Phantasm IV: Oblivion

This video-only release is for true fans of the series. This gem includes close to 20 minutes of footage that was cut from the final release of the original Phantasm. This movie continues the thread and story of The Tall Man and his duties. I feel the ending left a lot to be desired as it left it open for yet another sequel. If you saw the original, check this one out.

A horror movie that is fourth in a series should be terrible. This one actually stands on its own as a good movie, though perhaps not great as fourth in the series.

As other users have commented, this movie does not answer questions about the Phantasm series. It shows a little background on the tall man, and that's it.

On the other hand, looking at it as a stand-alone-movie, it works! It has very coherent and often beautiful art direction. There are very few characters (I assume to save money), but that works. It keeps the movie from bogging down in goofy dialogue and laughable characters like Phantasm III.

The movie actually gets rather artful at times. Just observe the desert scenes with the field of metal rods to see what I mean. The Tall Man doesn't seem too threatening in this one. He come across much more as a constant pressure instead of an acute danger.

The individual characters aren't really developed any more than the previous films. They are reaching archetypal roles of heros, seekers, fighters, etc.

This is not a slasher film. It almost is not a horror movie. Oddly enough, it is almost stepping out of its low-brow beginnings (except for the breast scene in the hotel) and nearly reaching art movie status. I would love to see Phantasm V taken further in this vein. Unfortunately, I think this is the last of the series. Enjoy it if you can find it!

Just watched this series of movies for the first time, and was very disappointed at the ending of Oblivion, there was so much promise in the story and characters, even tho it was getting pretty silly. In the end they just "dropped the ball" on everything, so to speak..

I strongly recommend these movies to any horror/action movie fan, but its a huge shame the last movie was so.. just overall crappy. In lack of a better way of describing it. All the suspense and mystery was totally gone towards the end, and replaced with confusion and despair, as the movie suffered towards its inevitable credits text, leaving the viewer feeling sad and empty, almost betrayed.

I struggled to give this movie a 4 rating.

This is one of my favorite series of movies. The other day, my wife, and I found ourselves watching all four 'Phantasms'. Unlike the 'Friday, the 13th' series, they all tried to be different, but at the same time be true to the concept. Even in the first movie, you walked away (in my case drove away since I saw it at a drive-in) saying to a point, what happened here? Didn't Reggie get killed, and Jody survive? That I think is part of the mystique of these movies. You find yourself discussing with your family, and friends what happened here. Hey, it came many times at at Christmas, and Thanksgiving at my house for quite a few years, NO KIDDING!

This one, I liked, but I'm a little disappointed with it. As I'm typing this up, I have the first one playing, and I still don't quite get IV. For one thing, the idea of explaining why the tall man doesn't die because he comes from different dimensions. Like 'Dr. Who', he travels through time, and space can appear at any time, or place. Okay, I'll buy that. But, why is he so hell-bent on capturing Mike? Does he have some kind of vendetta against Mike, and Jody's family? As Jody said in III,"seeing is easy, understanding takes a little more time." I'm getting a headache trying to understand. There must have been a ton of stuff on the cutting room floor, or someone found a great actor to play Mike from 1979, because a lot of this one bounces back to the first one as they try to tie all of this together.

I understand, unlike 'Star Wars', the complete story was not written out ahead of time, it was made up as it went as it went along. Don Coscarelli is good on keeping us guessing, and I see there one more coming, and judging by the title, this will be the last one, so PLEASE Mr. Coscarelli, If this is the last one, finish it up with style, don't keep me guessing!!!!

As Reggie (Reggie Bannister) searches for the missing Mike (A. Michael Baldwin), Mike himself travels through various dimensions and across time itself to learn the origins of the Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) in hopes of discovering a way to stop him once and for all.

The series attempts to return to its roots a bit, dropping most of the humor from the last two entries, and trying for the off-kilter dream-state of the first film. The film is helped a great deal by use of a lot of footage that was filmed for the original back in '79 but that was edited out, so we get several scenes of the characters as they were back then. The origin of the Tall Man is finally established (somewhat), and that will either be a good thing or a frustrating thing for fans of the series. The sections focusing on Reggie tread much of the usual territory, and there are a couple of over the top gags that will delight or disgust. The ending this time is even more ambiguous than usual. The next (and final?) sequel arrived 18 years later.