After
passing many times on purchasing The Wraith, in finally decided to buy
it with a bunch of other cool stuff in Ezy DVD's end of year clearance
sale for a whopping $4.92 and you know what? This is one of those
impulse purchases that paid off. I liked it. It's not a repeat viewing,
new favourite kind of movie, but I did like it and I give it points for
what it set out to achieve.
The movie starts out with some weird looking orbs racing through the
Arizona desert from four different directions, eventually meeting up in
an explosion of electricity. When the smoke clears we see a rather
unique looking Dodge M4S (it is in fact the only in existence),
referred to later in the movie as a Dodge Interceptor Turbo - and it's
ominous looking leather clad, helmeted driver. He looks mean, and we
know he means business.
we then cut to a young couple in a car who are stopped by a gang of
thugs, led by Packard Walsh. Packard's gig is to threaten anyone with
halfway decent car into racing him for pinks - and then cheating to
win. If this young man doesn't race his Dodge Daytona against Packards
'Vette, he threatens to do all sorts of horrible thing to his
girlfriend, who his thugs are holding captive. I believe that this
scene is in the movie to establish the fact that Packard and his boys
are a group of giant assholes.
Then, Jake Kesey (Charlie Sheen) rides into town and stops by to ask
Keri Johnson (Sherilyn Fenn) for directions. Thinking that Jake is
pretty cute, she jumps on the back of the bike to show him the way
herself, that is until Packard rocks up in his Corvette and demands
that Keri get in the car. Not wanting to cause trouble for Jake, Keri
does as Packard says, but Jake isn't bothered by Packard at all and
follows them to the swimming hole where he meets Billy Hankins, a local
boy whose brother Jamie had been murdered - most likely by Packard.
Billy warns Jake to stay away from Keri, as he believes that's what got
his brother killed. He notices strange scars all over Jake's body, but
says nothing.
Despite Packards insane possessiveness of Keri, Jake is not concerned
about him in the slightest and wastes no time in making a date with
her. Keri finds something familiar about Jake, but doesn't want to do
anything to invoke Packard's wrath.
Packard decides that for giving Keri a lift home (or attempting to),
Billy needs to be taught a lesson and is just about to force him into
racing for pinks when the mysterious Interceptor shows up. Feeling that
would be a better prize, Packard and his glorious band of thugs head
after the car, hoping for a race. One of Packard's goons, Oggie, offers
to take the race. The race is neck and neck for a while, until the
Interceptor speeds ahead. When Oggie turns the next corner he discovers
that the Interceptor is stationary and blocking the road. There's
nowhere for him to go except straight through it. After one heck of an
explosion, we learn that Oggie is dead.
Packard and the other guys don't seem too bothered by Oggie's death and
for some reason refuse to give Sheriff Loomis (Randy Quaid) any info at
all about the purple Interceptor. When Oggie's body is recovered the
Sheriff makes a grisly discovery. Despite being killed in an explosion,
Oggie's body is devoid of a single burn mark, and his eyes are nothing
more than blackened holes.
One by one the Wraith begins to pick off Packard's gang, while always
conveniently showing up to help Billy or Keri. As the movie progresses
the events of the night Billy's brother Jamie was killed become clear,
and the identity of the Wraith is eventually uncovered.
The Wraith definitely has the feeling of being a movie that they wanted
to be the next huge thing. This was to be St Elmo's fire for the heavy
metal listening, fast car loving teens of the 80's. I found the
soundtrack nothing short of astounding. From Ozzy to Motley Crue, to
Billy Idol - there was definitely some big money spent there, but sadly
with a budget of $2.7 million against an opening weekend gross of just
over $1.4 million, The Wraith had clearly failed to make the waves that
they hoped it would.
Despite having a lead role, there are massive chunks of this movie
where you don't see Charlie Sheen's character, which in turn made him
suffer slightly from underdevelopment. I think it was actually 45
minutes in when he had his second scene. Also, Gutterboy and Skank were
incredibly hilarious and I was quite upset when they were inevitably
killed.
The Wraith is definitely worth a watch, it's one of those cult classics
that's not quite a cult classic, but something you just gotta see in
your lifetime.
Skank: Do you smell a cop?
Gutterboy: I smell french fries, but that don't make no sense!
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Year: 1986
