History Film / Phantasm

* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: [[spoiler:Liz]] is show dying from a car crash after the film starts proper with the Tall Man [[spoiler:carrying her head]] not too long after.

* MirrorScare: [[spoiler:The film ends with a Mike closing a closet door with a mirror on it, revealing that The Tall Man is in his room. He is then grabbed by the lurkers through the the mirror]].

* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler:The film ends with Tim being taken taken and killed by one of The Tall Man's lurkers, if his absence in the next film is anything to go by.]]

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:The film at least teases this, with Mike suddenly waking up and being told by a still-living Reggie that it was all a dream, but the Tall Man is real and still after him]].

-->'''Reggie:''' ''(to Tim)'' Run kid, get out of here! It's over!
-->[[spoiler: '''The Tall Man:''' It's never over.]]

-->'''The Tall Man:''' Cut me down!
-->'''Michael:''' No!
-->'''The Tall Man:''' I won't hurt you.
-->'''Michael:''' You're killing the world!
-->'''The Tall Man:''' I'll go away... and I won't ever come back. [gives mischievous grin]
-->'''Michael:''' You will?
-->'''The Tall Man:''' Yes.

-->'''Reggie:''' We better move away from the car before the gasoline blows.
-->'''Jennifer:''' Wait! I thought cars only blew up like that in the movies!
-->[Car explodes in a huge fireball]
-->'''Reggie:''' Yeah, me too.

-->'''Mike''': ''*as Jebediah Morningside steps through the prototype dimensional gate*'' When's he coming back?
-->'''[[SpiritAdvisor Jody]]''': Jebediah Morningside never does come back.
-->''*The Tall Man steps back through the gate, [[CompanionCube Sentinel]] in hand.*''

* BaldOfAwesome: Reggie is either awesome in spite of being bald, ugly and middle aged, or doubly awesome because of it.

* BigBad: The Tall Man.

* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler:Reggie's unseen family gets blown up so that he'll be motivated to go after The Tall Man together with Mike]].

** The sentinel spheres are a reference to the hunter-seeker assassination weapons in Dune, and even suffer from the poor field of vision that the weapons in Dune are stated to struggle with. Another point of similarity is that Dune's hunter-seekers are supposed to operate by burrowing into a victim's body to destroy vital organs (though hunter-seekers are small enough to completely enter the victim's body when they do so).

* NumberedSequels: Played with with the subtitle, which has the "v" in ''Ravager'' highlighted.

* NumberedSequels: Played with with the subtitle, which has the "iv" part in ''Oblivion'' highlighted.

* EliteMook: The Gold Spheres initially seem like these. Subverted when they turn out to be more important than mooks, [[spoiler:seeing as how The Tall Man and later, Mike, are gold spheres]].

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Mike clearly mouths the words "What the fuck?" after seeing the Tall Man easily lift a heavy casket, although only the soundtrack is heard. Since the movie is already rated R, this was apparently a stylistic decision.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phantasmseries.png]]

* AllJustADream: Mike actually tries to summon this Trope to keep Liz calm.... [[ "No, it's not!"]]

* DenserAndWackier: There's a greater element of comedy in this sequel, in the vein of ''Film/EvilDead2DeadByDawn''.

* AllJustADream: Mike actually tries to summon this Trope to keep Liz calm.... [[OrWasItADream "No, it's not!"]]

-->'''[[spoiler: [[NotQuiteDead The Tall Man]]:''' No, it's not!]]

* NumberedSequels

* FireBreathingWeapon: Mike creates a makeshift flamethrower by putting three bottles of together.

* OneWordTitle

* RuleOfCool: The series is based entirely around it. In fact, a major strike against the sequels for many fans is that they attempt to make sense of the Tall Man and his world, which some see as an exercise in futility.

* SequelEscalation: Particularly with the iconic spheres. The first film featured a single silver one. The second film had more, and introduced the golden spheres with more advanced abilities. By the fourth film you have entire swarms of the things flying around, and the trailer for the fifth shows a giant sphere the size of a house.

* InvincibleVillain: The Tall Man who simply can't be stopped. Destroy him completely and another identical one will step out of the portal and finish where he left off.

* DefiantToTheEnd: Reggie expresses his wish to go out this way "On my own two feet, shoving four barrels and hell down their fucking throats.