The Tall Man, Reggie “Hot As Love” Bannister, Jody, and the boooooooy are all coming back to theaters: Both the Bad Robot-funded restoration of the 1979 cult classic Phantasm:Remastered and the new sequel Phantasm: Ravager have official release dates, according to Entertainment Weekly.
Phantasm: Ravager has been seemingly floating around in a crimson-tinted alternate dimension since the first trailer was released in December of 2014, beating Lionsgate’s Blair Witch to the punch as far as surprise sequels go. Now Well Go USA Entertainment has picked up the distribution rights to the fifth Phantasm adventure, and will unleash Angus Scrimm’s final performance as The Tall Man onto theaters and home video on October 7. Ravager is the latest entry in the franchise since 1994’s Phantasm: Oblivion, and according to creator Don Coscarelli will tie up all the loose ends (and there are plenty) in the Phantasm saga. “It’s a swan song to the series,” Coscarelli told EW. “There’s some new iterations of those brain-shucking spheres and a lot of good stuff that the fans will enjoy. It ties up a lot of the storylines and answers some questions that fans have had.” Coscarelli co-wrote Ravager with director David Hartman.
The original film—a sort of American answer to Italian horror cinema with nightmarish imagery and a rock-influenced synthesizer-based soundtrack focusing more on a dream-like tone than coherence—will also be re-released to cinemas. Phantasm: Remastered is a chance “to bring a classic to a whole new audience,” says Dylan Marchetti, senior vice president of Well Go USA Entertainment. The restoration was from an original camera negative, and according to Ain’t It Cool News is the first “flat-out beautiful release of the film.”
In addition to the newly remastered original and Ravager, both Phantasm III: Lord Of The Dead and Phantasm IV: Oblivion will be re-released on digital and cable in full HD restorations. Phantasm II will also be available (presumably not in HD), but plans haven’t been finalized yet, according to Entertainment Weekly. Each film will be released individually as well as part of a collectors’ set later in the year.
Phantasm: Remastered his theaters September 24, and Phantasm: Ravager will be available on October 7.