PHANTASM: RAVAGER has sure put us on a roller coaster, hasn’t it? First we find that it’s happening at all, then we hear it has actually already been completed, and now we’ve even got a teaser trailer! What’s next, we learn it’s being released in May?!
The fifth PHANTASM movie stars Angus Scrimm, Reggie Bannister, Bill Thornbury, Kat Lester, and Michael Baldwin and was directed by frequent Don Coscarelli collaborator David Hartman. Coscarelli co-wrote Phantasm: Ravager with Hartman and produced it through his Silver Spheres company with executive producer Brad Baruh.
Plot details are unknown, but here are some words from Coscarelli about the film:
The Phantasm films have been a guerrilla operation for decades now, totally outside of the studio system,” Coscarelli said. “We do them for the fans, and I think Ravager will definitely please them. In the past few years several studios have made offers to remake Phantasm with large budgets, but the fans were very vocal that they wanted the original cast to return and finish this iteration of the story with class. And for the first time there’s an extended sequence on the Tall Man’s home world. I know Phantasm fans will be as excited as I am to see it.”
For the first time in the franchise’s history, a new director is helming the production, one David Hartman. Hartman is a multiple Emmy-nominated animation director, whose work can be seen in such celebrated shows as Transformers Prime and Roughnecks: Starship Troopers. Serious genre fans have long been familiar with Hartman’s edgier output, including two blood-soaked music videos for Rob Zombie (“American Witch,” and “Lords of Salem”), and his illustrations of Steve Niles’ “Strange Cases” for Image Comics.
Hopefully soon we’ll get some solid distribution news on this one. For now, enjoy the teaser, which is pretty kickass!
