Review of The Wraith (1986) by Ben L — 08 Jun 2017

I?ll admit this is the first time I ever watched a movie solely because it was going to be covered on the podcast How Did This Get Made. As fits with their theme, The Wraith is a terrible movie. Now for those who enjoy a ?good-bad? movie this might actually have a lot of those qualities. The plot is stupid, most of the things that happen make no sense, and it?s not boring. There?s a lot of awful stuff going on in this film, and I probably could break it all down, but I?ll just hit some of the lowlights.

The cast has semi-famous names like Charlie Sheen, Randy Quaid, and Clint Howard. None of these guys is known for their acting skill. It?s actually amazing how little Sheen is in the movie, and when he?s there he seems bored or distracted, but apparently he had better things to do with his time. Clint Howard and Randy Quaid, on the other hand, both fully commit to their roles. The gang that make up the antagonists in this film is loaded with off the wall characters, which is good for a few laughs.

The big problem is that the story makes no sense at all. I won?t even try to break it down, but there are so many little details that are never explained and have no purpose for being in the film. I kept thinking ?did I miss something?? because so much of it felt like there could have been some type of backstory to set it up, but there simply wasn?t. I get the idea of movies like The Crow where a victim comes back from the dead to exact revenge, but why does he come back in this way?

Aside from laughing at the terribleness of the movie, the only joy I found was in the soundtrack. They must have spent a pretty penny on all the good music that is sprinkled throughout this film. It certainly had that vibe of a campy 80s teen movie. There are elements that feel like they would fit in any number of movies I loved in my early teen years, but the script and story is so dumb it never attained what those classics achieved. Definitely don?t watch The Wraith unless you?re gathering with some friends to laugh at it.