The Wraith starts late one night deep in the Arizona desert as what looks like several balls of electricity fly along just above the ground eventually they merge together & form a futuristic black car & a shadowy mysterious figure that is the wraith. Packard Walsh (Nick Cassavetes) is the leader of a local gang of thugs who terrorise a small town & force other drivers of particularly nice cars to race & forfeit their car if they lose, which of course they always do. Well they always did until the wraith & his supernatural powered turbo charged car turns up, each time one of Packard's gang races the wraith they end up dead starting with Oggie Fisher (Griffin O'Neal) whose car ends up taking a dive off a cliff, Loomis (Randy Quaid) the local Sheriff is on the case. If Packard's ever shrinking gang & the ensuing police investigation isn't enough for him to worry about a new kid in town named Jake Kesey (Charlie Sheen) seems to want to date his girl Keri Johnson (Sherilyn Fenn). As Packard loses grip on the power he has he becomes determined to take revenge on the wraith, however Packard isn't the only one with revenge on his mind...<br /><br />Written & directed by Mike Marvin I really didn't think too much of The Wraith. Before I start I should point out that if you read the IMDb's 'main page' for The Wraith & look at the cast list it gives away the supposed twist at the end, not that you wouldn't have guessed it within 10 minutes anyway but the IMDb usually frowns upon spoilers doesn't it... The script is as daft as they come & it takes itself very seriously, people don't speak like this in real life Mike, OK? The terrible dialogue is delivered straight faced which just doesn't work when your making a film about a supernatural car. If you think The Wraith is a silly concept for a film you would be right, it's also a crap concept for a film. Nothing is explained, how was the wraith created? Why does he get a second chance & no one else? When a couple of dead bodies are recovered from burning cars why are the bodies intact & their eyes missing? This happens a few times during The Wraith & no explanation is given whatsoever & the plot device isn't even used, at all. Why doesn't the wraith just blow Packard away with the shotgun when he had the chance? Why is the only plot twist in the entire film so easy to see coming? What on Earth is Clint Howard's hair do all about?! Why are all the character's so dumb & one dimensional? Why does Charlie Sheen get top billing on the credits yet has about 10 minutes worth of screen time & all but disappears for 45 minutes (not that I'm complaining)? Why did they decide to end things off all 'happily ever after' with plenty of cringe inducing sentimentality in a way Disney would have have been proud of? To it's credit it sort of entertains in a bad grade z sort of way & it moves along at a fair pace so at least it's never overly boring or dull.<br /><br />Director Marvin brings little imagination to the action scenes, two cars racing along a virtually deserted road starts to become tedious after the fourth time. He doesn't seem to know what sort of film he want's to make, action, horror, romance, comedy, Sci-Fi or thriller & ends up with bits of each that don't gel. The wraith himself looks like some sort of Stormtrooper reject from Star Wars (1977), a very cheap suit & crash helmet & he barely has any screen time either. Marvin tries to create some style with the use of bright neon colour although completely fails of course. Forget about any sort of violence as there isn't any worth mentioning but there is some nudity.<br /><br />With a supposed budget of $2,700,000 The Wraith is technically good although nothing spectacular & they should have put more effort into how the wraith himself looked. The stunts are OK & there are some decent explosions but it's nothing we haven't seen a hundred time before & the tings we haven't seen before including a car which can magically reform itself are just plain daft & feel out of place. The photography is good, the rock music is highly annoying & adds nothing to the film but generally speaking it's quite well made. The acting isn't great & Clint Howard's hair deserves a credit all of it's own, Sheen & Cassavetes also have bad 80's hair-dos.<br /><br />Personally I didn't think much of The Wraith although it's just about daft enough to have a certain charm & maybe have a few admirers. I will give it three out of ten stars for some OK explosions, the silliness of it all &, of course, Clint Howard's hair.