Charlie Sheen’s career was on fire in 1986. He was in six movies. One was a short, one was a cameo, and one was
his memorable small role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. He played an important role in Lucas. Then he followed in his father’s footsteps
and took on the lead role in a Vietnam War epic, Platoon. Finally, there was the supernatural revenge
story, The Wraith.
Packard Walsh (Nick Cassavetes) was a gang leader in a small
desert town. He and his cronies would
force people into races on the roads outside town. If the victims lost, Packard would get the
claim to their cars. A mysterious being
with a souped-up car appeared and began picking off Packard’s gang by racing
them until they crashed and exploded. At
the same time, Packard was trying to control Keri Johnson (Sherilyn Fenn) into
a relationship, but she had met Jake Kesey (Charlie Sheen), who treated her
much better. She hated Packard and never
wanted to be in a relationship with him, so it was easy for her to choose Jake.
Let’s break down the movie by starting with Packard. Packard was the leader of a gang of street
racers. He ran a chop shop out of a big
mechanic’s garage. The gang would find
people with cars that they wanted. They
would force people into races where the cars were on the line, win the races,
and take the cars home. Then they would
break the cars down for parts, sell them, and make some quick cash. At the start of the movie, this was
introduced with Packard racing a guy. He
was losing the race and forced the other driver off the road to win. It was cheating, but it got him the car he
wanted.
The lead mechanic for Packard was Rughead, played by Clint
Howard. He didn’t race any cars and was
the only member of the gang to survive the movie. At one point, he was building a souped-up engine
that would make Packard’s car faster.
The new engine would keep Packard from ever having to attempt murder in
order to win a car again. The other
people with Packard’s gang were the jock-looking Minty (Chris Nash), the
homophobic Oggie Fisher (Griffin O’Neal), the punk Skank (David Sherrill), and
the dim-witted Gutterboy (Jamie Bozian).
The gang got picked off one-by-one through the movie by a
mysterious driver. Oggie challenged him
to a race first because the gang saw the mystery man’s car and wanted it. He died in a fiery crash and fall down a
cliff. Minty later challenged the same
driver to a race and ended up in a major, explosive collision. Skank and Gutterboy were in the garage when a
giant explosion blew it sky high. That
was the most impressive part of the movie.
Then Packard, himself, died in a final collision.
Packard didn’t leave much behind. His garage was gone. His car was totalled. He was dead.
All that was left was Keri, who he treated like property. He saw her and wanted her to himself, even
though she didn’t love him. When he saw
her sleeping with a guy named Jamie Hankins (Christopher Bradley), he and his
gang, sans Rughead, killed Jamie.
Packard was extremely jealous of anyone who even looked at Keri. He would force her into his car whenever she
was talking to another guy, then he would threaten that other guy. By the end of the movie, he had kidnapped her
and was driving her away from anyone she knew.
She finally stood up to him in that moment and said she would never love
him. He pulled a knife, and she was
saved by his rage for the man in black with the car. He raced to his death because of that rage.
As I already said, Keri wasn’t much of a character. She was more a piece of property to be owned. Packard controlled her and was jealous of other
guys who looked at her. She loved Jamie
and made love to Jamie. He was killed
for it. When Jake showed up, she fell in
love with him. The main conflict between
Packard and Jamie was that they were both after the same girl. When she attempted to get away from Packard
by leaving work early with Jamie’s brother Billy (Matthew Barry), Packard
forced her out of Billy’s car and into his, then threatened Billy. Her only roles in the movie were to be with a
man or to look good. That was it.
Then there was Jake.
He was new to town but seemed familiar to everyone he met. When he arrived, he was riding a dirt
bike. He asked Keri for directions,
which she was happy to give him. Then he
befriended Billy, who filled him in on the relationship between Packard and
Keri. Jake would come in and out of the
movie, showing up to make Packard jealous and talk to Keri, then
disappearing. While everyone was at the
swimming hole, Jake was shown to have scars on his back. It was revealed that he was a reincarnated
Jamie, and he was getting revenge on Packard’s gang for stabbing him to death. The scars were from the stab wounds.
That might not clear up the story at all, so let me try one
last time before wrapping things up. Packard
wasn’t in love with Keri. He was trying
to make her his girl, in a property sort of way. When Packard found Keri sleeping with Jamie,
he and his gang killed Jamie. Now, Jake
had come to town. He was a reincarnated
Jamie. He connected with Keri and Billy,
making Packard suspicious. He then
dressed in black and drove a souped-up car to race Packard’s gang to the
death. He wanted revenge for his murder.
The one thing I forgot to mention was that, the whole time
the deaths were happening, there was a sheriff trying to figure out what was
going on. Sheriff Loomis (Randy Quaid) showed
up to every death scene and investigated.
He tried to question Packard’s gang, but got nothing out of them. For the most part. When Rughead witnessed the explosive death of
Skank and Gutterboy, he confessed everything to Sheriff Loomis. In the end, Sheriff Loomis couldn’t do
anything because Jake was supernatural and wasn’t going to stop until the
revenge was complete.
The Wraith wasn’t a good movie. The driving scenes were okay but lacked the
immediacy that they needed. The acting
was underwhelming. The only thing that was
really any good at all was the explosion at the garage. The rest of the movie was kind of
forgettable. That probably comes down to
a fundamental writing problem. Packard’s
gang were the only characters who felt like fully realized characters. The characters that the audience should have
been rooting for (Jake, Keri, and Billy) felt like afterthoughts, meant to push
things forward to a happy conclusion, but not having the depth to be
captivating.
The cast of The Wraith is interesting. Nick Cassavetes was starting off his career
but directing wouldn’t happen for another ten years. He would end up having a decent directing
career. Sherilyn Fenn was four years
away from starring in Twin Peaks.
Clint Howard was trying to find his place in movies that weren’t made by
his brother. Randy Quaid was coming off
his single season of Saturday Night Live. And then there was Charlie Sheen, who had a
great 1986, this film aside. He was at
his peak of critical acclaim. The
Wraith ended up being the dark spot on his great year. But it made for a movie that would be
featured on this blog. What more could
you ask for?
You could ask for these notes, maybe:
- The Wraith was suggested by @turbeetle, who has suggested Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend (week 74), A Sound of Thunder (week 169), and Hell Comes to Frogtown (week 206).
- The Wraith was directed by Mike Marvin, who also directed Hamburger:The Motion Picture (week 197).
- Clint Howard played Rughead in The Wraith. He could previously be seen in the Sunday “Bad” Movies in House of the Dead (week 59), Blackwoods (week 115), Blubberella (week 189), and Santa with Muscles (week 211).
- Christopher Bradley was in both Iron Eagle (week 90) and The Wraith.
- Randy Quaid had been in a Sunday “Bad” Movie before The Wraith. That was Freaked (week 131).
- Charlie Sheen popped up in Foodfight! (week 143) before The Wraith.
- Finally, there was Jeffrey Sudzin, who appeared in The Wraith and Remote Control (week 246).
- Have you seen The Wraith? What did you think? Let me know on Twitter or in the comments.
- The comments and Twitter are also good places to let me know what movies I should be watching for the Sunday “Bad” Movies. All suggestions are welcome.
- If you haven’t already, check out the Instagram account for Sunday “Bad” Movies. There’s some solid stuff there.
- Next week, Vin Diesel will be making an appearance in the Sunday “Bad” Movies. There are a few movies that have the potential to be a bad movie, but there’s only one that will be featured next week. That movie will be Babylon A.D. which I saw once and forget everything that happened. Those memories will come back to me for next week’s post, though, so be ready for that. I’ll see you on Sunday.
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