This is my first viewing of Phantasm IV. I wish I had listened to my original instinct to avoid it. Yesterday, I praised Phantasm III for preserving the mythology established in the first film. Phantasm IV undoes it all. This is easlily the worst movie I’ve ever featured on 31 Days of Gore. The fact that it garnered a review score comparable to the previous film on IMDB indicates a die hard and delusional fan base.
Where to begin? The first ten minutes are flashbacks. Flashbacks to the previous films, flashbacks to unused footage for the first film, freshly shot flashbacks which completely and utterly stamp out every ounce of greatness the series had. Once you think the movie’s done flashbacking, it flashbacks some more. It’s as if Don Coscarelli woke up one day and thought, Hey, I know how to ruin the series! I’ll add time travel to it!
There’s a scene in which Mike is pursued by the Tall Man through an old looking town. When Mike asks where he’s at, Spirit Jody replies he should worry more about when rather than where, suggesting it’s a long time ago. Considering there’s a sign which plainly says Staples in the background, I’m guessing it’d have to be sometime after ’86 unless it’s literally a generic staples store. I mention this scene without context because there is none. Coscarelli, who I admire tremendously, constructs the flimsiest excuses to unload footage which rightly belonged on the cutting room floor. And he shoots new footage which isn’t coherent enough to string all the old crap together.
I know the series hasn’t exhibited the best continuity, but to suddenly make the Tall Man a human after it was made abundantly clear, time and time again, that he wasn’t, is the dumbest retcon I’ve seen in a movie in years. The conclusion to the previous film’s cliffhanger is handled so sloppily, you’ll wonder if Coscarelli actually wanted to make another Phantasm movie at all. Hellraiser IV hurts less than this piece of shit does.
I’ll be featuring the fifth film at midnight, Central Time, but if it’s anything like this one, I won’t have anything kind to say.
The Goug' Blog 
I saw the original two when they were released and just saw 3 and 4 for the first time this weekend. 3 wasn’t bad, but 4 lacked. First, the sketchy origins of the Tall Man were not too great. And then all the flashbacks. I was confused because I never saw those scenes in the original, but they were clearly from that time period and not just filmed. I also didn’t like they way the ending of 3 was handled. What happened to the little boy?
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