FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Entertainment

A FILM IN THE FACE OF GOD - THE WRAITH

So I've been promising the Vice blog dorks that I'd start doing a blog about films I like for a while, but I've just been waiting for inspiration. Having seen Charlie Sheen in the news again recently, and having finished watching the second season of Twin Peaks again (Sherilyn Fenn stars), I thought, "Why not begin with The Wraith?"

The Wraith (FYI: wraith is an invisible apparition of a living person to portend his or her death, aka a visible spirit) is a car which appears from out of nowhere to smash up a gang of highway car thieves in race-to-the-death duels. This story was apparently based on actual events in Arizona, where the movie is set, where a teenager killed four people in illegal street races in the early 80s.

Advertisement

Jack Kesey (Charlie Sheen) arrives in town on his dirt bike and starts chirpsing a local waitress, Keri Johnson (an unusually tanned Sherilyn Fenn). Naturally, she's dating the head of the gang, Packard Walsh (Nick Cassavetes).

Soon the Wraith starts killing bad dudes, racing against them before blowing its competitors off the atlas. When the burned-out wrecks are found, the bodies are recovered completely intact, minus the eyes. After one race, whilst police pursue the "Turbo Interceptor", as the gang dub the Dodge Turbo M4S, it vanishes into mist and stars or something. Spooky.

Where did the Wraith come from and why? Is it here to get revenge for the murder of Keri's ex-boyfriend?

The scenes featuring the car are genuinely eerie, as are its invincible driver, who wears a black leather suit with some weird kind of metal bracing on it. The race scenes are pretty intense and realistic, if a little predictable and samey as the movie goes on. Charlie Sheen is his usual wooden self, but at least he's always on a motorbike. But, it's Randy Quaid's small-town-cop-having-his-beliefs-turned-upside-down role which rules.

The car itself looks so much more futuristic and menacing than Back to the Future's DeLorean, which was the futro car at the time. It was built for the movie exclusively, and plans for mass production were scrapped due to high build costs. Reports of how many were actually made vary from six to 30 (a guy in Kansas has pretty much restored one, which can be seen here).

Advertisement

A DVD release of The Wraith is planned for March this year.

†ROCKWELL†