Review of The Wraith (1986) by Martin D — 18 Dec 2011

Awesome movie, a classic..

He came back from the dead,to take his revege... The film is set in some desert area of Arizona, where Packard Walsh (Nick Cassavetes) and his gang regularly flaunt the law and generally make life unpleasant for the rest of the populace. One day, a young man going by the name of Jake (Charlie Sheen) arrives in town and begins networking with locals who are sick to death of Packard and his hangers-on. It seems that a while ago, Packard and his gang murdered a young man named Jamie Henkins, and now his brother, Billy (Matthew Barry) would give anything to settle the score. Meanwhile, Keri (Sherilyn Fenn) is just sick of Packard treating her like his personal property, and wouldn't feel any loss if the man turned up dead. Nor, for that matter, would the local sheriff, who goes by the name of Loomis (Randy Quaid), but unfortunately his hands are tied by procedure and regulations. I certainly didn't miss Packard after he was gone, but it seems the makers of the film missed the chance to do something visually exciting with any of the death sequences.

Naturally, this all changes when, coinciding with Jake's arrival, a wraith figure in the aforementioned supernatural car begins showing up and challenging Packard's gang members to races. The rules of the races as set by Packard himself are pretty simple: the first one to make it to a certain landmark that I cannot remember the name of wins the pink slip to their opponent's car. Of course, such a race against a car that really comes from beyond is not a remarkably good idea, but nobody accused Packard or his gang members of being particularly bright. So when Packard's cronies are suddenly turning up dead, still recognisable in spite of crashing and burning in what would be thousand-degree fires, both Packard and Loomis are determined to find out who the owner of this sleek machine is, and why they have it in for Packard.