. Don't know how anyone could of enjoyed this one

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I've seen it one time through and enjoyed it. Watching it a 2nd time might clear a few things up... But it seemed not that hard to figure out really.., just pay attention to Mike's clothing and you can figure it out. I say replace Scrim with someone else and keep it going myself with a better budget... But not many would even like that. But for the sake of the multiverses and plot I'd watch it.

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Ha ha or better yet recast the Tall Man with James Le Gross!

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I say replace Scrim with someone else and keep it going myself with a better budget...


Firstly there is no replacing him and second of all they can't make a new one with a bigger budget. This was the best they could do and it didn't blow anything out of the water that would warrant someone to give them a lot more money to make another sequel.

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... just pay attention to Mike's clothing and you can figure it out.


Okay, spoil it for me. Wussup with Mike's clothing? Didn't need a second viewing for me to enjoy it, but that flew right over my head.

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Ok, there are multiple... not time lines, but... dimensions going on at the same time. It seemed to me... like Reggie's soul was wavering... who knows how many dimensions there could have been and how many times these characters have died a terrible thousand deaths, but we're relegated to about... 3 maybe 4 different dimensions Reggie seems be floating through. I just noticed Mike shows up at the nursing home dresses in different clothes. Which means even in the nursing home dimension... there are more than one! Because the one where Mike looks like a professor (brown jacket)... his brother may be dead. The one with Mike in the other clothing, his brother did not die in 1979! I think that's the rub. It explains the car, who's alive, who's not. And the way one scene played out, made me think the nursing home staff really were working with the Tall Man... and was NOT in Reggie's head. It's all up to speculation... and while many seem disappointed in the movie, I really enjoyed it. I'd like to watch it again and get a better grip on the overall feeling of the movie, which is different than most of the other Philms.

I'm sorry, I thought Reggie's line about the horse was hilarious! ...and very 'Reggie'. The LOOK of Reggie seems also key, because as we're treated to the various dimensions... but time as well, just as the Tall Man loosely explained when Reggie came upon him. And there was one point when Reggie pulled another "Worf in a constant state of quantum flux" and Reggie is in the 'apocalypse present' and looks down at his ice cream outfit and sort of flairs the black jacket in near complete confusion. That has to be one of my favorite scenes considering that outfit should be 20 something plus years old and thread bare!


The whole deal with Chunk groping Rocky seemed VERY Phantasm III... bringing that silliness back into the mix at the very end.

Still wish they'd continue to mix it up... and really have LeGross come in as a Mike from another dimension take over for the Tall Man, and have both Mike's fight each other attacking each other with silver spheres. Until Mike is able to control the largest sphere in the sky and aim it into a silver gate destroying.... something integral to the plot of destroying all the duplicate of 'LeGross' Mikes... just an idea. Seems like NO ONE is privy to replacing Angus with ANYONE.... (sigh). But imagine using footage from II showing the Tall Man capturing LeGross Mike... and that it backfired on him in that alternate dimension. Still think we need an ending, and V could easily bridge the gap to the real end, but oh well. Just an idea.


3rd generation American from a long line of Gottscheers... it was Drandul, dude!

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If I watch it again and am prepared for the cheesy dialogue and lame jokes, will I cringe less the 2nd time around?

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