Phantasm IV: Oblivion

2387-poster
release date October 13 1998
studio Anchor Bay Entertainment
director Don Coscarelli
writer Don Coscarelli
starring Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm, and Bill Thornburg
trailer 1 Trailer #1

6 comments

  1. Avatar of Protecious
    Posted By Protecious on October 1, 2008 @ 2:36 am

    this is the best phantasm sequel and it’s a delight seeing flashbacks from unseen footage from the original classic, i loved this film and it’s more simpler approach to making this film instead of way over the top like III.
    great stuff, angus has still got the balls…

  2. Avatar of downward_spiral
    Posted By downward_spiral on October 6, 2008 @ 7:26 pm

    I thought this one sucked ass compared to the first one and the second one. You know the second one was amazing and why the hell has it not made it to DVD yet. Come on guys what the hell are ya doing.

  3. Avatar of Justin-Warren
    Posted By Justin-Warren on November 4, 2008 @ 4:50 pm

    Phantasm IV may have been confusing….but there are so many answers between the lines in that film. It’s easily my favorite sequel in the series, far and away. Here’s my theory, and I’m stickin’ to it!

    A lot of people get confused by the “contradictory” flashback scenes that depict different events than what happened in the original Phantasm.

    Think about this…it IS true that the ending of Phantasm reveals that everything was just a bad dream, and that Jody died in a car wreck. But poor confused little Michael claims that everything felt so real…

    Ten years later, (part II), his dream is proven a reality because the Tall Man is back, and desecrating every town he travels through, and also kills Reggie’s family. Reggie then believes Michael and the two team up and the rest of the series plays out rather linearly.

    But then how could everything have been a dream, if it all proved true?

    In part IV, Michael is not only beginning to understand everything about the Tall Man’s origins, but about the CORRECT origins to his own connection to it all. It WAS a dream, but something ELSE happened. All the flashback footage we are shown in part IV finally reveals what REALLY happened when Michael first encountered the Tall Man. Everything else we saw in the original was either one of many parallel universes we’ve witnessed in the series, or merely a dream caused by the Tall Man affecting Michael’s perception of reality.

    So….Jody DID die in a car wreck, but we never LIVED that reality. It’s this disconnection and robbery of Michael’s memory of his brother that makes this series so effective in it’s sense of loneliness and emotional loss.

  4. Avatar of Skratchy
    Posted By Skratchy on May 30, 2009 @ 5:24 pm

    Probably my least favorite so far, but it was really cool to get some background on Jebediah Morningside. On top of that it has a really unique setting, especially in the sense that really not much happens in the movie. Most of it doesn’t take place in the present.

    Really hope the fifth one gets made.

  5. Posted By man_in_mask on November 7, 2011 @ 3:27 pm

    Decent, definitely the worst in the series.

Official Score: 3 / 5