Mike travels across dimensions and time fleeing from the Tall Man, at the same time he tries to find the origins of his enemy, and what really happened the night that his brother died. Meanwhile, Reggie battles the spheres and the un-dead in a quest to find Mike before the Tall Man can complete his transformation.
The series continues and so does the war and theTall Man is close to completing his mission.
After a very mixed reaction and some very harsh criticism towards “Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead”, Don Coscarelli decided that he had gone too far in the action/comedy direction. Subsequently, he wanted to get the series back to its roots by crafting a low budget sequel that was more focused in the horror and surrealist aspects of the story. He did this by using plenty of unused footage from the original film after it was located after having being lost for years. Now usually that’s a bad thing but strangely it worked so well for this instalment.
We did nearly have a completely different film altogether. Roger Avary, a self-confessed hardcore fan of the Phantasm series, wrote a screenplay originally called “Phantasm 1999 A.D.” It was set in a post-apocalyptic near future, featuring Bruce Campbell as a co-star. As the time passed and they couldn’t get the budget needed (around $10 million) Don Coscarelli wrote and directed this fourth instalment as a pre-cursor to the project, that was conveniently re-titled “Phantasm 2012 A.D.” Ultimately, when the financing couldn’t be secured, the idea was scrapped altogether.
The plot for the cancelled script written by Roger Avary goes as follows: “The year is 2012 and there are only three U.S. states left. Between New York and California is the wasteland known as the Plague Zone. Unfortunately, the evil Tall Man controls that area. Since many people are dead, the Tall Man is able to make thousands of dwarf slaves for his planet daily in the Mormon Mausoleum. Besides him, the other residents are “baggers,” human-like creatures that are infected by the Tall Man’s blood, the dwarves, and, of course, the silver spheres, all trying to break out of the barrier that contains them and into the real world. A group of hi-tech troops are sent in to destroy the red dimension where the Tall Man gets his power. Reggie follows so he can find Mike after a series of nightmares he had. Will they be able to finally destroy the Tall Man for good?”
Personally I would have loved to see that film, especially with the addition of the one and only Bruce Campbell but I still think the film we get is amazing. Finding out the back story of the Tall Man is very intriguing and to see Reggie and Mike split apart but still fighting the same mission makes the film even more enjoyable as they’re characters you truly do root for.
“Phantasm IV” is a fantastic film and if you’ve followed the series then I’m sure you’ll love this, but sadly it would be the last entry.
Miscellaneous facts about the film:
In the sequence showing Mike, Reggie, and Jody playing guitar and sitting on the hood of a car, the same actors A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, and Bill Thornbury are actually the ones playing the part. No younger actors were used at all.
One very difficult scripted sequence required filming on Wilshire Boulevard, the largest street in Los Angeles, only it had to be devoid of any people. As closing this major thoroughfare would be impossible and massively expensive, Don Coscarelli and his crew came up with a novel approach. Just minutes before sunrise on Thanksgiving holiday morning, the crew was ready to film, guerrilla-style, with the key actors A. Michael Baldwin and Angus Scrimm. They took over the street, without permission, and had ten uninterrupted minutes of filming with absolutely not a soul in sight. They only had that roughly ten minutes to film, but still managed to shoot the scene as they wanted it.
Filmed in 23 days.
Don Coscarelli originally offered the part of Jennifer to A. Michael Baldwin’s wife, Jennifer Bross but she declined. Heidi Marnhout was cast instead. Ms. Bross did provide, however, the crackling voice for the fortune teller.
Angus Scrimm was suffering from laryngitis during the filming of the opening scene. That’s why his usually deep Tall Man voice sounds more like Orson Welles.
Don Coscarelli’s son, Andy, as well as fans Todd Mecklem and Roger Avary have cameos in the Civil War flashback.
The dwarf that gets shot in the face with the hand-gun by Reggie was played by a very young Wendy Coscarelli, Don Coscarelli’s daughter.
Reggie Bannister’s future wife, Gigi Fast Elk Porter worked on the production with the gory special makeup effects.
Once again, the entire crew was forced to spend several long nights working in the cold, clammy real mausoleum of Angeles Abbey in Compton, California, among the entombed dead.
The dagger seen in the film is the same prop used in Phantasm.
Fred Myrow, composer of the emblematic main theme as well as the music for all the movies in the Phantasm series, died shortly after the film’s release.
The old lady sitting in the rocking chair outside Jebediah Morningside’s house, who also appears next to Mike while driving the hearse, is supposed to be the fortune teller from Phantasm, originally played by Mary Ellen Shaw. In this movie, the character is played by an uncredited, unknown actress.
This is the only movie in the Phantasm series not to end up with a character being pulled through a glass.
The song that plays during the end credits, “Have you seen it?”, was actually composed and performed by Reggie Bannister and his band under the name Reggie “B” & The Yizz Wailin’ Ya’ Doggies. It is included in their 1996 album “Fool’s Paradise”.
In the original script, Tim’s character, portrayed by Kevin Connors in Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead, was savagely eaten alive by the dwarves at the beginning of the movie. But budget constraints prevented the scene to never be filmed.
The scene in which the demon trooper drools yellow gunk into Reggie Bannister’s mouth was shot five times.
Bob Ivy burned his feet performing the dangerous fire gag involving the exploding police car.
The sequence with Reggie Bannister pulling up to the abandoned rundown motel in the desert was shot without permits. Moreover, said motel was actually an old shack that was redressed to look like a motel.
Almost all of the silver sphere effects were done in camera.
The scene in which Reggie finds out that Jennifer’s breasts are in fact spheres and gets attacked by them was directly taken from a dream sequence featured in the original screenplay for “Phantasm’s End”, penned by Roger Avary. His inclusion in Phantasm IV: Oblivion was intended as a homage / tribute to this doomed Phantasm sequel project. The scene in question was even fully storyboarded in color and depicted Reggie (dressed up with his ice cream vendor uniform, another idea also picked up in Phantasm IV: Oblivion) trying to get laid with a dominatrix hooker in a brothel room. To his surprise, he discovers that her breasts are spheres attached to her chest and gets attacked by them. In the struggle, he gets both of his hands drilled and, before one of the spheres can penetrate his skull, he suddenly wakes up and realizes it was just a nightmare.
Don Coscarelli originally wanted to call this installment “Phantasm Phorever,” but ultimately rejected that particular title because he thought it was too cute.
The movie’s working title was “Phantasm IV: Infinity”, but it was changed for “Phantasm IV: Oblivion” during post-production.
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