Maybe I like this one more than II or III ... it's hard to say. On the plus side, it tries to have an atmosphere more like the original film and less like a horror action comedy. On the minus side, it literally makes no sense. Unused footage from the original film was found and dropped into this film as ... well as what? It depicts events that could not have happened given how the original film ultimately came together, so what is this meant to represent? This is really symptomatic of the entire film. Reggie encounters some chick on the road, and stuff happens, but none of her interactions with him really make sense or ultimately amount to anything. It's a bit like all the elements of your typical Phantasm film were dropped in a cup, shook up, and dumped out onto a table and then that was filmed.

Eschewing the campy sensibility and full-bore action of the previous installments, writer/director Don Coscarelli instead puts a much more noted emphasis on the lonely and hopeless plights of the recurring characters of Mike (a fine performance by A. Michael Baldwin), Reggie (the wonderfully earnest and engaging Reggie Bannister), and Jody (a solid portrayal by Bill Thornbury) as they all grapple with their own personal agendas concerning the malevolent Tall Man (Angus Scrimm in splendidly sinister form) and try to figure out a way to stop him before it's too late: Mike finds himself trapped in a strange inter-dimensional limbo, Reggie travels the countryside in search of Mike, and the spectral Jody offers assistance from an alternate realm. Those expecting the usual plethora of wild thrills and colorful graphic carnage will be deeply disappointed, for Coscarelli this time is more interested in exploring the Tall Man's origins while still taking time to ably create and sustain a supremely bleak and spooky gloom-doom atmosphere -- the shots of desolate and abandoned towns and cities in particular possess a genuinely eerie and unsettling power -- and maintaining a generally more grim and serious tone that recaptures quite well the surprising surrealism and unpredictability of the original. Moreover, there's an overall tragic and melancholy vibe evident throughout which gives this picture an extra wrenching poignancy. The strong and appealing chemistry between Baldwin, Bannister, and Thornbury helps a whole lot. The hulking Bob Ivy makes a memorable appearance as a vicious demonic state trooper and the lovely Heidi Marnhout plays spunky blonde babe Jennifer with considerable sexy aplomb. Chris Chomyn's sharp cinematography offers a wealth of striking oddball images. The spare shuddery score by Christopher Stone and Fred Myrow does the shivery trick. The ending is quite sad, touching, and daringly ambiguous. A worthy closer.

After a brief montage of out-of-sequence scenes from the first three films, Oblivion begins as Lord of the Dead ended, with Reggie (Reggie Bannister) trapped by spheres, Mike (A. Michael Baldwin) disappearing into the night after discovering that he is no longer completely human, and Tim nowhere to be seen, having been pulled through glass into a black void. The film then proceeds to get extremely unfathomable, even by Phantasm standards, as Reggie escapes death once again and goes in search of Mike (conveniently forgetting all about young Tim and the fact that he owes him 'two').Although this sounds as though it should be very much in the same outrageous horror/comedy vein as parts 2 and 3, Oblivion is actually a much more sober movie, director Don Coscarelli ditching the overly humorous approach, instead focusing his efforts on further developing the more surreal aspects of the series (apparently in response to the critical lashing he received over Lord of the Dead's tongue-in-cheek approach).In my opinion, though, Coscarelli made a mistake in listening to his naysayers, for along with the laughs also goes much of the OTT action and gore, without which the film's lack of logic and narrative cohesion becomes all too apparent and ultimately rather tedious. The film's two genuinely entertaining highlights—Reggie's battle against a seemingly indestructible zombie cop, and his discovery that hot blonde Jennifer (Heidi Marnhout) has spheres for breasts—only serve to make the absence of fun in the rest of the film all the more obvious.A rather disappointing 5.5 out of 10, rounded up to 6 for the clever use of out-takes from the original film as flashbacks.

It's rare that the same creative team are still around 4 films into a series, and even rarer that a 4th film has anything new to add, so this makes a refreshing change.The tone is a little uneven, with Coscarelli seeming torn between delivering the slapstick gore and laughs of the previous 2 sequels and going for the darker more surreal approach of the first movie, so a lot of Reggie's scenes seem like they could have been pasted in from a different movie. Speaking of which large chunks are made up of deleted scenes from "Phantasm", which, while suggesting money problems during development, actually works very well in bookending the events so far.It also goes some way to filling in the gaps, giving the Tall Man a proper origin story and answering a few questions while still leaving enough up in the air to justify the 5th film which is apparently in production currently.That said, even if a 5th film never materialises, this makes a nicely apocalyptic ending to a series that has actually come to life in it's sequels. There's still plenty of laughs, but there's a very downbeat tone and some nicely creepy touches, making this a very enjoyable, if slightly schizophrenic addition to a fun series.