Phantom Racer (2009)

Very early on in this blogs life I covered a film on the list of movies considered the worst of all time called Redline from 2007, and I concluded my review with the line: "They were going for the Lamborghini Gallardo of racing movies, but instead they left the garage with a Fiat Punto Sporting." because it was for the most part, consistently bum gravy. A bit like my old Fiat really. I think racing films in particular suffer the absolute worst if they aren't done properly because if you can't even get the action and the racing part right then there is very little else left in terms of redeeming factors that can save your movie. Redline I think, suffers from that problem: there was nothing else. And therefore it was shit. And depending on how you feel, it either makes for the best or for the worst cinematic experience. Cue this weeks FTW movie pick: Phantom Racer. "A demonic NASCAR driver returns from the dead to seek revenge against a former rival." I'll be honest, don't know much about NASCAR racing really, but it was a refreshing change from the myriad of FTW movies that I see about giant monsters, alien invasion or creepy horror tropes. So I figured, y'know what; let's give it a chance? Having only covered one other car movie before this one, unless you are counting Race 3 which... I'm not... although side note - for a little while that was the worst movie I'd ever watched, I figured it was worth giving another one a try and well, here we are. Let's see how it goes.

The opening scene serves to establish the movies backstory, introducing rival race car drivers: J.J. Sawyer (Greg Evigan) and Cutter (Adam Battrick) explaining that they had once been teammates but are now rivals with Cutter driving for a different team. During the race a collision between the pair leaves Cutter horrendously burned and presumed dead with J.J. surviving the accident but mentally scared by it years later and, no longer a racer, serving as the driver for a NASCAR team truck. When J.J's truck breaks down he finds himself back in familiar territory, recognised by locals as J.J. the former NASCAR driver and as luck would have it finds himself at the garage of his former Mechanic team mate Cliff (Chad Willett). Whilst with Cliff, J.J. learns that his old girlfriend Tammy (Nicole Eggert) is now married to Cliff, we learn that Cliff and Cutter were brothers, and when Cliff proclaims that it's something of a coincidence that J.J. just so happens to roll into town he takes J.J. out to his own garage to reveal he has rebuilt Cutter's old car from scratch believing it strange that J.J. returns just as he gets done finishing it. When Cliff reveals that he sabotaged J.J.'s car all those years ago J.J. reacts angrily smashing a glass on the hood of the newly rebuilt car cutting his hand open before laying Cliff out and then storming off. As J.J. treats himself to a beer at the local bar that evening, Cutter's old car seemingly comes to life all on it's own and after two local youths discover it just sitting on a nearby race track and try to take it for a spin, they both get brutally murdered; one ground in half, the other crushed to death, by the car before it speeds away. The following morning, after the local Sherriff, Sherriff Hodges (Winston Rickert) berates J.J. for running away and blaming himself for the accident, J.J. gets the keys back for his newly repaired truck from Tammy who asks him to stick around, but J.J. wanting to do pretty much exactly the opposite of that thanks her before heading on his way, getting into his truck and promptly falling asleep. He awakes later that evening to find one Jesse (Brenna O'Brien) spray-painting graffiti onto the side of his wagon and promptly hauls her off to the local authorities. As J.J. and Jesse sit down for a tender conversation with the town Sherriff, and J.J. learns that Jesse is Tammy's daughter, Cliff gets piss ass drunk and threatens to smash up Cutter's car. When he leans in the passenger side, the car window shoots up and decapitates him. The following morning the police discover Cliff's headless body and the car missing, with J.J. under suspicion, the Deputy Sherriff turns up to check over his truck, whilst Sheriff Hodges interrogates him claiming he knows about the fight the pair had earlier in the week and strongly suggests J.J. has something to do with the murder. When the Sherriff learns that J.J. is in the clear he lets him go, only for J.J. to explain that he had an unsettling feeling around the car like Cutter had never left it... J.J. goes to visit / console Tammy who is distraught initially blaming him in grief but quickly coming to her senses. Later J.J. reveals to Tammy that he felt like Cutter was still in the car when Cliff shown it to him and that he felt like Cutter was really pissed off... When J.J. suggests that maybe the ghost of Cutter killed Cliff, Tammy calls him insane and chucks him out. Meanwhile the Deputy Sherriff, whilst on patrol, spots Cutter's car and follows it to the local lumber yard. When he leaves his own car to arrest the driver he get's ploughed into and his face chopped up by the cars razor sharp windscreen wipers. Yes. Really. For... some reason... rather than just jump in his wagon and hightail it the fuck out of there... J.J. decides to stick around in town? Which gives Jesse ample opportunity to break into his trailer and start snooping around. Unbeknownst to J.J. when he returns and hops in the drivers seat he pulls away with Jesse a stowaway in his trailer cabin. He discovers her mid-journey the following morning and for some reason seems mildly amused... After taking her for food and to somewhere to pee... Jesse explains that she has no intention of going back home, wanting to stay with J.J. until she figures something out. He's about to march Jesse all the way back home when Cutter's car crashes through the outdoor patio area. Dashing and escaping to the truck J.J. and Jesse disappear with the car seemingly not pursuing them. Back in town and when Tammy goes to report Jesse as missing Sherriff Hodges tells her that 2 of Jesse's friends - the would-be car thieves from earlier - have both been found dead and for some reason J.J. is the chief suspect (?). Also for some unknown reason he lets Tammy go with him despite believing they are dealing with a dangerous serial murderer! Whilst J.J. and Jesse are on the road they both reach the consensus of opinion that nobody was driving Cutter's car, that it's likely haunted and that it was seemingly trying to kill both of them. Jesse reveals to J.J. that she knows Cutter is her real dad and the pair seemingly start to bond a little before J.J. gets pulled over by the Sherriff Hodges. Despite Jesse's protestations and despite the pair trying to explain that Cutter's car was to blame, Hodges is having none of it, and as he attempts to handcuff J.J. and arrest him, Cutter's car speeds by out of nowhere mowing Hodges down and narrowly missing the others. Jumping in J.J's truck, Jesse, him and Tammy escape and whilst on the road decide to banter each other a bit before yucking it up about how good J.J. is with Jesse because I can absolutely see where this is leading... Eventually after a bit of exposition the truck breaks down and when J.J. goes out to check and can't figure out why, the trio decide to commandeer the race car that J.J. has been transporting this whole time. Tammy chooses this opportune moment to reveal to J.J. that he is Jesse's dad and not Cutter after all. Jesse, eavesdropping on the pair, hears this and dashes off into a clearing by the road, confused by it all. There she discovers Cutter's car waiting for her and when she leans inside, the car sucks her in and traps her with the seatbelt. As Cutter's car speeds passed J.J. and Tammy, they see Jesse leaning from the window screaming, and jump into their own race car in pursuit. They chase the car all the way back to the lumber mill from earlier where, after luring the car into wedging itself between two massive metal skips, J.J. rescues Jesse by pulling her through a gap in the windshield. As the car gives chase, J.J. manages to manoeuvre himself between a ramp and the quayside, leaving the car careering through the air before splashing into the ocean and sinking. But before the trio can fully reconcile, the car begins to emerge from the water and making their escape the three jump in their own car and race off into the night. After menacingly car jacking a guy at a petrol station for... some reason... J.J. orders Tammy and Jesse to drive away, wanting to confront Cutter and vicariously his car alone. Before they can part company though Cutter's car crashes into the petrol station, and spotting an opportunity, J.J. ignites the petrol pool causing the car to burst into flames. But even that isn't enough to stop it! And jumping in his own car, J.J. races away with Cutter's car - in flames - in err... hot pursuit. Pun absolutely intended. As the cars race along the freeway, Cutter's car draws level with J.J.'s and things begin to echo the race from the beginning of the movie. When J.J's car cuts out and it looks like it might be all over for him Cutter's car, rather than sideswipe him into oblivion instead pulls alongside and as J.J. looks into the car, the ghostly figure of Cutter briefly appears before disappearing seemingly wanting to challenge him to one final race. J.J. leads Cutter's car to a breakers yard where before the race can even get started, Jesse sideswipes the car into a crusher and, operated by J.J., the car is crushed flat and destroyed.

Ok, so this was probably a bit more of a "horror" movie if you like than maybe a racing movie... my bad... but err year. I actually enjoyed this one! It was alright! Hey, good job *checks notes* Insight Film Studios. Yeah this was alright. I mean, it wasn't without it's corny parts, it's slightly cringey parts, and it was very TV movie in a lot of moments but for the large part this was a pretty consistent and entertaining film! It was a good one! And I err... am genuinely quite surprised because I thought it was gonna blow chunks, but err.... no. No it was fine.

I wanna get the negatives out of the way first so let's go over them, you are never going to pass this movie off as a full on theatrical production - in the finest sense of the word. There was heavy use of stock music, although fitting for the movie, and there was quarter part transitions that faded to black before returning to the movie in typical advert break fashion, everything right down to the DNA of the movie was very much a Made for TV movie and the quality of the final product absolutely reflected that. Now that in of itself is not a negative, but owing to that formula it did tend to have it peaks and troughs throughout so that every section built to a climax and then subdued and depending on how you feel about that it can make or break a movie. I personally felt it was fine because going in I knew what I was getting into but I could fully understand why somebody might hate it about a movie and call it amateur.

Secondly, whilst the acting for the large part was good, the script was again very formulaic of a TV movie and there was a good sprinkling of some corny dialogue and cliché plot points baked in that damaged the character development a little bit. There were also some character decisions that just did not make sense - like J.J. robbing a guy for his car near the end? And a fair amount of suspension of disbelief is needed to really get all the way through this thing. Particularly as the movie came to the end. Some of the decisions the characters make, or don't make, are a little bit baffling really but then necessary in order to build on the next plot point. I don't think it ever got lazy at any point but again, you just needed to go with it in order to stay with the movie.

And I guess thirdly the whole premise is, in of itself, a little bit ridiculous really. A possessed car coming to life and murdering people as gruesomely as possible. But it's not like it hasn't been done before... have you seen Christine?... I actually felt the balance was struck just about right here with it being just over the top enough that it was borderline grindhouse, but not too ridiculous that the movie just got silly and stupid. And to be fair the car began to feel genuinely threatening as the movie developed!

So uh yeah, there are those points and this was far from a perfect movie but there was a lot of things it did get right. I thought the cinematography was pretty good for a low budget TV film and there was some pretty good camera work and special effects as well, particularly around the mangled victims of the cars murderous rampage. It certainly didn't cheapen out in that respect and although there was a couple of CGI scenes that were a little suspect, I'm prepared to overlook them really as I feel like a genuine effort was made to make it look as real as possible. Everything else though felt about as real as it seriously could be and it was impressive in that regard.

And similarly I thought the acting was decent here, if not a little routine, but still decent. I thought Greg Evigan as J.J. did a good job of leading the film and despite essentially just being a love interest and a damsel in distress, Nicole Eggert as Tammy was decent enough that she still managed to carve a little bit of a character into her role. Nobody ever really collapsed into terrible territory here and it felt like everyone was taking it seriously enough. I don't think anyone was ever in danger of getting an Oscar... but it was certainly all on par if not better. I've seen worse performances dialled in on these low budget movies.

The aforementioned point about the quarter breaks accounted for I also felt like the movie did a good job with the pacing and the plot. It was a bit... out there... being about a possessed ghost car after all, but they built and transitioned to key moments fairly smoothly and swiftly enough, packing in a bit of exposition and wind down dialogue here and there to keep the tone consistent but I certainly felt like it was capturing your attention and keeping you attached to what was going on. And just when the movie was in danger of becoming a bit stale, something exciting happened to agitate things again.

So yes. This was a good one! I enjoyed it. It was by no means perfect. It was by no means ever going to set the scene on fire, it was corny - to a degree and quite formulaic, but it was also an enjoyable, interesting and engaging watch with just enough going on to keep you entertained but not too much that it became silly and ridiculous. It's a pretty easy watch, not a lot of thinking really needed for this one, and if you can accept the odd moments where someone does something completely baffling and out of character then you'll likely have a decent time with it. Yeah. It was alright. 3 out of 5.