The Phantasm Movie Franchise, Ranked Worst To Best
Phantasm is a cult horror franchise with an iconic villain in Angus Scrimm’s Tall Man. Here’s every entry ranked from worst to best.
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Here’s a ranking of the Phantasm franchise from worst to best. While the Tall Man isn’t quite as iconic as Halloween’s Michael Myers or A Nightmare On Elm Street’s Freddy, he’s still a horror favorite. Director Don Coscarelli quite literally dreamed up the series, which was inspired by a nightmare where he was being chased by a flying sphere. The original Phantasm was a low-budget, dreamlike tale about a teenager teaming up with his big brother – and their ice-cream man friend Reggie – to take down evil mortician The Tall Man.
Angus Scrimm played the imposing Tall Man and brought a unique menace to the unkillable being. The Phantasm franchise has been produced mostly outside of the studio system, and what they lack in budget or polish they more than made up for with imagination and fun. J.J. Abrams is also a big fan of the first entry, with the chrome design of Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) from Star Wars: The Force Awakens inspired by the famous flying spheres from the movie.
The Phantasm franchise ran from 1979 to 2016, so let’s rank this cult favorite series from worst to best.
5. Phantasm: Ravager
For a time following the fourth movie, it seemed Phantasm: Ravager wouldn’t happen. An ambitious, apocalyptic script for a fifth entry dubbed Phantasm’s End written by Roger Avary (Silent Hill) couldn’t secure funding and it lingered in development hell. Don Coscarelli later handed the reins over to director David Hartman for the fifth movie, which began life as a planned series of web shorts.
Sadly, Phantasm: Ravager is a mess. Reggie Bannister still holds things together as Reggie, but it looks like a slightly bigger budgeted fan film loaded with poor visual effects, weak action, and an unsatisfying showdown. Angus Scrimm’s poor health sadly limited his appearance as the Tall Man too. Ravager at least gave the series a proper ending, even if it wasn’t quite what fans hoped for.
4. Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead
Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead was the first of the series to go straight to video and featured the return of A. Michael Baldwin as Mike, after the studio replaced him with James LaGros (Point Break) for the second movie.
Phantasm III leans into the horror-comedy aspect of the second one, with Reggie essentially promoted to the series lead. It’s a fun adventure but a lot of the goofier humor falls flat, it’s never particularly creepy and Reggie’s new kid sidekick is quite irritating. It did introduce Gloria Lynne Henry’s Rocky, however, who became a fan-favorite character.
3. Phantasm IV: Oblivion
Phantasm IV: Oblivion was shot with a tiny $650,000 budget and re-used many props from previous entries to keep costs down. It also recycled unseen footage shot for the original that was never used and provides an origin story for The Tall Man. The pace can drag at times but Oblivion manages to recapture some of the dreamy, surrealistic qualities of the first movie that was missing in other entries and cast all do good work.
2. Phantasm II
Phantasm II is the highest budget of the sequels and was Universal’s attempt to make The Tall Man a horror icon. This resulted in the weirdness being toned down and saw Mike and Reggie take to the road to hunt the villain and his minions. Phantasm II is similar to Evil Dead II, mixing horror and action and introducing series tropes like Reggie’s quad barrel shotgun. While the tone is starkly different from the first Phantasm, the sequel is a lot of fun.
1. Phantasm
Phantasm follows a young boy as he uncovers the dark secret of his local cemetery, which spirals into a bizarre nightmare. Don Coscarelli’s 1979 horror classic is loaded with surreal visuals and a creepy score and atmosphere, and while the acting and dialogue can be a little rough, they don’t drag it down. From The Tall Man himself to the floating spheres and the shock ending, there’s simply nothing else quite like Phantasm.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/phantasm-franchise-movies-ranked-worst-best/