Fantasma 4: O Pesadelo Continua

Whoa! I was amazed while reading all the horrible reviews this film got. This is the best Phantasm since the first. It has a very intelligent story line and the most mature directing of the series. I think a lot of people didn't 'get it' because they were expecting a bunch of gore and action, and a very simplistic plot (like most horror movies today). If that is all you want then you won't like this film. But for people who want a more artistic horror film, this one delivers. (Of course seeing the first three is a must. It is very hard to understand or appreciate without seeing those).

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!!!!

The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm) has been spreading his devastations. The neighboring towns have been abandoned to the monsters. Mike is driving towards Death Valley to escape his pending transformation. Reggie is also on the road and rescues beautiful Jennifer from a car wreck.

This is generally messy. Mike's journey is a series of random dimensional turns. It's a mistake to separate Mike and Reggie. When the movie opens with a flashback of the trio walking through the door, I hoped for the three of them going on a quest together. It is nice to have the three of them return for this movie but splitting them up loses any hope of chemistry. The logic and the world of this franchise is simply getting too messy. This movie needs a good story. In an aside, I don't like the CGI spheres, no matter how many spheres. There is something solid, something creepy about a real physical floating sphere.

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.

I am one of the world's biggest fans of the original Phantasm. But I have to admit, that the sequels really do nothing for me.

Number four is the closest thing to the original. It lives the same world, but isn't distracted by pop culture phenomena of the time the way 2 & 3 seemed to be influenced/commentating on 'Evil Dead' and 'Home Alone'.

As much as I like seeing the Tall Man, Reggie and Mike back in action, Jody still seems forced into the series. I really wish that Coscarelli had just left him dead and moved on. The whole 'living ball' thing is plain silly.