Ranking the Phantasm Movies, from Silver Killer Balls to Boy!!
Back in 1979, writer and director Don Coscarelli unleashed a low budget horror fever dream upon the world. It was called Phantasm, and no one had the faintest clue what was happening. Somehow, that only added to the charm. There was a tall creepy man who worked in a funeral home, mysterious portals to another dimension, flying chrome orbs with drills in them, and little hooded goblin creatures that bled French’s mustard. What’s not to love?
Over five films and nearly four decades, the Phantasm series transformed from unsettling arthouse horror into a dimension-hopping sci-fi epic with heart, humour, and a killer Plymouth Barracuda. It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and it’s often confusing as hell, but it has built one of horror’s most passionate cult fanbases. Whether you’re here for the Tall Man’s booming “Boy”, Reggie’s sex pest energy and ice cream heroism, or just the exploding craniums, this series has something for the wonderfully unwell.
So grab your quadruple-barrelled shotgun, tune your brain to dream logic, and join us as we step through the red dimension portal and rank every entry in the gloriously strange Phantasm franchise from worst to best. Trust us, this list is far from a phantasmagorical delusion. Mostly.
5. Phantasm Ravager
Every franchise eventually reaches its “we shot this in a car park and a field” phase, and Phantasm Ravager proudly lives there, sits on a plastic throne, and declares war on coherence. Released in 2016, Ravager is the final entry in the Phantasm series, the swan song of Reggie the horny ice cream man, and the last on-screen appearance of Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man before his passing. It was never going to be a masterpiece, but it could have at least been finished.
Ravager had a rough road. Originally conceived as webisodes (yep), it was later stitched together into a feature film, and unfortunately, it shows. The budget is almost non-existent, the CGI is… ambitious, and the story feels like a fever dream inside a flashback within a dream sequence that may or may not be the actual afterlife. Reggie spends most of the movie waking up in random locations, mumbling things like “Where am I?” and “Is this real?” which coincidentally matches what every viewer is saying out loud.
Still, there’s something oddly charming about the chaos. It tries to be emotional, philosophical, and epic all at once. And for long-time fans, seeing these characters again, especially Scrimm’s final “Boy!” is worth the price of admission. It’s not a good film, but it’s a strangely touching farewell to one of horror’s weirdest and most beloved franchises. Think of it like your gran’s final homemade pie before she retired the oven — a little burnt, missing ingredients, but made with love.
4. Phantasm III: Lord of the Dead
By the time Phantasm III rolled around in 1994, the series had well and truly committed to just getting weird with it. The horror atmosphere of the first film and the action flair of the second were thrown in a blender with a healthy dose of WTF, and out popped Lord of the Dead. And honestly, bless it for trying. It’s kind of like if you let a teenage boy with a fog machine, a comic book collection, and a VHS camera direct The Road Warrior in a graveyard.
The film picks up immediately after Phantasm II, which is helpful if you’re binging these things in one go and have lost all sense of time. Reggie, still rocking the ice cream man look and libido of a confused uncle at a wedding, sets off to rescue Mike, who has been nabbed (again) by The Tall Man. This time he’s joined by a telekinetic child who’s basically Kevin McCallister with a shotgun, and a badass nunchuck-wielding orphan named Rocky. No, seriously. That’s the plot. And it’s glorious nonsense.
The tone is all over the shop. One moment you’ve got body horror and exploding heads, the next you’re watching Reggie get caught in a slapstick booby trap straight out of Home Alone. But despite the tonal whiplash, Phantasm III is oddly charming. It leans hard into fan service, gives Scrimm plenty of ominous screen time, and further unravels the increasingly baffling mythology that no one fully understands — not even the characters in the movie. But hey, the silver balls are back, the dwarves are angrier than ever, and Reggie still refuses to wear a helmet. What more could you want?
3. Phantasm IV: Oblivion
Released in 1998, Phantasm IV: Oblivion is where the franchise goes full existential crisis. After the chaos and Saturday morning cartoon logic of Part III, Don Coscarelli (yep, that’s how you spell it — we got there!) reins things in a bit for a moodier, more introspective entry that somehow still includes a noose hanging, time travel, exploding dwarves, and Abraham Lincoln’s cousin. Probably.
Oblivion is kind of the Phantasm series doing its own director’s commentary. Coscarelli used a load of unused footage from the original film to build this one, blending 1979 outtakes with 90s footage in a surprisingly clever way. It gives the film an eerie dreamlike quality — or a massive headache depending on your mood. Mike is wandering the desert, presumably trying to figure out what the hell is happening in this series, while Reggie is still trying to save him armed with just a quadruple-barrelled shotgun and enough pick-up lines to fill a cursed diary.
We get Tall Man backstory here, or at least what passes for backstory in Phantasm terms. There’s a hint at Jebediah Morningside’s origins, which sounds like a name from a ghost train in Alabama, and we dive further into the whole “dimensional travel” plot. There’s also a particularly cool flying sphere sequence, some grotty gore, and a whole lot of philosophical mumbo-jumbo about death and destiny. It’s a strange, reflective, oddly poetic entry — like Waiting for Godot, but with more spheres that drill into your face. Not for the casual fan, but those already on the Phantasm train will find plenty to enjoy as we drift toward the finale.
2. Phantasm II
After nearly a decade of flying silver spheres and night terrors, Phantasm II hit theatres in 1988 with more budget, more explosions, and less hair on Reggie’s head. It picks up right where the first film left off — then immediately recasts Mike with a new actor. Continuity? In Phantasm? You must be joking. James LeGros steps in as the psychic, sphere-dodging teen, while Reggie continues to be the world’s most unlikely action hero slash ice cream man.
Now this is where the franchise starts flexing its new muscles — and by muscles, we mean chainsaws, flamethrowers, and grenade launchers. Our balding dynamic duo hit the road in a tricked-out hearse, cruising through ghost towns the Tall Man has completely wiped off the map, which raises a question: where are the police in all of this? Never mind, they’ve probably been squished into yellow-bleeding dwarves. The Tall Man is still doing his usual dimension-hopping funeral director gig, Mike is having psychic visions of a blonde he’s never met, and Reggie, somehow, bags himself a brunette hitchhiker who finds his combover irresistible. Now that’s the real supernatural element here.
With a studio budget and Coscarelli still at the helm, Phantasm II cranks up the gore and action, all while keeping that strange dreamlike tone intact. The flying spheres have evolved too, with one particularly nasty model that drills your skull, injects acid, and even has a spinny saw bit because why the hell not? It’s not as atmospheric or mysterious as the first film, but it’s way more fun than it has any right to be. Chainsaws, psychic links, ghost towns, killer balls — what more could you want? Well… maybe Mike’s original face, but we let that slide.
1. Phantasm
Boy! What even is this film? Phantasm is like a lucid dream you had at 2am after eating too much cheese, only it somehow got a theatrical release and ended up becoming a cult classic. Released in 1979, Don Coscarelli’s eerie low-budget masterpiece introduced the world to Mike, a curious teenage boy with a bad case of sibling FOMO who decides to follow his older brother around — including to graveyards and funeral homes. Standard big brother little brother bonding, really.
Things take a turn for the weird when Mike witnesses a very tall undertaker — known, creatively, as The Tall Man — lift a full-size coffin single-handedly like it’s a baguette and load it into a hearse. That’s your first sign this isn’t your average trip to the cemetery. Before long, Mike stumbles into a world of bizarre sci-fi horror madness, complete with flying silver spheres that drill your head open, shrunken reanimated Jawas in brown robes who bleed yellow, portals to another dimension in the back room, and a grave-digger who seems to be collecting souls like Pokémon cards.
Phantasm is slow, atmospheric, haunting, and confusing in the best possible way. It’s got one of the all-time great horror themes, a dreamlike tone that blurs reality and nightmare, and a villain in The Tall Man who says very little but leaves a massive impression — mostly by yelling “Boy!” in the creepiest voice imaginable. While future sequels veer off into action, weird mythology, and varying levels of coherence, the original stands as a surreal classic of 70s horror. Unique, unsettling, and unforgettable. And somehow, yes, it really works.
