The Wraith is a 1986 film directed by Mike Marvin and starring Charlie Sheen, Nick Cassavetes, Sherilyn Fenn, Randy Quaid and Clint Howard.
The stranger is Jake Kesey, who bears an uncanny resemblance to murdered teen Jamie Hankins (who mysteriously disappeared one night while getting his gear off with Keri (Fenn)). It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the stranger is the Wraith, a spirit back from the netherworld to wreak vengeance on Packard and his gang for murdering him and subjecting Keri to Packard’s unwanted and psychotically creepy advances (Packard’s idea of a romantic gesture is slicing open his palm with a pocketknife and pronouncing he and Keri ‘blood lovers’ – I guess he tried flowers once and it didn’t end well).
Packard and his ‘gang’ (I use the term loosely – explanation below) control the small Arizona backwater. This is sort of implied rather than obvious – it’s not really clear why he and his boys are so threatening, other than it being necessary for the plot. Whatever.
Anyway, I guess gang members in small desert towns are in short supply, because Packard’s ‘road pirates’ are a fairly lacklustre bunch. First into the meat grinder is Oggie, who seems to think mid-riff tops, black fingerless gloves and kimonos constitute a tough guy wardrobe. For such a camp villain he has a fairly nice car though – a 1986 Daytona Turbo Z.
Speaking of Oggie’s car, for a gang of drag racers their rides leave a bit to be desired. From Minty’s Trans Am with an entirely decorative supercharger (watch the air intakes as he revs the engine – they don’t move), to Packard’s ‘style-over-substance’ Corvette (the speedometer only goes up to 70MPH). Then there’s the fact that they all seem to think shifting gears in cars with automatic transmissions somehow makes them go faster. I’m surprised they ever had, as Rughead (Clint Howard) says: ‘the edge’ over any other street racers. Although having said that, the first drag race we see pits Packard’s Corvette against a stock 1987 Daytona, so maybe the competition doesn’t exactly warrant forking out hard-earned cash for twin-turbos.
All that is topped by the fact we find out that Packard likes his burgers with ‘mayo and thousand island dressing’. Packard should be a lot more concerned than he seems to be about the risk of being sent to prison – with a lunch order like that, there’d be guys lining up to shank him.
The comic relief is provided by the Skank/Gutterboy duo, one a glue-sniffing punk, the other a jumpy moron. I mention them only because Gutterboy delivers what has to be the greatest offhand remark in the history of movies. If you’ve seen the film you know the comment I mean. If you haven’t, there’s no way I’m going to spoil it here.
On the case is Randy Quaid as the Sheriff, Loomis. He gets to deliver some great insults and all his deputies seemed to be named “Murphy”. I’m still not sure which one is actually Murphy because Loomis calls one guy Murphy early in the film, then during a chase one of the deputies pursuing the Wraith car is referred to as Murphy, then in that same scene you see the first Murphy leaning over a car with a shotgun (yes, I’ve seen this movie way too many times).
The film’s cult status was unknown to me until I purchased the special edition DVD to replace the cheapie I had. In a lot of ways the film’s making-of and history is more interesting than the film itself. The Wraith was almost single-handedly responsible for a complete overhaul of the way films like this were made, due to the extremely unfortunate death of Assistant Cameraman Bruce Ingram when a camera truck rolled off one of the winding Arizona mountain roads the car chases were filmed on. It’s also the reason director Mike Marvin, who does an adequate job, was pretty much never heard of again. Having a crew member die on one of your shoots doesn’t look good on a resume. The methods used here, while making the car race scenes actually quite thrilling, were an accident waiting to happen.
What also cemented the film’s cult status was the infamous Dodge/Chrysler M4S Turbo featured as ‘the Wraith car’ the film revolves around. It’s lovingly filmed – and with good reason – it’s a fabulous-looking vehicle. And a technical wonder too, sporting a 4-cylinder supercharged engine that could apparently do 0-100kph in 4.1 seconds. That was equal to the acceleration of a Lamborghini of the same era.
Watching the film now, the limited budget is on fine display. Limited money for extras means the entire town seems to be populated by cops and teenagers. Even when a car rolls in spectacular fashion on a main street, no one seems to poke their heads out of any windows to take a look. It’s clear, and pretty understandable, that the bulk of the film’s finance went toward the cars they race and smash up at every opportunity. This is the days before CGI and digital enhancement, so the car stunts were filmed at fairly high speeds and the explosive conclusion to the first one still makes me raise my eyebrows in appreciation every time.
My favourite stunt though is not one of the main ones. It’s the small moment with the roadblock, just after the Wraith car has done away with Minty (fake supercharger guy) and the sheriff’s deputies think they’ve got the black turbo cornered. The whole sequence is done really well, but I love the bit where the Wraith car simply smashes through the roadblock and skids to a stop for a moment, before accelerating away. I like that after he’s just obliterated two police cars he’s not in any great hurry to get away.
Another thing to touch on, obviously, is the soundtrack. I say ‘obviously’ because the soundtrack features so prominently in the film that even the DVD cover lists the songs (by 80’s stalwarts like Motley Crue and Robert Palmer) as one of the film’s chief selling points. As you can imagine, besides the one requisite love song, the rest are pumpin’ 80’s rock ballads. As a child of that decade a lot of the tracks were familiar to me even when revisiting the film as an adult. I was pleasantly taken back, to the strains of Ozzie Osbourne, to a time when music was more about the hair, and there’s something to be said for the unapologetically egotistical lyrics of a lot of 80’s rock. This was the era before Kurt and Eddie ushered rock into its ‘brooding teenager’ phase. To accompany the tunes, there’s actually a score hiding in there that is not half bad. Blink and you’ll miss it though.
Anyway, I realise I’ve gotten to the tail end of this thing and haven’t even mentioned the main actor. That’s because he actually has very little screen time. The Wraith features prominently. Charlie Sheen does not. Depending on your tastes that’s either a selling point, or a deal breaker. Sheen pretty much sleepwalks through his few scenes anyway and, bizarrely, during the scene where he gets it on with Sherilyn Fenn, I swear it’s a body double standing in for Sheen (look at the hair – it’s a lighter shade, and a completely different cut).
I’ll end with my favourite character in the film – burger boy Billy Hankins, the brother of Keri’s murdered boyfriend Jamie. For starters, he’s the only person in the entire town who has the balls to stand up to Packard and his gang (even though he gets his ass kicked for doing so, he doesn’t have a badge to hide behind like Loomis, so he gets my respect). And given the town’s other citizens, he’s a pretty decent contender for bachelor of the year in this burg. He also has a remarkably poignant moment at the end of the film when he realises the Wraith is actually his brother.
There are loads of better ways to spend 90 minutes but if you’re a fan of car films (or for some bizarre reason you are interested in Charlie Sheen’s back catalogue) the Wraith is well worth a look.
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