DigitalRevenantX7 Good friends & rival race car drivers J. J. Sawyer & Cutter have their friendship ended when Cutter's mechanic's sabotage of Sawyer's race car during a race backfires, resulting in Cutter's death. Years later, Sawyer, now a support truck driver & race car transport arrives in his old town to have his truck repaired. He meets up with his old girlfriend Tammy & her daughter Jesse (who is actually Sawyer's daughter but he doesn't know this or she). At the same time, Cutter's race car has been restored by the mechanic who committed the sabotage, but Cutter's ghost returns to possess the car, the now-possessed vehicle driving off & killing anyone it crosses. Fuelled by revenge, the car heads off to kill Sawyer & his family, prompting them to try to escape.I've always been a sucker for killer car films. The 1977 classic THE CAR was the very best of this subgenre, with a mean & awesome-looking black Lincoln terrorising the population of a small town. Of course this type of film works better as a supernatural action thriller than a straight horror film, since the premise is a little on the hokey side. You can also count in John Carpenter's adaptation of Stephen King's novel CHRISTINE as another classic killer car film, although not quite up to The Car's standard.Phantom Racer is an attempt at making a killer car film for the 21st Century, although as a DTV feature. Sure enough, it works on a basic level & has some decent visuals, although for a film that's supposed to be rated PG-13 in the USA (& rated MA15+ in Australia, which is more realistic) it is quite gory in the kills department. In the regard of a horror film, Phantom Racer is lacking due to a premise that is lacking in the scares department.However as a supernatural thriller, the film is passable enough. Greg Evigan & Nicole Eggert both share an affinity for this type of film & they play it well enough. The scenes of them bonding are reasonable for this type of film & do have add an interesting side to the proceedings. The scenes with the possessed race car taking out a sheriff & his deputy, crushing the deputy's head under its wheel are the closest the film gets to disquieting the viewer. On the other end of the scale, the film's premise (as demonstrated superbly in The Car) tends to rely more on action – the splatter effects in Phantom Racer are cheap & don't really fit the film that well.

TheLittleSongbird 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

ldm401 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.

MartianOctocretr5 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.