Editorials
Let’s Try to Make Some Sense of ‘Phantasm: Ravager’
Was the whole franchise merely Reggie’s delusion?!
True to the franchise, brand new sequel Phantasm: Ravager is a convoluted mess that seems to make very little actual sense, so if you found yourself utterly confused by the whole damn thing, trust us when we say that you weren’t alone. The film begins with Reggie emerging from the desert some time after the events of Phantasm 4: Oblivion, but from there he time-hops into alternate realities that see him joining forces with Mike to fight the Tall Man in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and, alternately, battling dementia at a nursing home.
So what the hell was really going on?
As a word of warning, there will be spoilers below, so proceed with caution!
Let’s cut right to the chase. The ending. There are actually two endings to Phantasm: Ravager, the first of which sees Reggie dying in the aforementioned nursing home. With Mike and Jody by his side, Reggie shuffles off this mortal coil, and the film seems to suggest that everything we’ve ever seen in the Phantasm franchise was a delusion taking place inside his brain; at the very least, the events of Ravager did not happen. In the other ending, Reggie reunites with both Mike and Jody, and they drive off in a souped-up Cuda to bring the fight to the Tall Man one last time.
Which ending is the true ending? Well, the film is of course completely open to interpretation, but I thought it’d at least be fun to spitball a little bit together and try to figure this thing out. My own interpretation? Reggie died in the nursing home, and in death, the Tall Man gave him back what he wanted most: Mike and Jody. A benevolent act from the evil dimension-hopper? Well not exactly. Because though he gave Reggie what he wanted, he also gave himself what he needed.
Let me try to explain. This shit is BONKERS.
Phantasm: Ravager is built around the concept of the Tall Man making Reggie an offer: leave me be and let me take over the world, and you can have back your family. Reggie declines the offer, telling the Tall Man that he also wants Mike and Jody back. Tall Man, disgusted by Reggie’s loyalty, flat-out refuses, but by the end of the film, both Tall Man and Reggie seem to each get what they wanted out of the deal. With giant spheres hovering in the sky, the Earth has been turned into the Tall Man’s personal playground, and Reggie, if only in death, is once again riding around in that Plymouth Cuda with his best friends Mike and Jody. By distracting Reggie with trips into alternate realities (via that brain device he was strapped into for ten years), Tall Man was able to take over the world, and after doing so he was kind enough to gift Reggie with Mike and Jody.
But again, it wasn’t quite an act of benevolence.
As Reggie dies off in one brain-warped reality, he then jumps into the Tall Man’s preferred reality, where he, Mike, and Jody are doomed, as they have been throughout the franchise, to fight the Tall Man (and his many clones) FOREVER. And you know what? Though that may seem like an unsatisfying non-ending, that is actually the PERFECT ending to the Phantasm saga. The series, dating back to 1979, presented what can only be described as a never-ending story, so it only makes sense that the story, well, it doesn’t end. Nearly 40 years later, the fight continues, and for Reggie, Mike, and Jody, it will continue literally forever.
So why does the Tall Man give Jody and Mike back to Reggie? Because he needs them. He needs them in the way that Joker needs Batman. Many times throughout the series, the Tall Man could have easily killed each of his adversaries, but he never actually did. They are a huge part of his game, and without them, there really is no Tall Man. At the end of Ravager, they are forever trapped in his game. They completely belong to him now, if they didn’t already.
As the Tall Man said at the end of Phantasm 3, “It’s never over.”
A satisfying ending to the decades-long saga? It was the ONLY ending.
What did you make of Phantasm: Ravager? Let’s talk about it!
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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