Phantom Racer (2009 TV Movie) User Reviews

Another possessed car goes berserk

[MartianOctocretr5 · 5/10 · 23 August 2009]

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.

Phantom Racer

[Scarecrow-88 · 5/10 · 19 September 2009]

Following in the footsteps of such "killer car" features as Christine and The Car is Phantom Racer, about the vengeful ghost of a dead race car driver who returns to get revenge on the one he holds responsible for his demise.

I primarily watched this because Greg Evigan was in the starring role as a broken down, burn out, JJ Sawyer, returning home after a 17 year absence due to the race car crash concerning a fellow hot rodder, Cutter(Adam Battrick), with a bright future, blaming himself all these years for it occurring. Confronting an old gear-head, Cliff(Chad Willett), JJ is told that the crash wasn't his fault after all, fueling his obvious rage..in fact, Cliff and Cutter had sabotaged his car so that they could win due to the promise of sponsorships among other perks if JJ were out of the way.

Nicole Eggert also was a sight for sore eyes, co-starring as JJ's former flame, Tammy, soon breaking the news, albeit reluctantly, that he has a daughter, Jesse(Brenna O'Brien). All three will have to eventually face Cutter and his haunted car, not going away until there is a true victor.

The car itself seems to have the ability to kill people in a variety of ways, such as the driver's side seat belt breaking into the chest of an unfortunate victim who gets behind the wheel, another victim(..reaching into the trunk in the hopes of finding a six-pack)losing an arm and the lower half of his body, a head taken off by a window, and a deputy's face chopped to pieces by windshield wipers! It can also withstand heavy damage(..including a fire set off by gasoline) and survive a dive into a lake.

Despite the incredibly laughable plot, Evigan comes away from Phantom Racer relatively unscathed, if just on his charisma alone. He has good chemistry with Eggert, along with O'Brien who lands the role of wise-cracking daughter who contributes to their situation when innovative methods for stopping the possessed car begin to run out. O'Brien even gets trapped in the car at one point. The last half of the movie consists of one big chase as the trio attempt to evade their pursuer. Earns it's place in the genre with enough over-the-top violence to maintain interest. How the car remains intact, without a hint of damage on it's exterior after being set on fire, rammed by a truck, and lifted up in the air by a forklift tests credibility, but the plot is so corny, that will probably fall to the wayside. Evigan does a credible job presenting us with an emotionally-drained, wore-out has-been who could've been a star yet suffered years with guilt over the death of a friend he thought he was responsible for.

The objects may be more dead than they appear in the mirror...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 24 February 2021]

Well, given the premise of the movie and the synopsis, I must admit that my expectations to "Phantom Racer" weren't exactly sky high. I assumed that I would be in for something in the likes of the 1983 movie "Christine", the 1971 "Duel", the 1977 "The Car", the 1980 "The Hearse", the 2007 "Death Proof" movie, or a movie in that ilk.

And that was exactly what "Phantom Racer" turned out to be. So if you enjoy a good old fashioned thriller/horror movie with a possessed vehicle, then "Phantom Racer" might be something for you.

Sure, the storyline in the movie is fairly out there, I mean, a possessed vehicle with a returned ghost at the steering wheel, well, it is pretty far fetched. But hey, it actually made for adequate entertainment.

The movie actually had a decent enough cast ensemble, for a movie such as this. With the likes of Greg Evigan and Nicole Eggert at the helm of the cast list.

Visually then the movie wasn't actually all that bad, and the effects definitely served their purpose well enough. So that worked well in favor of the movie.

I found that "Phantom Racer" proved to be adequately entertaining for what it turned out to be. Was it a cinematic masterpiece? Not even close. But the movie provided me with sufficient entertainment for a single viewing, However, this wasn't an outstanding movie or particularly memorable movie, unless you like racing cars I suppose.

My rating of the 2009 movie "Phantom Racer" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Routine cheapie

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 3 April 2021]

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.

Suckers for killer car films will like this one.

[DigitalRevenantX7 · 5/10 · 2 December 2015]

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.

Decent leads and chemistry help to rise above the formulaic script and silly story

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 10 July 2012]

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

So so movie, but Nicole Eggert .....

[ldm401 · 5/10 · 11 April 2012]

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.

This film reminds me of the movie Christine in a lot of ways!

[howellgirl2011 · 7/10 · 23 January 2011]

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.

Watch out for the killer car

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 21 June 2021]

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.