The Wraith — The Wraith(Blu Ray)
The Wraith was a supernatural/ sci-fi fantasy spin on the popular 80’s teen action/drama cycle. It finds an all-black biker suit-wearing and sleek racing car figure descending from the skies, to carry out vengeance on a car-stealing gang in a small-town Arizona. It’s an entertaining and decidedly cheesy stew of fast car duelling, campy teen romancing, and exploding car ‘n’ eye stealing revenging. Here from Uk’s Lionsgate, as part of their Vestron Collection Series, is a new extras stacked Blu Ray release of the film.
The Wraith (aka Turbo Interceptor, Phantom) appeared mid-decade in the year 1986, and it’s fair to say it’s so 80’s it hurts, with so many of the decades' genre tropes. We have corny one-liners, a nasty-if-over doing it villain, a selection of silly and camp characters, car chases and explosions by the dozen, and pacy popcorn flow- with the whole thing topped off with a soundtrack that takes in classic 80’s rock metal and pulsing synth scoring.
The film was written and directed by Tahoe City Californian born Mike Marvin. In all he has seven feature-length credits his name, these went from goofball sex comedy of Hamburger: The Motion Picture (1986), genie comedy fantasy Wishman (1992), brainy-yet-bloody martial arts film The Dragon Gate (1994), erotic drama Arranged Marriage (1996), limp softcore romantic drama Madam Savant (1997), and cheap ‘n’ cheesy action fare Sunstorm (2001). With The Wraith he offers up a well made low budget fare, with some neat enough effects, a good and even pace, and a likeable and entertaining cast.
The film opens in the night-time desert- as we see zooming and darting UFOs meeting to form a sleek, black, revering car that’s manned by a mysterious tight black motorbike suited figure. Next off with us meeting Packard Walsh(Nick Cassavates) and his gang of teen car stealers. They stop a couple on a late-night desert road, forcing the girlfriend out of the car into hands of chuckling and leer low-grade punks- forcing the boyfriend to race Packard, with the loser losing his car. Of course, Packard plays dirty, pushing the other car off the road, and gaining the car.
As we get into the film we meet two other key characters- riding a trial bike Jake( Charlie Sheen) who's just turned up in town, and plucky ‘n’ flirtatious burger bar waitress Keri( Twin Peakes Sherilyn Fenn). She is just about to jump on the back of Jakes bike, but suddenly unpleasant gang leader Packard turns up, and it’s clear he’s an over-possessive boyfriend- who Keri is scared of. As the film unfolds Jake and Keri secret romance grows, as Packard and his cronies try to stop it. Also we of course have our motorbike suit-wearing and fast sci-fi car driving figure, who is rapidly taking out Packard’s gang in a series of fast car races- which end with huge fireball explosions and the bodies of drivers having their eyes sucked out.
The Wraith is a highly entertaining, but very cheese blend of teen drama, romance, action, and light sci-fi/ horror tropes. Sheen is likeable as the new guy in town, Fenn works well as the fearful-to-flirty love interest, and Cassavates is great as the hamming it up bad guy. Also worth a mention is Clint Howard as Rughead, the gangs brainy and bouffant wigged mechanic, and Randy Quaid as the quirky no-nonsense town Sheriff. The soundtrack features a good and memorable selection of 80’s rock/ metal taking in the likes of Billy Idol, Ozzy Osborne, Bonnie Tyler, Robert Palmer, and Mötley Crüe. As well as an effective pulsing synth score from Michael Hoenig( Class Of 1999, The Gate).
Moving onto the extras on this region B disc, and we get a good/ nice selection of extras. We get two commentary tracks- the first is from writer/ director Mike Marvin. He starts off by commenting on the opening effects sequence, and how it was all created by animation/ old school effects. He moves on to talk about the cast- commenting this was the first lead roles for Sheen, Cassavates, and Fenn. He talks about the films locations, which were in and around the Tucson arrear, relating stories about certain shooting days. He mentions/ comments on bit-part actors, and general talks about memories from making the film. This track is ok, with some interesting facts/ stories, though it’s a little sporadic. The next track is actors Dave Sherrill and Jamie Bozian- who played the bumbling and wasted gang punks Skank and Gutterboy. This was a lot more flowing and consistent track, as the pair discuss their friendship since meeting on the film, how their characters developed, and on set stories- so of the two this is the more listenable of the two tracks.
Next, we get a good selection of featurettes- Tales From The Desert, a sixteen minutes interview with the film's writer and director. Rughead Speaks- a twelve-minute interview with actor clint Howard. Ride of the Future – interviews with both stunt and transport coordinators on the film discussing the Wraith’s car, this runs just shy of the twelve-minute mark. We have The Ghost Car- a nearing twelve-minute selection of interviews regarding the film's effects. Lastly, we a twenty-seven-minute look at the film's locations today. There’s isolated Score Selections featuring an audio interview with co-composer J. Peter Robinson, Theatrical Trailer, TV Spots, Alternate Title Sequence, and Still Gallery.
It's great to see The Wraith getting is a classy and definitive reissue, because I fondly recall renting it back in the ’80s on VHS. And I must say the film stands the test of time, still been an entertaining blend of teen, action, and sci-fi/ horror tropes. So another very worthwhile addition to the Vestron Collection’s Series.