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Post by DustinM on Jul 23, 2016 1:13:14 GMT -5
Here's something I'm curious about. Who do you think wins in Phantasm? Does good ultimately triumph? Or is the Tall Man always destined to return at the end? I think this is mostly up to personal opinion. What say you?
I'm a sucker for good winning, so I'm going to vote Mike in the end.
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Post by playgames1970 on Jul 25, 2016 18:01:23 GMT -5
That's a simple question, and yet not so simple, as it gets back into the nature of who/what the Tall Man actually is, what is or isn't happening to Mike and Jody, etc.
My take on the way this series is written to date is that eventually the Tall Man prevails. Every one of the first three films ends on a jump scare of "You thought you beat him, but he is still right there, just as strong as ever!", and Oblivion pretty strongly shows Mike changing, perhaps into Tall Man 2.0, and ends on such a melancholy note of hopelessness.
Usually that hint about the villain coming back in horror films is more subtle...a light coming on inside the model of the Elm Street house...a bit of sound or movement from a grave...a laugh faintly in the distance...in this series the bad guy comes back pretty much instantly, annoyed but not weakened, and hope for Mike to have a happy ending to his story seems slim at best with the events and the ending of Oblivion.
Whether the Tall Man is the singular Jebediah Morningside, an endless supply of Jebediah look alikes that replace any damaged bodies, or a spirit that has possessed Jebediah and now is trying Mike on for size, I'd say the Tall Man wins in the end. It may take decades, but he wins.
That said, however, I HOPE that if/when Ravager ever gets released, it has a solid, definitive ending, whether it is Mike winning or the Tall Man winning (because, remember Dark Helmet...good is dumb!). I can live with a downer ending if that is the choice over a happy ending, but I just hope it isn't left open at the end, with some esoteric "what does that mean?" ending or just another simple, cheap jump scare. Particularly with Angus Scrimm being gone, I would like to see the last film be just that...the last film, with a cut and dried ending, happy or downer, and even though it took about forty years, we get a genuine conclusion.
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Post by DustinM on Jul 27, 2016 8:18:09 GMT -5
My take on the way this series is written to date is that eventually the Tall Man prevails. Every one of the first three films ends on a jump scare of "You thought you beat him, but he is still right there, just as strong as ever!", and Oblivion pretty strongly shows Mike changing, perhaps into Tall Man 2.0, and ends on such a melancholy note of hopelessness. I love how you phrased this because I think you're 100% right. To date, the series *is* written that the Tall Man wins. That may change with Ravager, but as of now, that's where the series was headed. I wouldn't mind if Ravager shook things up, but I also wouldn't mind if it stayed in this direction. I'm not stuck on any one particular ending.
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Post by krakenslayer on Jul 28, 2016 7:05:39 GMT -5
I think it's a perpetual, elemental conflict with no definite end, and certainly no obvious "win state" in sight for either side. I feel like this could be a conflict that has been going on in the shadows for centuries, or since the beginning of time, and will still be going on long after the current players are gone.
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