The Wraith

He's not from around here.

The world of movies has always suffered from the rip-off illness, and today's entry wanted to be the cure for that pain, since the carsploitation genre became a gear heads-only interest it was a matter of time to see the genre decrease quality and fall into VHS video club obscurity...

The past entry was about, probably one of the most iconic carsploitation movies (along with Vanishing Point) However, the idea of an evil vehicle following you for no reason, as well as endless car chases for whatever reason, wore off very quickly. Nevertheless, Mike Marvin came up with a brand new idea to freshen up the genre and appeal to the 80's youth in revolt.

The Wraith is a 1986 action/science fiction film, directed and written by the above mentioned Mike Marvin. The film was later featured in an episode of Cinema Insomnia. The movie is dedicated to the memory of Bruce Ingram, a camera operator who died during the filming of one of the car chases.

Illegal racing, yeah!

Scary and cool at the same time.

Anyways, the film introduces us to Packard Walsh (Nick Cassavetes) who is the ruthless leader of a criminal gang that steals the cars of people they intimidate into racing. The entire town fears him, including his "girlfriend," Keri Johnson (Sherilyn Fenn), whom he sees as his own property. However, Keri actually despises Packard and stays with him out of fear so that he will not harm her. The town knows that Packard murdered James "Jamie" Hankins (Christopher Bradley), Keri's former boyfriend, since he was opposing him and also wanted Keri for himself, but the police cannot convict him of the murder due to the absence of Jamie's body, since Packard had him buried in the desert with his gang. Packard controls the town with his evil power.

As Packard organizes the races in the outskirts of the town, his tyrannical control of the races is suddenly at risk when a phantom-like black and grey Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor called "The Wraith" unexpectedly arrives in town. The driver of this car is covered from head to toe in a racing helmet and futuristic black body armor that conceals his identity. The armor is adorned with metal braces resembling those worn by victims recovering from severe physical trauma. He starts to appear at Packard's races, where he kills his gang members one by one...

 

A hi-tech avenging angel.

This super Dodge car really existed.

If someone asks if The Wraith is worth watching, I can not help but laugh when all you find on the internet is bad reviews about it. No one claimed it as a classic that would win awards or prizes for depth of storyline etc. What The Wraith  does have is earnest performances, fantastic FX, amazing score and very pretty photography that will make you believe you're actually in the 80's again. Besides, the theme this flick depicts may appeal to many different kinds of viewers, not just gear heads or cult fans. a young Charlie Sheen portrays the mysterious new guy in town who happens to have a crush on the wrong girl. Now what does this new kid on the block have to do with the mysterious black car that shows up here and there?

This movie is totally innovative, nothing like it before or since and there are a lot of techniques used in this movie that I haven't seen improved/enhanced since then. The bit where Jake's scrambler breaks into 4 meteorites still looks great, the tasteful re-animation of the Wraith mobile after crashes (nowadays that would probably be done using reverse photography).

Yes, laugh at the shadow of the camera (in the days before monitors) during the race scenes, at least they bothered to use real cars on real roads at high speed, unlike pathetic CGI cars (fast & the furious saga and the gone in 60 seconds  remake) with crap physics.

Bad dudes.

Bono is the bad guy.

The action scenes in Mad Max & Mad Max 2 are sped up and look ridiculous. (Watch the bit in Mad Max 2 just before he crashes his Interceptor...you'll see.)

The acting is pantomimish (baddies=very bad, goodies=very good) but that is the style of this movie. We know that these actors are capable of more in-depth characterizations, but this is a shallow b-movie. That's all it's supposed to be. Anyone who watches this movie and expects anything other than popcorn fodder is an absolute idiot. Moaning about technical problems and poor acting only makes you look like an idiot. And let's face it, even today's biggest blockbusters are chock full of mistakes and glitches.

You don't watch a Carry On movie and then say "Oh, that was quite unrealistic, and the acting is bad." That's the point. It's silly farce. You're not supposed to take it seriously!

Strangely enough, I'm surprised that this movie was not seized upon by the pompous comic book brigade! I guess, if it was a little more Gothic and The Wraith was brooding and had a troubled back story it would have been more accepted. I'm glad it didn't and wasn't.

If it was made now, it would have stinking CGI FX and too much back story.

Care for some fingering my pussy, unknown guy?

Yeah, bush was popular in the 80's.

All in all, The Wraith is a bubblegum movie. You don't like it, don't watch it. As a b-movie for it's time, it is a technically superior easy watch which still towers over many newer movies of the same genre.

And for people moaning about rubbish acting, check out Matthew Barry's performance when Billy Hankins realises Jake is his brother. It's an amazing, emotionally charged moment. I dare you to disagree and if you do you must be tripping.

Here's the movie trailer: