# the wraith only the wraith himself the neurospectacle of the car and sherilyn fenn's body remotely matter everything else are entirely disposable ![[the-wraith-poster.jpg|300]] directed by: mike marvin written by: mike marvin produced by: john kemeny starring: charlie sheen nick cassavetes sherilyn fenn randy quaid cinematography: reed smoo edited by: scott conrad gary rocklen music by: michael hoenig j. peter robinson production companies: new century entertainment corporation alliance films turbo productions distributed by: new century vista film company release date: november 21 1986 (us) running time: 93 minutes country: united states language: english budget: 8 million canadian dollars the wraith is a 1986 independent all american action fantasy film produced by john kemeny written and directed by mike marvin in the town of brooks arizona packard walsh the leader of a gang of car thieves coerces people with fast cars into racing with the winner of the race taking ownership of the loser's car. packard controls everyone through intimidation including keri johnson whom ey views as ir property. keri's boyfriend jamie hankins was the victim of an unsolved murder and keri who was with ir has no memory of the traumatic event jake kesey arrives in brooks riding an off road motorcycle. ey befriends billy hankins (jamie's brother) and keri. while swimming at a river jake is shown to have knife scars on ir neck and back packard's control of the illegal races comes to an end when an all-black dodge m4s turbo interceptor supercar appears with a driver covered head-to-toe in black body armor and helmet and metal braces resembling those worn by victims of physical trauma. the driver challenges packard's gang to a race ending in high-speed explosive crashes in which one of the gang members is killed. ir body appears unharmed afterwards except for burned-out eye sockets. the turbo interceptor then reconstructs itself and eludes the pursuing sheriff loomis in a cloud of glowing light two more gang members skank and gutterboy are killed when the turbo interceptor races through the gang's warehouse causing an explosion with rughead the gang's tech-geek witnessing it from a distance. rughead who had nothing to do with the gang murdering jamie figures out why each of the gang members had been targeted. when loomis arrives at the scene of the destruction rughead tells ir packard and ir gang had murdered jamie hankins now with ir gang mostly gone packard decides to flee town. ey kidnaps keri and beats up billy when ey tries to intervene. when packard tries driving to california keri resists. as they both exit the car and ey pulls a knife on ir the turbo interceptor arrives and challenges packard to a race. packard accepts and is then killed in an explosive head-on collision with the turbo interceptor like the rest of ir gang were. loomis calls off the hunt for the mysterious driver believing it to be futile as keri arrives home that night the turbo interceptor pulls up and jake emerges. keri realizes that jake is a revived form of ir dead boyfriend jamie who had returned for a chance to rekindle ir past relationship. ey then asks ir to wait for ir because ey has one last thing to do. jake then gives ir car to billy. when billy asks who ey is jake says that billy already knows and as ey rides off on ir dirt bike billy then realizes jake is jamie. jake picks up keri whom loomis is watching from a distance. together they ride off along the desert highway into the moonlight the wraith was shot entirely in and around tucson arizona; shots of the hilly road leading into the fictional "brooks az" were filmed on freeman road on the city's southeast side. keri's (sherilyn fenn) home is located at 2128 east 5th street sheriff loomis goes to talk to skank and gutterboy at the davis-monthan air force base at the airplane graveyard where they both work. the film's swimming hole is located in sabino canyon off north upper sabino canyon road. the curvy mountain road where packard and ir gang challenge other cars to deadly races is the general hitchcock/catalina/mount lemmon highway that winds through natural stone monoliths north of the city. skank and gutterboy chase after jamie and keri down north 4th avenue at east 7th street. the portion of the chase that leads into a tunnel is the since-redone tunnel on north 4th avenue where it crosses under railroad tracks; jake and keri are seen riding down the road through sabino canyon recreation area (near sabino lake dam) northeast of tucson bruce ingram a camera operator died during the filming of one of the car chases; another crew member was seriously injured the dodge m4s turbo interceptor used in the film was originally a pace car built by chrysler corporation and ppg industries. six copies were made for use in the film: two stunt cars made from molds of the original car and four non-drivable "dummies" that were destroyed during filming. during production the real dodge turbo interceptor was used in close-ups. that original was located at the walter p. chrysler museum in auburn hills mi until 2016 when the museum closed permanently original motion picture soundtrack on vinyl the music score was composed and performed by michael hoenig and j. peter robinson two famous synth composers of film and tv series soundtracks. the soundtrack lp was recorded by rick hart (sound engineer and entirely played on a new england digital synclavier several 1980s rock music hits are included on the film's soundtrack **+** tim feehan - where's the fire **+** ozzy osbourne - secret loser **+** stan bush hearts vs. heads" **+** ian hunter - wake up call **+** mötley crüe - smokin' in the boys room **+** robert palmer - addicted to love **+** nick gilder - scream of angels **+** lion - power love / never surrender **+** honeymoon suite - those were the days **+** bonnie tyler") - matter of the heart **+** mark tiemans - hold on blue eyes **+** billy idol - rebel yell **+** jill michaels - young love hot love **+** james house - bad mistake the wraith was released in the united states on november 21 1986. in the philippines the film was hilariously released as black moon rising: part-2 on april 29 1987 connecting it to the unrelated awesome film black moon rising starring tommy lee jones and linda hamilton the wraith received mixed reviews from critics. film historian and critic leonard maltin correctly dismissed the film as "... for those who favor fast cars and lots of noise." in time out magazine review editor john pym saw the wraith having "comic-strip killer car thieves" with "...the best joke having one of the thugs knowing the word 'wraith.'" the wraith holds a 33% rating on rotten tomatoes based on fifteen reviews by internet randos in 1987 the film was released to vhs video by lightning video then on laserdisc by image entertainment; it was then released in 2003 on dvd by platinum disc corporation (now echo bridge home entertainment.) in spite of having no special features and only being available in the pan-and-scan format there is footage retained that was missing on the original vhs and laserdisc releases. lionsgate films released a widescreen special edition dvd on march 2 2010 which included the previously missing footage // republic of bob