Review: The Wraith
WARNING: Nostalgia for one of pre-teen Lucas' favorite movies may prevent him from saying anything bad about The Wraith, no matter how much it deserves it.
The Wraith was one of my go-to movies growing up. It probably hit HBO when I was eight or nine, and along with titles like The Gate and Monster Squad, helped prime my little developing brain for a lifetime of horror fandom. While I might have watched it, or at least portions of it, two dozen times, I haven't sat down with it in twenty years or more. Watching it now, it is still bathed in that glow of nostalgia, even as I rediscover the characters and the finer points of the plot. Can I objectively state it's the greatest feat of artistic expression achieved by the human species in their 300,000 years of existence? Not precisely, but I am going to have a hard time differentiating my experience as someone with a history with the movie from a more critical appraisal. I happen to think it is great for what it is, and I don't know how to give any opinion that isn't my own, so that's where we're at with it.
The movie centers on a gang of car thieves in Arizona. Their modus operandi is to coerce anyone with a nice car to race them for pink slips, then resort to underhanded tactics to win if they can't do it in a fair race. I'm not sure any of this would hold up in court, but it is a step closer to legal than straight up car-jacking, and so far sheriff Randy Quaid hasn't been able to make anything stick to them. One day, Charlie Sheen shows up on a dirt bike as the new kid in town, around the same time as a black-clad racer arrives to challenge the gang in his Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor that appears to be powered by lightning instead of internal combustion. There is a romance subplot tangled up with a revenge plot, and the film sort of operates as a reverse slasher, with the enigmatic wraith picking off the evil gang members one by one. I'm not a car guy, but the cavalcade of classic muscle cars certainly piqued my interest as a pre-teen and they are admittedly still a cool element of the movie's visual flair. In particular, the design of the titular wraith and his vehicle are super rad in a very eighties, Knight Rider meets Cobra Viper type of way. The special effects are solid, not exactly cutting edge even for the time, but I do think the overall visual presentation is one of The Wraith's biggest strengths. The reason why it stuck with me after all these years, however, is because of the characters.
Sheen, while underutilized, his love interest, and his friend are all enjoyable protagonists worthy of our rooting interests. Randy Quaid is 1986 Randy Quaid, i.e. awesome. The incredible core of this movie, however, is the cast of characters who make up the gang. Nick Cassavetes is excellent as Packard, the gang's leader. He perfectly embodies the insecure badass that surrounds himself with toadies he can boss around, but can't handle any real challenge to his dominance. Often, these types of leaders are presented as unerringly cruel to their subordinates, and I always wind up wondering what possible upside there is for these street soldiers to hang around and take the abuse. Cassavetes, on the other hand, is charismatic and confident most times, and there is care devoted to showing the comradery he has built with the individual members of his squad. He is ultimately self-serving and views the various members as disposable, but it isn't hard to see how he has cultivated and maintained their loyalty even as the supernatural shenanigans start to commence. Oggie and Minty provide some memorable cannon fodder, but aren't around long enough to really stand out. Rughead, played by the inimitable Clint Howard, is fantastic as the crew's nerdy scientist type. My favorites, though, are the duo of Skank and Gutterboy. In a display of B-movie character acting at its finest, the pair snivels and tweaks and carries out Packard's orders with gusto. Skank, sporting a mohawk and occasional Mad Max face paint, hilariously huffs or drinks various and sundry items found exclusively at an auto parts store (e.g. hydraulic fluid). Gutterboy, basically a human exposed nerve with the charming smile of a meth-addict, plays the role of lackey to the lackey. Together, the pair brighten every scene they are in, providing pitch-perfect comic relief.
If I'm being perfectly honest about The Wraith, I do think that the script could use some tightening up. The connection between Sheen, the Wraith, and the the other protagonists is pretty obvious from the start, yet plays as an awkward mystery until the very end. The flashbacks to the story's inciting incident are also a little clunky and unclear. At the end of the day, though, this is a horror-adjacent revenge fantasy about a mysterious ghost racer with a cool machine gun and a sick, magic hot rod. I'm willing to set aside any minor script quibbles for the rule of cool, and most every other element - from the characters, to the cars, to the soundtrack - back that play. Maybe I love The Wraith as much as I do because of how much I loved it during my formative years, in fact that is most likely a certainty, but I think I would love it regardless. If you haven't watched it before, do yourself a favor and take it out for a spin.
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