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Phantasm IV: Oblivion | |
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Directed by | Don Coscarelli |
Written by | Don Coscarelli |
Based on | Characters by Don Coscarelli |
Produced by | Don Coscarelli |
Starring | A. Michael Baldwin Reggie Bannister Bill Thornbury Heidi Marnhout Bob Ivy Angus Scrimm |
Cinematography | Chris Chomyn |
Edited by | Scott J. Gill |
Music by | Christopher L. Stone |
Production company | Starway International |
Distributed by | Orion Home Video (United States) Starway International (Internationally) |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $650,000 |
Phantasm IV: Oblivion (stylized as Phantasm: OblIVion and also known as Phantasm: Oblivion) is a 1998 American science fantasy horror film. The film was written, produced and directed by Don Coscarelli and starring A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister and Angus Scrimm. It is the third sequel in the Phantasm series and is followed by Phantasm: Ravager .
The film begins where the previous film left off. Mike flees from Boulton mortuary in a hearse, while Reggie is trapped inside by the Tall Man's spheres. Rather than kill Reggie, the Tall Man lets him go, saying "the final game now begins." Mike's brother Jody, still a black sphere that can occasionally resume his human form, contacts and persuades Reggie to search for Mike. On the way, Reggie survives a demon attack and rescues a woman named Jennifer from a car accident. They stay the night at an abandoned motel where Reggie tells her about The Tall Man. Jennifer is not who she seems to be. She attacks Reggie with two spheres, hidden in her breasts. Reggie smashes Jennifer's head and one sphere with a sledgehammer and uses a tuning fork on the other that managed to drill his hand. Mike tries to escape his transformation, driving through abandoned areas, recalling the last days of his youth before The Tall Man's arrival. After being spooked by visions of the elderly Fortune Teller he consulted years ago, the Tall Man appears and declares he is taking Mike somewhere "to prepare for passage." The location is Death Valley where Mike ultimately attempts suicide by hanging. However the Tall Man intercedes and shows him conflicting memories of when he and Jody attempted to kill the Tall Man in 1978. Forbidden from taking his own life, Mike sees the Tall Man offer his hand implying he wants to guide him. Refusing, Mike escapes through a dimension fork. He appears to have traveled back in time, emerging from an early version of the gateway in an 1860s era laboratory. He is greeted by a kind man named Jebediah Morningside. Mike is frightened away because not only does Jebediah appear to be the Tall Man but the Fortune Teller is mysteriously present.
In the desert, Mike realizes he is slowly developing telekinesis when he kills a dwarf with a large boulder. Jody finally appears but a distrustful Mike accuses him of having abandoned him. Mike begins working on the hearse's engine, seemingly using parts to build a makeshift sphere. Mike goes through a gate, but finds himself in a deserted city and escapes The Tall Man only with Jody's help. Meanwhile, Reggie arrives at Death Valley and fights off a group of dwarfs shortly before Mike and Jody reappear through a gate. Mike embraces Reggie and tells him not to trust Jody. Mike and Jody pass through the gate and appear in Jebediah's house. Invisible to the old man, they witness how he perfects his craft and approaches the inter-dimensional gate. Mike unsuccessfully tries to stab Jebediah, who vanishes and moments later is replaced by the Tall Man incarnation who emerges in his place. He can see Jody and Mike, forcing Mike to retreat through the gate. Jody finds Mike in a cemetery and attacks him. Awakening on an embalming slab, Mike uses the tuning fork to immobilize Jody and the Tall Man as they attempt to cut open his head with a buzz saw equipped sphere. He makes the Tall Man kill Jody with the still-running saw. The Tall Man quickly revives and telekinetically takes the fork from Mike. Again, Mike escapes through the gate back to Death Valley, this time pursued by his nemesis.
Reggie tries to shoot but is overpowered by The Tall Man. Mike then summons the sphere he built and uses it to impale The Tall Man in the neck. At this moment, Mike activates the hearse's motor, which turns out to be the true weapon, a strange inter-dimensional bomb, against the Tall Man. The Tall Man is once again supposedly vanquished. However, a new Tall Man immediately comes through the gate, revealing that The Tall Man is but one of many. The Tall Man removes the golden sphere from Mike's head and then passes through the gate. Reggie arms himself and chases after The Tall Man through the gate. Mike recalls a childhood memory of him climbing into Reggie's ice cream truck as they both drive off into the dark night. Oddly enough, both of them hear each other's last exchange of dialogue from the present before Reggie went through the gate. Reggie asks Mike if he hears the voice, but Mike brushes it off, declaring "it's just the wind."
Canadian filmmaker Roger Avary, a self-professed hardcore fan of the Phantasm series, wrote an epic screenplay titled Phantasm 1999 as a sequel to Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead . [1] [2] It was set in a post-apocalyptic near future and would feature Bruce Campbell as a co-star. [1] As the project ran into financing difficulties, Don Coscarelli wrote and directed this fourth installment as a precursor to the project, [2] using numerous outtakes from the preceding films. Avary also appeared in the film as one of the Civil War soldiers. Despite these efforts, the budget for the sequel, now retitled Phantasm's End, could not be secured. [1]
Oblivion's budget was considerably lower than the previous two Phantasm films. While Phantasm II had a budget of $3,000,000 and Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead had a budget of $2,500,000, the filmmakers were only able to secure $650,000 to make Phantasm IV: Oblivion. The filmmakers had to be inventive with the budget, much like the first film, which had only $300,000 budget. For the Civil War dream sequence a Civil War reenactment group was hired in exchange for a $200 donation. Because the production could afford to build only a few sets, several key scenes were filmed in the desert, making this the only Phantasm movie without significant scenes inside a mausoleum setting, except the very beginning and toward the end. The swarm of spheres was done by several fans of Phantasm, who then showed it to Bannister who, in turn, showed it to Coscarelli. KNB EFX group also helped out a bit on the film as a favor to Coscarelli.
Rumors of a sequel were reignited in June 2007 by footage contained in Don Coscarelli's Farewell to The Alamo Drafthouse, featuring Angus Scrimm and A. Michael Baldwin in their roles. However, in an interview with Reggie Bannister that surfaced on YouTube, Bannister stated there was no activity or development involving a fifth installment but that anything was possible in the future. [3]
On March 25, 2014, it was announced that a fifth installment in the series, Phantasm: Ravager , had been filmed secretly. The film was released on October 7, 2016.
Roger Roberts Avary is a Canadian-American film, television director, screenwriter and producer. He worked with Quentin Tarantino on Pulp Fiction, for which they won Best Original Screenplay at the 67th Academy Awards. Avary directed Killing Zoe, The Rules of Attraction, Lucky Day, and wrote the screenplays for Silent Hill and Beowulf.
Wishmaster is a 1997 American fantasy horror film directed by Robert Kurtzman. The film was executive produced by Wes Craven, and is the only film of the Wishmaster series with his name attached. Its plot concerns a djinn, a wish-granting, evil genie who is released from a jewel and seeks to capture the soul of the woman who discovered him, thereby opening a portal and freeing his fellow djinn to inhabit and enslave the Earth.
Don Coscarelli Jr. is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born to Italian settlers in Libya, he is best known for his work in horror films. His directing credits include the first four films in the Phantasm franchise, as well as The Beastmaster (1982) and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).
Bubba Ho-Tep is a 2002 American comedy horror film written, co-produced and directed by Don Coscarelli. It stars Bruce Campbell as Sebastian Haff, a man residing in a nursing home who claims to be the real Elvis Presley. The film also stars Ossie Davis as Jack, a black man who claims to be John F. Kennedy, explaining that he was patched up after the assassination, dyed black, and abandoned.
Reginald Horace "Reggie" Bannister is an American musician, actor, producer, writer, and activist. He is known for his role as Reggie in the Phantasm film series.
Phantasm is a 1979 American science fantasy horror film that was directed, written, photographed, and edited by Don Coscarelli. The first film in the Phantasm franchise, it introduces the Tall Man, a supernatural and malevolent undertaker who turns the dead of Earth into dwarf zombies to be sent to his planet and used as slaves. He is opposed by a young boy, Mike, who tries to convince his older brother Jody and family friend Reggie of the threat.
Angus Scrimm was an American actor, author, and journalist, known for his portrayal of the Tall Man in the 1979 horror film Phantasm and its sequels.
Phantasm II is a 1988 American science fantasy action-horror film and the sequel to Phantasm (1979). It was written and directed by Don Coscarelli and stars Angus Scrimm, James LeGros and Reggie Bannister. The first film's protagonist, Mike, recently released from a mental institution, recruits Reggie and some new friends in an effort to defeat the villain Tall Man.
Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead is a 1994 American science fantasy horror film and the second sequel in the Phantasm series, written and directed by Don Coscarelli. The film stars Angus Scrimm as the Tall Man, Reggie Bannister, and A. Michael Baldwin. It is followed by Phantasm IV: Oblivion.
"Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" is the premiere episode of the first season of Masters of Horror, directed by Don Coscarelli. It originally aired in North America on October 28, 2005. The screenplay is based on a short story by American author Joe R. Lansdale. It was first published as a comic book series, Masters of Horror #1–2, 4 issues.
Mortal Massacre is the first CD release by New York death metal band Mortician. It consists of their Brutally Mutilated 7" vinyl EP and Mortal Massacre 7" vinyl EP, and live tracks recorded at two separate shows.
The Mangler Reborn is a 2005 American horror film and the third entry in the Mangler film series based on a 1972 short story by Stephen King. The film was released straight to DVD on November 29, 2005 by Lions Gate Entertainment and Baseline StudioSystems. Directors Gardner and Cunningham intended the film to be a "rebirth" of the film franchise, with the film not requiring viewers to have seen the prior two films. It is an alternate sequel to the first film.
"In Which We Meet Mr. Jones" is the seventh episode of the first season of the American science fiction drama television series Fringe. The story begins when an FBI agent collapses from a parasite constricting his heart, and Olivia must meet with biochemist David Robert Jones in Frankfurt in order to find a cure. It featured the first appearance by Harris.
Jim the World's Greatest is a 1976 drama film written and directed by Don Coscarelli and Craig Mitchell. The movie began production when Coscarelli and Mitchell were 18-year-olds, while being financed by their parents at a stated cost of $250,000.
Roberto A. Quezada is an American gaffer, cinematographer, and film producer best known for his work with Don Coscarelli including the Phantasm series and The Beastmaster. Quezada is also a film journalist and a Web site producer best known for his pioneering work with Amnesty International USA and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. His father is the Guatemalan journalist, poet, and fiction writer Roberto P. Quezada.
The Tall Man is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Phantasm series of horror films. The Tall Man first appeared in the first Phantasm in 1979, and his most recent appearance in the film Phantasm: Ravager in 2016. In all of his film appearances, the Tall Man has been portrayed by Angus Scrimm, while he is voiced by Jeff Bergman in Mike Tyson Mysteries.
Reggie is a fictional character from the Phantasm series of horror films. In all of his appearances, Reggie has been portrayed by Reggie Bannister.
John Dies at the End is a 2012 American comedy horror film written and directed by Don Coscarelli and based on David Wong's novel of the same name. It stars Chase Williamson and Rob Mayes, with Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown, Glynn Turman, Daniel Roebuck, and Doug Jones.
Phantasm: Ravager is a 2016 American science fantasy action horror film, and the fifth and final installment in the Phantasm series. It marks the only film in the series not directed by Don Coscarelli, although he acts as producer and co-writer. It is directed by David Hartman and stars A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, and Angus Scrimm in his final appearance as the Tall Man.
Phantasm is an American horror film series that consists of five films, novels, comic books, and merchandise. It is mainly about the Tall Man, a supernatural and malevolent undertaker and the main antagonist who turns the dead into dwarf zombies to do his bidding and take over the world. He is opposed by a young boy, Mike, who tries to convince his older brother Jody and family friend Reggie of the threat. The first film was released in 1979, received generally positive reviews and has garnered a cult following.