Phantom Racer

Phantom Racer

Phantom Racer

Moviecut—Phantom Racer

Racecar driver Cutter McCullough comes back from the dead to avenge his death in a fiery crash seventeen years ago. McCullough goes after his arch rival JJ Sawyer (a solid and likeable performance by Greg Evigan) and anyone else who stands in his way. Director Terry Ingram relates the enjoyable and engrossing story at a constant pace, treats the silly premise with admirable seriousness, stages the exciting vehicular carnage with rip-roaring aplomb, and delivers several cool moments of graphic gore. The sound acting by the sturdy cast keeps this movie humming: Nicole Eggert as the feisty Tammy, Brenna O'Brien as sassy and sarcastic teenager Jesse, Winston Rekert as the amiable Sheriff Hodges, Chad Willett as easygoing mechanic Cliff, and Luciana Monroe as the tough Deputy Monroe. A really fun little flick.

PHANTOM RACER (2009) is the SyFy Channel version of the 'possessed car' films that were all the rage back in the 1980s, CHRISTINE being the most well known. You'd be better off watching that one than risking this low budget slice of inanity. A tragedy occurs when one driver is killed during a high-speed race, and seventeen years later his car reappears seemingly tracking down people who were involved in the events, including his former rival and his girlfriend. Very little plot here, just B-movie specialists Nicole Eggert and Greg Evigan going through the motions. There's plenty of action and death in the form of pursuits and the like, but none of it is very believable; it's too cheap-looking and silly for that.

I thought the film was okay. I did like it because a man who died in a fatal car crash on the racetrack came back from the dead to kill people until he got to the man who he saw last while being in his car now restored back to normal. I was scared out of my wits when I had seen him trying to get to the man responsible for killing him. But i was also scared for his teenage daughter who had learned that the man who died in the car crash was her dad. I thought that the film was a bit like Christine(killer car film). Except that the car was a race car and didn't live enough to see his daughter as a baby instead of a teenager. I thought the scene where the girl is walking around the woods and comes upon the car is crazy. She had no idea what was about to happen to her in a split second. She leans in and sees the locket that belonged to her mom, and thought of her when all of a sudden the car sucks her into the driver's seat and buckles her in and then drives off. I was so scared for that girl because she finally learned that her father died in the car and had come back to seek his vengeance upon everyone that caused him to die.

Movie was so-so. But it had been quite a while since I saw Greg Evigan or Nicole Eggert in anything so I decided to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised by Eggert's acting in the movie. I thought she did a great job. She has become a much better actress than she was in her Baywatch days. I've seen her in some Holiday specials but she was better here than in those as well. Would love to see her get more serious roles. Greg Evigan's acting I thought was about the same from years back. The movie is about a possessed car. Sort of a 'Christine' type movie. An okay movie just to pass the time. But if you are an Nicole Eggert fan you might want to check it out too.

I have seen far worse movies than Phantom Racer, even though I do think the movie could've been much better. It does have redeeming values certainly. A couple of the attacks are actually gory and quite fun. But it was the three leads that really elevated. Greg Egvian still has a lot of charisma, Nicole Eggbert shows good chemistry with him and I do think she is better than she was in Baywatch and Brenna O'Brien despite her rather clichéd role has a couple of amusing wise-cracks. The film looks decent too, nothing extraordinary to see but much more than the usual hackneyed editing and fake effects I've seen in too many movies of late. However, the characters are never developed sufficiently enough, they are stereotypical(the sheriff, the teen) and some like the sheriff are so annoying it is difficult to identify with them. Even after someone dies they don't act in ways you'd associate someone to react in those circumstances. The script is very formulaic as well, there are a lot of car chases, action scenes and attempts to destroy the thing but it all amounts to little and none of it is particularly exciting. The dialogue is trite, especially in the "finding out who your dad is" subplot, which never did ring true to me due to how forced everything was. The story, not helped by the lame climax and the evil presence being far too obvious from the get go, never really grabbed me and came across as silly in places such as the people cruising down the road and somehow the car can kill people in really wild ways yet can come away unscathed with no explanation as to how. Apart from a couple of good ones, a lot of the action and killings while inventive on paper look very average on screen. In conclusion, could have been far worse mainly because I liked the leads but it was too silly and formulaic with characters I didn't care for for me to really sink my teeth into it. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Two rival race car drivers crash. One of them burns to death, but the other survives. Cut to several years later. The one guy is now a trucker, and the other is still dead. His red #66 (an obvious reference) car has now been restored, freeing the sinister apparition to roam the highways, looking for victims to mow down. It's a familiar theme, cars possessed by an entity with an attitude. "The Car," "Maximun Overdrive," "Christine," and others were run by demons, or ghosts, or aliens, or they were living beings themselves. The evil presence's identity is too obvious, and so can't be developed much. The script then is just limited to endless car chases and failed attempts to destroy the thing. There's a subplot about a teen finding out who her dad is. They must be related; both of their acting skills are equally limited. Or maybe the director is to blame for this: there's one scene where they've just escaped a car attack and witnessed two people die horribly, so how do they react? They're cruising down the road, kidding with each other. What would a movie like this be without clichés? 1) The evil car has many chances to finish off its main target victims, but doesn't do it. 2) The good guy's truck breaks down at the worst possible moment. 3) The sheriff is a dumb hick who insults people. 4) The teen dimwittedly wanders into trouble with the monster. And so on. However, the film never really attempts to be anything noteworthy, and just goes for some goofy horror chills. On that level, oddly enough, it actually works. An OK movie to laugh at if you have nothing else to do.