MovieChat Forums > Phantasm: Ravager (2016) Discussion > CGI blood over practical effects

CGI blood over practical effects


I know this film was made on a very cheap budget, but come on. You mean to tell me that they couldn't afford using the very same techniques done in the first movie of homemade ingredients you could get from the store for 5 bucks. I notice that for one scene of the ball killing Dawn it was practical blood effects, but the rest wasn't. What the hell kind of schizophrenic directing is this? Even using ketchup packets could have sufficed better than the CG.

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That movie cost $100,000-$150,000 more than Ravager, so no. They couldn't afford it.

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Again, a quick trip to your local grocery store could have gotten you the ingredients.

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Again, you're comparing this film film to the original which had a hundred thousand dollars more than the first film. There is a lot more going on in this film than the original, so some sacrifice had to be made. Stop judging a b-movie on its poor cgi. That is a non-arguement. Get over it.

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Homemade blood ingredients is just as cheap now as it was then.
Also, the CGI is just one of many things wrong about this movie. The blood tho would have been the easiest and cost effective to fix.

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The majority of Ravager used fake blood over CGI. They only added cgi on top of the real stuff. Watch it again. Both Daniel's and Dawn had real blood, so which death didn't? You mean the suicide sphere? One explosion and you had to create this thread? jesus. stop nit-picking.

When it comes down to buying fake blood or spending more time detailing the red planet, it's no guessing game which is more important.

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The suicide sphere, the dwarves, the gravers, the car jacker, the lady in lavender. Quite a lot of scenes if you go back and rewatch. It's not nit-picking, its critiquing sloppy workmanship. The biggest sin you can do in a horror movie is to CG the blood. Shameful.

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Did you ever think that buying blood isn't the issue, but buying a rig to make them explode and the time it takes set up the fx is?

Just watched it again and it didn't help your case any. Now I can confirm nit-picking.

First of all, the carjacker isn't CGI, it's fake blood.

Secondly, when Reggie kills the dwarves in the cave there is hardly any blood at all, it looks more like dust or burn off from the gun.

Third, The Lady In Lavender... Are you serious? The millisecond they show of yellow fluid? They were shooting her in the face! That is a difficult effect to pull off in-camera. Then, they show her on the floor with blood and yellow fluid. Both real.

There is CGI blood on the sphere with Dawn, if you want a legit complaint, but I really don't think it's that bad, all things considered.

As for some gravers and dwarves later on, yes, there is some CGI to enhance the practical effects. That is the norm. What isn't normal is this films budget compared to others. This is a B-MOVIE. Let's not forget that when we judge the quality of the film. Hammering poor effects and camera work into the ground on a B-Movie is redundant.

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The carjacker looked like a combination of the two.

They could have made some fake blood. I see broke Youtubers do this all the time.

Digging to the rhythm and the echo of a solitary siren.

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They did. The first 3 deaths all had fake blood and that's almost an hour of the movie. It's closer to the end where cgi was added.

If the car jacker is a mix of the two, it totally fooled me. It was more so the yellow fluid that was added in post-production, I noticed.

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Rigging liquid to spray out of a hole isn't an expensive feat to do. Part of the humor of the previous movies was how gratuitous it was by going so over the top with the blood and yellow liquid. Could have had a funny scene of the Lady in Lavender falling on Reggie and a bunch of yellow pour on his face and mouth, like in previous films.

Having the dwarves and gravers fly back with some half assed painted CGI blood over them is the most lazy attempt one can call "enhancing". You want to use the B movie card as an excuse for crappy film making, go look at the Troma films. They knew people came to see gore and things go pop, and that's what they delivered. And those were often made on the same nickel and dime budget that Asylum films are made on.

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Go look at Troma films. They knew people came to see gore and things go pop, and that's what they delivered.


I don't think Phantasm is the right franchise for you. The fans of this series never came to see "gore and things go pop" because those are after thoughts to this series. This isn't SAW. The story has always taken precedent.

Part of the humor of the previous movies was how gratuitous it was by going so over the top with the blood and yellow liquid.


There is only one gratuitous death scene and that is Daniel Roebuck from Ravager. It's the bloodiest death in the entire series. Also, Ravager has the most blood out of all the films. 3 sphere deaths!

Could have had a funny scene of the Lady in Lavender falling on Reggie and a bunch of yellow pour on his face and mouth, like in previous films.


How many times do we need to see this gag? That was a prank that Don liked to pull on Reggie. Don did not direct this film. David did.

Having the dwarves and gravers fly back with some half assed painted CGI blood over them is the most lazy attempt one can call "enhancing".


The director/editor/writer/cinematographer/visual effects artist is LAZY? GTFO.

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Lol ok...did you just compare Troma Films to Saw? Huge difference there, my friend. I think you failed to see my point when talking about making inexpensive practical effects. The spheres were boring in this film, and didn't bring anything new. Each kill with them was just people getting brained. Part 2 and 3 introduced them doing new things such as having brains, lasers, eyeballs and rotating blades. Probably one of the best moments of 2 was the gold ball. The red ball in this one simply self destructing was rather tame, and made the regular silver ones look far more dangerous. If it was up to me, I'd have done less ball killing and done more with the gigantic spheres.
Just what the hell was up with those? We should have had a scene of Reggie taking down one of those big suckers. I don't know how, but it would had been great to see. Maybe bring back the tuning fork idea in part 4.
The gag with the liquid may have been Don's thing, but it was also part of Reggie's humor. His clumsy nature getting a gross out moment with some monster bleeding all over him. Humor was certainly something this movie could have used more of, and don't tell me their wasn't any in the first.
Also yes, the director/editor/writer/cinematographer/visual effects artist is lazy. Having all the time in the world to work on this with no set release date, and having weekends to plan and work on them gives no excuse to not have each scene polished to perfection.

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did you just compare Troma Films to Saw?


No. I was just making an example based on what you said the audience wants, "gore and things that goe pop." I think people go to other films with the intention of seeing those things. That's all.

The spheres were boring in this film, and didn't bring anything new.


I agree that the sphere's chould have done more, but now we're getting off the topic of fake blood.

There's a number of reasons they couldn't make an awesome sphere. The fact that they didn't have the 5 million dollars split between Phantasm 2 & 3 being the biggest reason.

The only new sphere we got in Oblivion is the one Mike built and it didn't do much. I don't think the Red Sphere was that bad, at least it was something new. Maybe it should have heated up instead and melted the victim.

I'd have done less ball killing and done more with the gigantic spheres.
Just what the hell was up with those? We should have had a scene of Reggie taking down one of those big suckers.


I liked the Gigantic sphere's more than I thought I would. I dig the call backs to Phantasm 2 with the red lazers. They actually didn't look bad and again, a new sphere! But is it really new? There's been a giant sphere on the poster of part 1 since 1979...
http://www.impawards.com/1979/posters/phantasm.jpg

Now we finally get to see it in action! ....And Reggie talking to one of them sphere's would have made a good scene, you're right.

The gag with the liquid may have been Don's thing, but it was also part of Reggie's humor ... Humor was certainly something this movie could have used more of, and don't tell me their wasn't any in the first.


There is humor in all of them and, sh!t, if they had that gag in the film I wouldn't have complained. Everything was a call back in this film, so it is kind of disappointing that it doesn't happen. At the same time, I think they went for a more somber approach. maybe not intentionally but organically. The film is dealing with death and dementia all the while Angus Scrimm had really fallen ill, the entire cast has aged nearly 40 years since the original, and they all probably new this was going to be their phinal hurrah... They tried to be humorous with the little person, but I think the ending benefits more without comedy. If you are really buying into the dementia aspect of the film, it's a very sad ending.

Also yes, the director/editor/writer/cinematographer/visual effects artist is lazy. Having all the time in the world to work on this with no set release date, and having weekends to plan and work on them gives no excuse to not have each scene polished to perfection.


He's really not lazy, man, c'mon. He was in the hospital for months. This is a project that he didn't get paid for. He has a wife and a daughter. He has to take care of them too. He makes cartoons for a living. If you do any kind of editing like I do, it can take months. The visual effects probably took twice as long because he knew how critical we would be. I think people are imagining a room full of experts working on the CGI, but really it's mostly David Hartman, if not all David Hartman. He's very talented. There's nothing lazy about a him. I'm sure he's got more to show for himself than anyone on this message board including me.

You have to understand that every director looks back at the things they want to fix. You've seen the movie, you know the film making progressed exponentially as the film went on. It was clear that David was learning the craft. I really don't think they had time or money to go back and re-shoot scenes to perfection. You have to consider no one is really getting paid. They actually did plan on releasing the film a year ago, but Don halted the release to coincide with the remastered Phantasm 1.

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"I don't think Phantasm is the right franchise for you."

Oh, *beep* yourself. You're the one whining in favor of *beep* CGI over the conventional effects of the rest of the series.

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On the contrary, I'm merely correcting the fools who claim this film is 90% CGI, when it's clearly not. If you don't like being proven wrong, don't open your mouth.

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Jesus *beep* Christ shutbthe *beep* up you braindead *beep* fanboy crybaby.

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"Brain dead," says the guy who can't construct a simple sentence.

Go back to grade school, kid.

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"Stop judging a b-movie on its poor cgi. That is a non-arguement. Get over it. "

You're an idiot. CGI costs far more than fake blood, and criticism of godawful CGI is perfectly apropos.

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CGI costs far more than fake blood


That could be the case if the director wasn't also the CGI artist. They didn't have to outsource as much as most films, saving them a lot of $$$.

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Yeah, I don't get that

Fake blood is like 3 ingredients at most. We made a gallon for under 6 or 7 bucks.

They could have spent $10 here or there on fake blood. Even YouTubers with 0$ make the stuff.

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If you use CGI in a movie like this...just dont make the film.

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Agree. Work within your means. Can't afford something? Write around it. Many movies suffer today because filmmakers think they can do anything they want with CG effects. CG blood is especially inexcusable. The only argument for CG blood is, "it's easier." It is lazy filmmaking.

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what's funny is that on the blu ray commentary don makes it seem like there was an equal mix of cgi and practical effects. the behind the scenes shots show them using buckets of fake blood but that was for stuff that was on the floor or on walls. the same thing with the spheres. all the spheres were cgi except the ones being held or on the ground rolling around.

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it seemed like the ridiculous SF ending could have been simply rewritten and toned way down. we didn't need to see giant spheres looming everywhere and a CGI run-through of a destroyed city (bad video game look to it).

at this point in the franchise (the end), this film was strictly for fans, and as a fan, I felt I didn't need to be wooed by silly CGI giant spheres looming over an utterly craptacular cityscape. I didn't need to see half the stuff in this film. I was hoping for dialog, story, and characters. too many characters onscreen that didn't need to be there, etc. focus on the main four characters, use very little CGI, etc. why not???

why not take the budget, hand it off to a bunch of younger people and tell them to make an honest-to-god low budget horror film like the original? I'd bet money that it could be done. instead, we got this...

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