The Horror Returns - THR - Ep. #18: Phantasm (1979) & Phantasm: Ravager (2016) (Re-upload)

Episode Date: May 23, 2021

This week we take a look at the classic Phntasm. Does the new Ravager hold up? Thanks for listening!

Regings victims, for those of you who delight and dread, who fantasize about fear, who glorify gore, welcome. You have found the place where the horror returns. Listeners beware, this podcast contains major plot spoilers, and the foulest. of language. Join us in celebrating the old and the new, the best, and the worst, than horror. You have found The Horror Returns. For all of you who delight in dread, fantasize about fear and glorify gore, welcome home. This is the podcast that proves the horror never ends.

Each episode, we seek out and review a brand new horror movie. then go back and find a classic work with similar themes, looking at both similarities and differences. Our goal here is to explore how our perceptions of fear remain the same from generation to generation, but also to point out how the presentation can change based on the social and political climate of the times. Based on listener feedback, we do include spoilers for the new film.

However, we will wait until the very end of the show to spoil the new feature, and we will let you know before we do so with an alert. If you don't wish to hear the spoilers, simply turn it off at that point and we promise you won't miss a thing. We generally assume you guys have all already seen the classic film, so there will often be spoilers when discussing anything that has been out for at least a year. The other thing that we may do from time to time is use a few four-letter words. This is a horror podcast, and horror movies tend to be R-rated,

so you can pretty much expect us to be too. I'm Lance, and with me as always, are my co-host Brian and Phillip. How's it going, guys? Oh, going, pretty good. Pretty good, man, what's up? Well, what's up? I think we should start with the cool of the week.

What do you guys think? Let's do it. Brian, what's the coolest thing you've seen this week, buddy? Oh, the debut episode of Ash versus Evil Dead season two, Awesome. How's that? Oh, it's continuing where season one left off, you know. I got to get into that one. Ash kicking some ass in the show.

Love it. Although it's going to freak me out because I binge watched the whole first season. So, yeah, I did the first season, but I may have a hard time just watching one episode at a time. Yeah, it's, I mean, it's kind of hard because there are only 30-minute episodes and, you know, it's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it. It's such a great show. You want more. So it's, yeah, I could see where you're saying. It's kind of hard.

I might just wait. Yeah, this season here, I've actually seen the first one, too. He starts off in Jacksonville, but he gets yanked out of there pretty quickly, doesn't he? Yes. So what do you guys think about Lucy Lawless's character? Do you guys trust her or not? Without giving anything away, for me, it's kind of hard. based on what she did in the first season.

We'll see where this season will go. Yeah, from what I'm understanding, the actress that played, Ash's sister from the original movie, is going to sometimes show up in the show. Oh, wow. Oh, man. Thanks for the spoiler, Brian.

Well, it was put out there on the interwebs. Okay. Fair game then, huh? Yeah. Cool. What about, hey, Phil, What did you check at this week, man? You know what?

I watched, after I was finished with a phantasm, I was trying to show my kids something other than that that was still kind of classic. Right. And we watched Predator. And it was awesome. Yeah. Well, because, you know, Arnold was kind of my hero growing up,

so I wanted to show the kiddos that they weren't as interested as I expected them to be. Oh, and Predator? Yeah, but they were hanging on every second of Fantasms. It's crazy. Oh, wow. There's no accounting for taste with children, huh? Are you guys looking forward to the Shane Black sequel?

I am. Predator? Yeah, it's going to be a direct sequel to the first one. That's cool. No. I haven't known. Well, I mean, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, I'm down with it, dude, especially if,

Adrian Brody doesn't show up. I think they might be a rare conning that and the Danny Glover one. I had a feeling they might, you know, kind of hitting the reset button a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, they sort of had to. I like the Danny Glover one, too. See, Predator is one of the few of them where they can keep churning out sequels, and I'll keep going to watch them.

So for you, Predator was pretty cool. For the kids, it was sort of like, eh, it was. It was just kind of... Yeah, they lost interest. Well, you know, there's not a bunch of action happening right from the get-go, so it's been exactly hold of six-year-old detention. Yeah, a little bit of a slow burn, huh? Yeah.

Yeah, well, I checked out my cool of the week is a little TV show that I just finished up the second season called Mr. Robot. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's one of those shows that you kind of wonder why you stick around with it. Really? Yeah. I mean, it's really awesome when it's kind of like, it reminds me a little bit of that vibe from Lost.

When you were like just hanging on every, you know, every episode and couldn't wait to see what was going to happen in the next one. And, you know, what are they going to think of next? How are they going to fuck with our minds next? Yeah. But it is already just two seasons in, in my estimation, it looks like it's already kind of getting to that point, like, Lost did, where they're like asking way too many questions that there's no way they can tie them all up in any kind of satisfactory way. I got you.

So it's almost like they have too many loose threads dangling out there. Now, if they're able to pull them all together, my hat's off to them. But, I mean, one thing's for sure. It's definitely an interesting watch, and I think it's only like 10 episodes of season. So, you know, it's a good little show to get into if you want to have your mind fucked with a little bit. Yeah, my dad's been telling me about that one forever. I still haven't seen it. It might check it out.

Have you seen it, Brian? I am, I got two more episodes before I'm finished with the first season. You got a ways to go then, buddy. Yeah, I like it, but, you know, it's not something I, it's not one of my go-to shows that I got to finish. Well, I'm getting there. It sounds like that weird-looking kid is about to get pretty big in Hollywood, so. Yeah, he actually just won an Emmy Award for Best Actor.

Oh, for Mr. Robot? Absolutely, yep. Wow, okay. He sure did. Well, yeah, I think he's going places, and this is going to be, you know, where he starts from. Yeah, I've seen him do bit parts here and there. He was, like, he's usually like a background player in a lot of movies. He was in short-term 12.

He had kind of a bigger role in that one, which was the Brie Larson movie that was really good. Yeah, he's definitely making a name for himself with this. There's no doubt. Yeah, he was into running to be the young Han Solo. Really? Yeah. Huh. Did you know that right?

I don't think they chose it. They went another direction. Yeah, I heard about that. A lot of their choices for that role, I didn't understand. I'm not sold on that movie. All right. So, as with every show, guys, you know what time it is. It's time to take a little trip down to the trailer park.

We take a look at the big, the small, and sometimes the very, very weird. Brian, what's our first new trailer to talk about this week? Okay, the first one we're going to get to is another Blumhouse production. Oh, boy. It is the directorial debut of Jordan Peel, and it is Get It. out. Who wants to take the ball and run with this one? Wait, Jordan Peel, is that like...

Key and Peel? Yes, sir. This is also written... This is also written by Jordan Peel. This doesn't look very comedic. It looks a little heavy-handed to me, guys. I don't know. I mean, all this political correctness and... I don't know how to take this one.

I'm going to leave this one up to... you guys. Yeah, from what I understand him and him and a key are kind of taking a break from the duo thing. And I think this is him trying to get into other things.

But this one looks like it has a lot of creepy elements in it, but you know, I'm kind of, a lot of the racial subjects in the movie kind of turned me away from it. It's

kind of something. I mean, I'll probably watch it, but I'm not rushing out to the theater to watch it. If we don't let the shit go, it's never going to get any better. So I can't say that I'm in favor of a movie that is based around racism.

Maybe if this movie came out at a different time. Yeah, but right now, with everything being so hot, with the, yeah, it's it's a subject I try to steer clear of. Yeah,

But there are some elements in it, like the scene where he's clearly being hypnotized and, you know, he's kind of going through some things. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that kind of intrigues me. And I believe the actress, Catherine Keener, she's probably the most recognizable to me. Yeah, she was the main one I recognized from, was it being John Malkovich? She was the real bitch in that one. You guys remember that role? Yeah.

I also remember her from a 40-year-old virgin, I believe it was. Oh, man. She's been around for sure. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, relatively, to me, unknown cast, I didn't recognize a lot of the actors, actresses. But, yeah, eventually one day I'll check it out, but I'm not, like I said, I'm not rushing to the theater. Yeah.

I may catch it and watch it. I mean, it looks interesting. It's just, I think, the racism card. seems to be played an awful lot in this one when it's kind of not necessary. Yeah, it seemed like kind of an updated version of the Stefford Wives or something, but like in a white douchebag sense. Moving on. Okay, we're going to move on to a trailer.

When I'm a message Lance about this movie, he was going crazy. This is his most anticipated movie. It is Power Rangers. Power Rangers. You asshole. Go, go, power Rangers. Fuck you, Brian. This one is directed by Dean Israelite

and starring pretty much an unknown cast. Wait a minute. Power Rangers, unknown cast. Are you forgetting to mention the villains? More like a real superhero movie. It kind of looks cool.

Yeah, I was going to get to the main actors in this book. But as far as the actual Power Rangers, it is a young, from what I read, a young up-and-coming cast here, but it does start Brian Cranston and Elizabeth Banks. Oh, yeah, I was going to say that. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, the young up-and-coming cast could be a good thing, you know, we don't have any preconceived notions of, you know, the Red Ranger, the Black Ranger,

the Yellow Ranger, the Green Ranger, you know, all those people we love so much when our kids watched it in the 90s and we fucking hated it, but I may be a little older than you guys, so. My brother and sister, I'm a little older than the Power Ranger age, because when I first saw the Power Rangers come out, I was thinking, what is this Voltron rip-off doing on my TV? But, no, my little brother and sister,

who are, you know, five and ten years younger than I am, they were right in that age to watch it, and they love the Power Rangers, growing up. And I know that right now, you know, Power Rangers, Pokemon, it's all kind of coming back. Right. And, uh, and that age that grew up with it is now hitting the age where they're, you know, making money and, and being the, the go-to demographic for movies and TV and all that. So I think that this movie's going to do well. And like I said, from the preview, it kind of looks cool. Cool. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't

watch basically anything that has to do Power Rangers. I'm familiar with it from seeing it on TV here and there, but it looks like they completely went a total different direction than the show. Yeah, which if they went the direction of the show, I don't, we wouldn't even be talking about this trailer right now. Yeah, that's very true. So I am a complete, complete reimagining, huh? I'm a complete fan of Elizabeth Banks and I'm interested. to see how she does as the villain in this one.

Yeah, I don't think she's done anything that I don't like. I liked her in Pitch Perfect when she was one of the judges. I thought she was fucking hilarious. Oh, yeah, she was good in that. Didn't she direct that movie? Pitch Perfect, too? I believe she did. I think she did, man.

Oh, wow. Every time to come home, I swear to God my wife's got one of those on. Hey, guys, how much of a, dirty old man should I be feeling like right now that I'm thinking the pink ranger looks kind of hot. Hold on, let me check the birthday here before we decide whether that gets edited out of the podcast or not.

97. 97. Is she of legal age? 97. Right on the edge. I think I'm safe. All right, we'll leave that in. All right, listeners, do with that as you wish. but all right we'll move on so I think

we're all in agreement we'll probably check that one out yeah definitely man I'm sure it'll be pop culture phenomenon and we're going to go see it for the podcast yeah we have to I won't want to but we'll have to

yeah this one slated for March 24th next year and I forgot to give a date for get out that is February 24th yeah All right, cool. Yeah.

And moving on to our final trailer is Marvel's Iron Fist. Now, did you guys get a chance to watch Luke Cage? I have not. I was actually wanting to finish Mr. Robot before I started it, so I'm like wide open to watch the first episode now. I haven't finished it. I'm like three episodes in. Going through both seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones,

and I am one more episode from being done with Luke Cage, they as far as Marvel and the next Netflix shows they could put out whatever I think they're just hitting home runs left and right right yeah everything they've put out has been

really quality I'm impressed so far and this one looks each each show is like a completely different tone but at the same time they all collect together and this one looks like

a martial arts you know kick-ass show that I am ready to see. Nice. It starts Finn Jones's Iron Fist. A lot of Game of Thrones

fans will recognize them. Who did he play in Game of Thrones? Okay. I'm really bad with the names, even though I've seen every episode. Who just played... Okay, the chick that played the queen. Okay.

Spoiler alert that got blown up. Cersie Blue. up everybody. Oh, yeah, yeah. The one that played for son's wife. Hold on.

Are you caught up, Phil? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, fair enough. Okay. Oh, my fault. No, no, no. No, we're all caught up here. Okay.

She, she, uh, Finn Jones, uh, played her brother. Okay. The, the, the, the gay, yeah, they were making repent stuff. Sir, Sir Loris,

the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the flowers. Yes. And he would always present a rose to one of the ladies in the audience after he completed a sword fight. And, of course, they would all swoon and think, oh, he wants me. Little did they know. Well, every other scene that they show him, and he's laying in bed with another dude.

Exactly. Yes, this is Iron Fist right here. Oh, wow. Interesting choice. Okay. Well. And, of course, we have Rosario. Dawson returning.

So she's the connecting dots between all of them. Yes. I love Rosario Dawson. You know, she can do no wrong. Yeah. How did you guys feel about this trailer? I'm excited, man. Yeah.

What can you say, right? Right, Phil? Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, Iron Fist is not one of the bigger Marvel characters, but I think he fits in with that Luke Cage Daredevil group and I think it'll be cool.

You know, Netflix hadn't done anything to steer me wrong so far and I'm loving the Marvel stuff out of there so I'll definitely watch it. All right, cool. So you guys ready to move on? Yeah, real quick, that's going to

debut on Netflix March 17th. And now it's time for horror headlines brought to you by Brian. Take it away, Brian. Yeah, part of my cool of the week was Ash versus Evil Dead. The season two just came out. It's already renewed for a third season. Now, quick question for you guys.

How long do you think this show can go on before it kind of gets stale? Forever. Oh, man. I'll watch this show, 27. I mean, it depends on how well they do it. reinventing themselves. You know, I mean, they're bringing Lee Majors in this season and changing a few other things. So, you know, I mean, as long as they keep it fresh and kind of do some resets every season and introduce new characters,

I don't see why it can't go on for, you know, five or six seasons, right? Easily. The episodes are only 30 minutes long. It's basically a horror sitcom. I mean, the Big Bang Theory has been on forever. Mm-hmm. Why can't this one? yeah my my fear is i've seen shows where i really love them and then the last couple seasons

were just horrible like a recent show that that just ended was uh i was a big fan of banshee okay and that final that final fourth season was confusing and upsetting at times basically it didn't feel that it didn't have that tone that banshee has set in the early seasons They just kind of, I felt like they didn't know what to do, how to end the show. That's my fear. I wasn't even sure when I first heard about Ash versus Evil Dead as a show, I thought it was going to be a one-season, one-off type of deal. Which, I mean, so far, they're proving me wrong,

but I was just thinking, you know, how long can this go? I think as long as, like you were saying, if they don't try to get too complicated with it, that's the downfall of a lot of shows, man, because they start out with that good formula where you don't necessarily have to have seen another episode to watch this one. Now, I mean, Ash versus the Evil Dead is not exactly like that. I think as long as they keep it light, tight, and bright,

and try not to go to over the top with the plot and just keep it horror comedy, then they should be all right. It's when they veer off the beaten path that they're going to have problems. Right. You're talking about a jump-the-sharp moment. As long as we avoid that, we should be on for a while, huh? Yeah, I think so. Okay, before we move on to our next news thing,

I just want to squeeze in a little Evil Dead bonus news. On the 25th, they're going to be releasing the unrated version of the remake on digital download. Okay. Oh, the newer one? Yeah, it's going to have extra footage in it that they had to cut out for rating restrictions. I was a fan of that one, man. I'll totally watch that. So October 25th, everybody checked that out.

That was the Fete Alvarez film, right? Yes, sir. So do you know, Brian, by any chance, you heard what scenes they're adding, or are they expanding on any, or have you heard anything at all? There's some more story that involves the character Mia,

a little bit more gore, and I think they said there was a different ending. There was more to the ending than originally. And then there was some, from what I remember, when I watched the trailer before the movie had came out, there was some seeds that wasn't in the movie. And those are being put back in the movie. Cool.

All right. But as far as I know, it's only a digital download. An extended tree rape scene. But I just wanted to get. get that in there before we move on to our next, which is... Things that make you go, hmm.

Punisher on Netflix. Punisher. There we go. Filming as we're speaking. And it is confirmed to come out in 2017. Then he's come out like tomorrow. I love the whole Punisher thing, man. Yeah, it's kind of interesting to see when they'll

release this because before the news came out, I guess they had already been filming. It's supposed to come out a lot later, right? Yeah, but I think everybody loves what John Bernthal did with that character. I think they're... Yeah. ...it out as soon as possible.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. That dude's cool, man. The character is awesome. They could not have done it any better. And also in the Marvel Netflix news, Sigourney Weaver has been cast as the villain in the Defender series. Do you know what character she's playing? it hasn't been released yet

but that's another actress I don't think I've seen a lot where I didn't like her in it and I kind of I kind of liked her as somewhat of a villain in the cabin in the woods so

it'll be interesting to see what she does with a villain role in a whole series and I think as far as big casting that's a big that's a big get for them Our final news is the Susparia remake has been in development for years, and it finally is getting gone because it has casted Tilda Swinton, Dakota Johnson, Mia Gauth, and Chloe Grace Moretz. Okay.

It's a good cast. Yeah. It's a good cast for a remake to a movie that I don't care about. You know, people can get mad. but Suspira is, I don't care for it. Right. You don't hold it as a sacred cow as some do, huh? No, and then when they said they were remaking it,

and the remake had problems, you know, getting gone, I didn't care. But I like Chloe Grace Moretz. You know, I really like Tilda Swinton. Right. Don't know who Mia Gath is, and Dakota Johnson, you know, whatever. 50 Shades, man. But, yeah. I guess, you know, they're trying to get that audience.

She's cool, though. I like that chick. Yeah, she kind of has an interesting, interesting look to her, you know? Yeah. Well, she did, like, she did some little sitcom thing before 50 Shades, and she was really funny in it. Yeah, the Spirit is not exactly a comedy, but... Not a field movie, huh? Yeah, with this cast, I'll change my mind a little bit about checking.

out the remake, which production, they're actually starting production this month. So, we'll probably be getting this movie sooner than everybody thought the remake was, because I'm pretty sure a lot of people, fans are not,

probably didn't think the remake was happening. I don't think this is going to be a huge release or anything, though. I'd be a little surprised if it went any more than straight the DVD. I don't know, man. It sure is pissing a lot of people off.

yeah and i think they might they might try to push it as a wide release i mean with chloe grace marrets and dakota johnson i guess it's got some big name actors in it so maybe but i think the best casting out of all that is uh tilda swinton

yeah and uh that ends our new segment have a uh new iTunes review real 44 gave you some five star rating and uh he went on to say love the back and forth with this group and the unique way of choosing an older and newer horror movie to review.

If you love horror, check them out. Appreciate that. Alio, that's awesome. Fantastic. Thanks to everyone who reaches out to us. We love the feedback, and as always, you can reach us at our Facebook or Podbean page,

or you can email us at the horror returns at gmail.com. And we love to hear from everybody. And now it's time to discuss this week's featured attractions. This week, we celebrate the Don Coscarelli Fantasm franchise by exploring the world of the tall man with Fantasm and also the new Fantasim Ravager. As always, we'll start with trivia. So the original film Fantasm is what we're

going to discuss first. This was a 1979 film. Director and writer Don Coscarelli, also known for Bubba Hotep, John dies at the end, and the Beast Master. You guys remember that one? Yes. I love Beast Master as a kid. Oh, yeah. It's a fan of John dies at the end, man. That's a kick-ass movie. And I like Bubba Hotep. And I think we...

I don't know if I've ever seen that one, but yeah. Oh, yeah. It's a funny movie. I just like saying the name Bubba Hotep. Hey man, Bruce Campbell is Elvis. You can't go wrong. Well, there you go. Don Cuscarelli

rented all of the filming equipment. used to make this movie, always on Fridays so he could use it all weekend and return it on Mondays, all the while only actually having to pay one day's rental. The title was changed to the Never Dead for Australian audiences, so as not to confuse it with the popular Aussie sex comedy World of Sexual Fantasy from 1976, which was also known as Fantasma. Oh. That could have been bad. Angus Grimm was renowned for being very approachable and happy to discuss the films in all the decades since taking the role.

And I can attest to that because I met him at a Fangaria convention about 20 years ago. Yeah, definitely one of the nicest guys I've ever met. So we're going to talk about the 1979 classic Fantasm. Brian, had you seen this one before now, or was this your first watch? I had seen the first, the original entire series one time before. This is actually my second go-around. I would say it's up there as a classic. The Tall Man and the Never knew exactly what exactly you can call them, the Spears, the Orbs.

You know, those are, those are classic. And it's a very trippy movie because it's a lot of weird. Weird shit going on. Also, the way the movie ends and then it goes into the, to the rest of the series, you don't know what is really real and what is not. Yeah. And for the most part, you know, I kind of like it until we get to a later movie in the series that we'll talk about. But, you know, I hold this movie high. It's probably probably the best one out of the series, in my opinion.

Yeah, and you just rewatched every single one of them, right? Yes. The story, I think for the most part, I mean, it is confusing sometimes, but I think they do their best to keep the story going throughout the series. Like I said, there's moments where you don't know, like, there's certain, certain scenes where it might be a dream. You don't know if it's actual dream or the real thing happening. We jump from one scene to the other without any.

sort of rhyme or reason. But, for the most, and then, you know, I like, I like Reggie as a character. Yeah.

You know. And, you know, he gets pretty badass throughout the series. Very, very, very,

very horny guy. Like, you know, they're, they're, basically, you know, these towns are,

you know, people are disappearing from these towns that, you know, they're going from town to town. Mm-hmm. and this guy every time he sees as a female

like that's immediately where his mind goes he homes right in huh well yeah but um back to the original you know i like i said i hold it up there as a classic classic villain definitely classic villain kind of a classic movie i i had never actually watched it

but uh like i knew of all the characters and and the little orbs and all that. Yeah, taking a look at it, I thought it was kind of a, definitely disjoined it at times, but it's got a classic horror feel to it. It was fun to watch. Yeah, I think as a horror fan, even if you haven't seen it, you recognize the tall man and the,

yeah, definitely. Right. Yeah, there's a lot of, like, iconic scenes in this movie. So when you guys say it was disjointed, do you guys feel maybe that that was done by design that Cascarelli did that on purpose to kind of keep you a little bit off balance? Or he could have been on a whole lot of drugs, I don't know. I think that's a given.

Yeah, I would say. Yeah, because now that... It works differently. Right. Now that you brought up, he made movies like John dies at the end. Sure, yeah. He might have been doing a lot. Because that movie in itself is a trip.

Yeah, that movie is kind of a trip, man. I will say this about Fantasim. I mean, you guys are right. It's definitely, yeah, it's a modern classic. There's no doubt. And all the imagery is so iconic now to anybody who's a horror fan. And in a way, I kind of think that the acting is so horrible in parts that it's almost charming. Did you guys get that impression that actually almost adds to the charm?

of the film? I would say some actors, you know, the actor that played, what is his name, Mike? Right. Yeah, I didn't, yeah, I didn't care for him. No. He was kind of a... Well, too bad, because you're stuck with him for a lot of movies, man. Except number two.

It was a different era of movie, you know. I mean, the acting, I think, was just a little more over the thought back then. than it is now. Sure. And that's, man, they were on top of that over the top stuff. And there was a few scenes with him and the actor that played

Jody. I was a little confused. Yeah, were they having visions or were they just sitting there staring off into nothing? Because there was times in the movie where I wasn't sure if they were seeing something happening. Right. Or they were just sitting there

in a chair staring at nothing. Those those scenes were a little confusing to me. It's possible that... It's a little confusing to me. It's possible that that was, that that was something Coscarelli put in there to, you know, let you interpret the way you want to interpret it, you know?

I mean, I really, I firmly believe that he knew what he was doing when he made this movie. And I think his vision was such that he didn't want to you know, just put a paint by numbers type, you know, murder mystery out there or something like that or a monster movie. I think he was really going for something different here. And I think he hit the mark on this one because the whole dreamlike ethereal nature of it.

And, you know, Brian, you can speak better to this than us because you've seen the other ones. But like, for example, when, toward the end here, when Reggie gets stabbed and, you know, they're all talking about him dying and everything. And yet he shows up in all the other movies. How did they pull that one off, Brian? Apparently, Mike was, this was a dream that Mike had. Well, there you go. So a dream within a dream, right?

Yeah, and the second one starts out, I believe, Reggie's telling him that, you know, that it was a dream. And then he's explaining to him, Jody, Jody died in a car wreck. And then when you get into older Mike, who is just, Number two is the only movie that the actor that played Mike, the original Mike, is not in. In other words, Baldwin wasn't the actor in that one. It was somebody else, huh? Yeah. He's basically been in some sort of hospital, mental hospital, if I can remember. Makes sense.

He still has these dreams and visions of like the tall man and everything. And eventually, you know, the tall man comes after him. and you know we get into why the tall man wants him and like I said throughout the series you know Reggie turns into more of a badass than he was in the original movie it kind of works that way if it's disjointed because then you're not really sure I mean that's kind of how dreams are and that way you're not really sure if it's a dream or not the whole thing because I mean even you know towards the end of the movie they kind of lead you to believe that it's all a dream and then, you know, it all comes crashing down.

Yeah, because you kind of don't know, like, with the character Jody, you know, he apparently gets put into one of the orbs, one of the balls. Mm-hmm. And he actually helps him throughout the series. Like I said, it gets a little confusing at times because there's a few scenes where somebody's waking up and you're kind of like, okay, was. majority of movie I was watching not real.

Yeah, I just kind of wonder how, like, the director and the writer and stuff keep up with the story because it seems crazy. For the first four, though, the one thing I could say is really cool is there is flashback scenes to the

original one. And I always wondered, did they film scenes knowing that this was going to be a series? Because there will be a scene where it, it, it fits in so well with the current movie that it's actually kind of crazy. Like, there, I can't remember now. There was a scene basically like young Jody from the first one is hearing older Jody or older Reggie, like kind of in his head or something.

Interesting. Yeah, and it fit that they put it together so well that, you know, I always wondered did they, when they originally, started this movie, did they know it was going to go this far? I don't know, man. One of the things I was going to talk about later was that I think it's kind of cool that they used the same people and the same characters and all of these movies, you know? And I haven't seen all of them. I've just seen the first one and the last one.

But it's definitely an ongoing plot, you know? So if you're really into the first one, man, keep watching them all the way through. It seems like a progressive story. Yeah, so you're saying that Coscarelli's not afraid to keep using the same talent over and over again. We don't know why Baldwin wasn't in the second movie,

but other than that, you know, all three of these guys have been in every other film, correct, Brian? Yes. Yeah, so that's a good sign, you know, that he really cares about the people he works with. And I'm sure these guys had a real tight working relationship and I'm sure they, you know, still do to this day. Yeah.

Pretty cool. You don't see that. You don't see that too much anymore. You don't see that hardly ever. Yeah, especially on low-budget stuff like this, you know? Yeah, definitely. So what did you guys think about the finger? Like when the, he was able to cut off the tall man's finger

when he was sticking his hand through that door, mausoleum door trying to get to Mike. And then he put it in that box. that was some that was some trippy stuff wasn't it yeah trippy is a good way to describe it especially when it turned into that some sort of bug or something yeah right and it flew out and it started attacking

what do you guys think what's what's y'all's I want to hear everybody's uh phantasm theory at the at the end of the day what is this all about is it aliens is it an acid trip is it a dream within a dream is it just fucked up shit.

Brian, I mean, Brian, what's your, what's your theory about all this? You've, you've seen all of them. So you probably better than us are more equipped to answer that question. I always kind of felt like this was just a dream. I don't know who's having it, but this is, I don't know, something just tells me, like, none of this is even happening. Mm-hmm. I haven't, you know, one day I might kind of go through the series one more time because

I feel like every time I watch it, I kind of get something different out of it. Without going into the newer movie before we get to it, um, this might just all be a dream. This might be all.

Somebody's just fucked up, dream that they're having. But, uh, that's what they lead you to believe a couple of times. What's that, Phil? That's what they lead you to believe a couple of times. That maybe it was just a dream.

And, but then they always yank you right back out of it. I think that they're trying to delve into that world of alternate universes or alternate dimensions. Right. That's, it's kind of a time travel territory where there are some rules that you should probably adhere to to keep it. Even though it turns into a sci-fi thing, it's definitely fantasy, but you've got to have some science behind it too, you know? Right. So there has to be some sort of real theory, and I think that they go kind of so far off the ledge that it's hard to grasp.

Well, I think it could be all of the above. But I think at the end of the day, my personal theory is, and having just rewatched this and not having seen the original film in probably at least 20 years, I was getting some of the same feelings that I had back then, which is that this is basically aliens. and the tall man is some sort of an alien, and this is all from off planet. And I believe that they would take different species of different planets and capture them and shrink them down and turn them into some sort of slaves, where they all kind of look like Jawa's running around. Oh.

Yeah, and I think the tall man was probably from a different planet, and he came here to enslave us as well. and I think the dream part of it, my explanation of all that, is that that's something that they kind of put into Michael's brain. And I think that the whole series of movies is from his perspective. And I think they're basically just fucking with him because I think they have the technology to go in there and basically kind of scramble all of his memories

and scramble what he thinks is real and what's waking and what's sleeping and just sort of mix it all together into a mishmash. But I think something's really going to, on and I think it's aliens. I thought that was a weird choice of minions. The little midget guys. Yeah, they looked like Jawa's from Star Wars, right?

Yeah, yeah. And so, but their explanation behind it is that they take the dead people and compress them down. Right. I don't know, it doesn't make any sense. It was kind of crazy. Also fucked up, right? Yeah, super fucked up.

I was like, this is your, but they're kind of cute. So what did you guys think about the blonde that the tall man would turn into to kind of seduce the different guys? Like the whole movie started with the blonde chick that was basically the tall man, I guess, contorting himself to look like that, seducing the brother of Michael. That's creepy. Like their friend that got killed in the very beginning of the movie. that they had the funeral for, he was basically banging the tall man. That's weird.

And then he turned him into a midget. Yes. Which back to the midget thing. Did you guys find it weird that people would recognize their friends and family like that? Because they all kind of look similar to me. Right. As soon as they would see their face, they would like, oh my gosh, what happened to such and such? I'm like, you really recognize your friend like that?

Well, yeah, I think that was a movie stretch. There's a lot of little stretches in this movie. Right. But back to the blonde, that was super creepy to me. Right. How she would be on top of somebody, and then next minute you look up, it's the tall man. Yeah, stabbing you. Yes.

That's it. All right. Bill. All right. So you guys ready for ratings? Yep. All right, Brian. You get the honors first, my friend.

You deserve to go first because you've sat through every single one of these. Oh, yes. Original Fantasim. We're not talking about any of the others. Just judging this one on its own merit. Yes, I will reserve my judging just for the original. And I think they had a really good story. This movie for horror fans as a class.

classic. There's iconic characters in it and I will give it a 7. Nice. Nice. What about you, Phil? I think I'm going to go 6.5. I think that it's definitely got some classic characters but it was a little so far

out there with the storyline and everything that it doesn't always make a lot of sense. But, you know, Still, if you've never seen it, it's definitely worth the watch. I'll buy that, man. I, like Brian, will also give it a seven.

I do consider this film part of my canon of horror films growing up. I remember watching it when I was really, really young. It may not necessarily be the most linear and the most easily explainable movie, but it's definitely one of the trippiest and one of the freakiest. So just for that alone, I will give this one a seven. It's different. Oh, yeah, for sure, man. You know, you got to judge it for what it is, right?

Yep. So moving on to the newer film, which is Fantasm Ravager. Director. What was that, Brian? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Spoiler alert. I'm sorry.

My emotions come out. Director was David Hartman primarily known for multiple animated television shows and it was written by David Hartman with Don Cascarelli the first Fantasm film in 17 years

and the last film before this was 1998's Fantasm 4 Oblivion. According to the book Fantasm Exhumed, filming on Fantasm Ravager first began in late 2008 where it was originally envisioned as a spin off web series about the Reggie character.

This web-asode footage was eventually expanded upon with new footage that featured appearances by main cast members to become featured length. Okay. That's why Reggie looks so much older sometimes. Makes a lot of sense when you think of that, isn't it, guys? What the fuck is going on? A mock-up DVD with the title Fantasm Ravager appears next to a television in Coscarelli's earlier film John dies at the end.

I have to go back and check that. I don't remember that. And this was unfortunately and sadly Angus Grimm's final film. So again, Brian, since you're the trooper who went through all five of these,

can we get your thoughts first? Yeah. Fuck this movie. This movie is one of the biggest pieces of shit I've seen. I think this is

an insult to what the series was. And I don't really have much to say unless we're going to spoil it. So I will let you guys

take over from here and give us your opinion. But this movie was horrible. It was horrendous. It was I didn't understand anything that was going on. I didn't either, man. I was so confused.

The whole time, I was like, man, this makes even less sense than the original. And it looks like the footage is straight out of the 80s. Like, I know they said part of it was shot in 2008. But I'm not, with like a fucking GoPro or what? Because it's not great

film quality. I guess it makes sense that this is Angus Graham's last movie because I was thinking the whole time I was like wow this guy's still alive it's gotta be like 90 something right right yeah he's been around yeah but it makes it even sadder that

this was his last movie yeah this was this was his swine song what a way to go out yeah yeah well I mean he still plays the tall man pretty well I think but the movie's just, it's full of cheese. It's really, really be movie, man. Unless you are a big phantasm fan,

don't mess with this. More cheese, more cheese than a, more cheese than a deli, huh? I'm telling you, man. This is, like, you got to really be die-hard to watch this movie, because if you are not a phantasm fan I'm telling you you're going to want that couple of hours of your life

wow you guys are fucking brutal guess what I agree with you both wholeheartedly man what a horrible horrible way for poor Angus Grim to go out I mean this thing was a piece of shit

from start to finish I mean graphics that made a sci-fi channel original movie you know kind of look like it was up for Oscar for best visual effects you know exactly that's what I'm talking about like just like it makes Chartnado look real

yeah I didn't understand it it's like they had the original program on a computer to make CGI graphics and they just never updated their program oh my god let me let me put it to you this way they must have been using the same software that I was using the last two weeks when we haven't been able to pull this fucking podcast off

because of all the audio problems. Horrible. Horrible. Man, it's just, I mean, is there anything else we need to say, guys, before we move on to spoilers? I mean, really. I think we give our ratings and just go to spoilers.

Yeah, let's do it, man. So, Brian, what's your rating, man? A two. Nothing more to say. I mean, I give it two because of Anger's scrim. and, you know, like I said, like Phillips said, they had the original cast. Yeah, I did think that was cool. It's one of the few series that they've had the same people on the movie forever.

Yeah. And I didn't realize that until I watched Fantasm Ravager. And I was like, wait, these are the same characters that were in the very first movie and they're just older. Right. Oh, yeah. much old. I thought that was a cool concept, man. Yeah.

I mean, for that alone... Got to give them props for that, right? Yeah, for that alone, I'm going to give them... I'll say a three and a half. Nice. Wow. I know, right? Wow. That was a big rating for that one.

I think that it's... If you're... I mean, if you're hung on every last word of the phantasm series, you're going to watch it anyway. and what we're saying is not going to make any difference. But, yeah, again, if you're not a big phantasm fan, don't waste your time on this one. Fair enough, man.

I'm giving it a number consistent with Brian again, which is two. And, you know, I mean, it's, all kidding aside, I know we've had a lot of, you know, fun here at the expense of the film and everything. And you know what? hats off to Koscarelli for cobbling something together and, you know, taking something that he's been working on for eight years and finally at least putting something forward for, you know, the memory of Angus Graham if nothing else. You know, so my hat's off for that.

And, you know, I paid money to rent this on iTunes and I don't regret it. You know, I mean, I'm glad to contribute my part toward the legacy that is Fantasim. honestly here he really could have put a little bit better effort on this i think particularly having to do with the um i mean the visual effects were just appalling and you know when you've got scenes out there where we're you know reggie's driving around in his in his car in the desert and you've got these spheres chasing him that look like they're quite literally just something superimposed on top of kind of like 1970s or 1980s type of special effects uh but work because it's all CGI, which, you know, is the cheap way out. Shame on you, Cuscarelli, shame on you, man. You should have given us a better product, you know. And if that meant you had to pull somebody else in

that was a little bit better at CGI effects or something to polish it up, then, you know, you should have spent a few bucks on that. Come on. Yeah. I mean, again, I mean, you're going to do it. Do it right. Yeah, and I don't regret watching it. And it is cool that he did stay with his, you know, his same actors.

and, you know, that, you know, kudos for that and all. But, yeah, this was, this was a travesty. A real, real piece of trash. And anybody listening, I would say if you, you know, if you feel like you want to contribute some money, you know, just in the spirit of the original phantasm film and the good feelings it gave you, then go for it. But really, this is one you probably should avoid.

I mean, you really don't need to watch this film. And that's all I'm going to say about it. You guys ready for spoilers? Yeah, I just want to say congratulations. Fantasm Ravanger, you are our officially fastest reviewed movie ever. All right. There you have it. That's because we've done it twice.

All right. Hey, you're breaking the third wall there, right? I know, right? Or fourth wall. What's the saying, Brian? I don't know what it is when it comes to podcast. It might be fourth wall. I guess so, yeah.

This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking warned. This is a motherfucking spoiler alert. You've been fucking alert. All right, so you now have our reviews for Fantasm Ravager. If you are still listening, that means you're ready for some spoilers. So we are going to oblige. And we do have quite a bit to talk about here.

I'm sure that we didn't want to get into for those poor, unfortunate souls who still, you know, swear they're going to watch the movie for whatever reason. Yeah, I'm pretty sure if anybody was going to watch Phantasm Ravager, they've already done it. Hey, why don't we talk about the shitty the shitty ass

midget? Why was there a midget that they were battling with here? I mean, that's the main thing that blew me away. He wasn't in any of the other movies, was he, Brian? Not that I know. What was his name? Chuck. Was it Chuck?

Yeah, the guy that blew himself up. Oh, I know, right? Yeah, let's strap a bunch of grenades to our chest and then I'm going to come out missing a hand. Yeah. Chuck does not die at the end, huh? So wait, so he wasn't in the other movies?

Not that I've seen. Oh, wow. Okay, I figured they just picked him up from like the last movie or something. No, he was just kind of, I don't know, it was weird. throughout the movie from when he came into the movie, it was like he'd been in the series or something? I don't know.

It was just weird. Yeah, it was. It made no sense at all. Yeah, I've never seen him. That's weird. Really bizarre. But at the, the mid-credit scene with Rocky, the chick, she came in, I believe, number three.

And I will give a quick shout out to that character because she had shown up in one of the other films, right, Brian? yeah and she is another chick Reggie tried to bang it didn't work out what a shot actually yeah she actually

she actually survived to right here in another movie and a lot of chicks that Reggie tries to bang doesn't live so I want to get into this horrible

CGI shit I hate the digital blood right yeah what was another they weren't even firing their guns. I don't understand.

How cheap did they go with this movie? Put some blank in it or something. Yeah, it's pathetic, man. Yeah, like when they had the machine guns, the little burst coming out of the barrels was, you can tell it was clearly added in with CGI. Right. I don't know.

And we've seen that before, you know, like with the Expendables movies and stuff like that. Yeah, but not that. bad though. I mean, maybe expendables three, but but rough stuff, huh?

Yeah, this, they cut so many corners in this movie. What were they thinking? That sounds like what it is. They were just cutting corners. And then you know what kind of irritated me? That this is obviously Angus's last movie. Right.

And they still kind of left it open like there was going to be another one. Yeah, what the fuck was up with that ending? Yeah. That kind of irritated me. That was stupid, man. Made no sense. In the goddamn series, okay?

You're not coming out with another one. There's no more tall man. Yeah, and I don't think Reggie's going to make it because he looked pretty old. He looked rough, huh? He did look pretty old. He may not be alive for another movie, huh? But only in like half the scenes,

because the other half of the scenes were from 10 years ago. Yeah. Right. I'll tell you what, there was a pretty, there was a pretty hot redhead in it. And true to form, Reggie was trying to fuck her, wasn't he? Oh, yeah.

Absolutely. I was thinking, dude, she could be like your granddaughter. You got to stop. Reggie does not care. But you kind of feel bad for Reggie because it never happens. Right.

Yeah. You just, you know, five movies, you just kind of like, you know, just let them get some somewhere, you know. Reggie's best friend is his right hand, isn't it? But another callback to the original was the blonde lady.

Uh-huh. They brought her back the original actress. Was it the same actress? I thought it was a different one. I believe it was the same actress. That's cool. I'm kidding. Okay. You know, little things here and there are cool

just because of the, you know, it's phantasm, but... Sure. They just really fucked this movie up. Yeah, from the familiarity of the characters and stuff that they brought in, it was, like, had it not been a phantasm movie, if it was just some random horror movie, it would be total trash.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, guys, what was up with the scenes where it was the giant balls that were actually shooting lasers into buildings and, like, cutting skyscrapers in half? And, I mean, was that supposed to be like the end of the world or what? I'm assuming that was eventually what was going to happen

I think he was seeing I don't know Tall man was taken over Yeah Basically a worldwide invasion So that could go back to my alien theory Yeah

Good Yeah hmm okay Or he could just be having a fucked up dream Yeah That dimension is taken over this dimension Well that was that one scene where there was like 50 tall man guys all lined up in a row

and it was oh yeah he's never gonna die yeah that was very interesting that was quite a twist on it like um were they being bred to go and try to take over different planets or what would you guys get out of that that was a tall man from each dimension

from each dimension yeah there's just an unlimited number of dimensions out there Wow. Apparently, the tall man is the only one that can jump between them aside from Mike and Reggie. Interesting. Well, I will give them a little bit of credit on this one, and that they at least had a scene there where they tried to explain it a little bit when Mike was talking to Reggie about all the, you know,

there's other dimensions than this one and there's other realities than this one. Yeah, yeah. You know, at least they tried. They gave it a shot. You know what I mean? They tried to explain it. But, yeah, not enough to pull me in on this one. That's about all I got.

I was kind of wondering how far this spoiler was going to go. I was like, this movie doesn't really make a whole lot of sense or not a whole lot we can spoil. Yeah, right. I can't think of anything else. Yeah, no specific scenes that jump out. I mean, I think we've covered everything and we've gone to the link that we shoot for on these things. So we'll wrap it up here. As always, we want to.

I thank you for listening to another episode of The Horror Returns. We'd love to hear your feedback and ideas. You can always reach us at The Horror Returns at gmail.com. For up-to-the-minute news, reviews, and interviews, visit our Facebook page at www.com forward slash the horror returns. And follow us on Twitter at at Horror underscore Returns. You can find us on Podbean at thehorrorreturns. Podbean.

If you like what you hear, please rate us and review us so we can get those numbers up and continue to bring you guys bigger and better stuff. Next week, we will be reviewing The Accountant, as well as the classic 1988 film Midnight Run. So, until the horror returns again, good night.