Shocker
Director: Wes Craven
Cast: Mitch Pileggi, Peter Berg, Michael Murphy
September 8, 2015
Reviewed by Brian M. Sammons
Elephant in the room: writer/director/master of horror Wes Craven recently passed away. He was a titan in the horror world, made some awesome movies, and gave us two undisputable horror icons that have and will continue to stand the test of time. But not everything he made was golden, and this review is about one of those movies. To pretend otherwise would be dishonest. So while my admiration for Wes is rock solid, my appreciation for this movie is less so. But does that make this a bad film? Let’s find out.
Back in the late 80s the horror icons from the first half of that decade were starting to lose their scare appeal. Blame oversaturation or just a string of bad sequels, a lot of people were tiring of Michael, Jason, and Freddy. Well the mind behind the Elm Street Slasher wanted to see if he could have a second bite of the apple of success with a TV series based around a new supernatural killer called Horace Pinker. When that fell through, writer/director Wes Craven decided to turn this into a movie. The result was Shocker, a much maligned movie when it came out, but one that has spawned its own cult following over the years. Did Shocker deserve more love when it was released, or has only the passage of time caused horror fans to warm up to it?
In this case it’s mostly the latter. This movie is kind of a mess, with huge plot holes, a heavy dose of just plain weird special effects that were wonky back then and really don’t hold up now, and underwhelming performances by nearly everyone involved, with the exception of the Shocker himself, Mitch Pileggi, who is gloriously over-the-top. Even the direction by Crave is sloppy and not up to his usual standard, having more in common with The Hills Have Eyes 2 than A Nightmare on Elm Street. Shocker is not a good movie, but with that said, it is a fun movie.
The story is about a serial killer that worships television, because why the hell not. He has a psychic link with a college football star, again, because why the hell not. Okay, that bit is explained, but even the explanation leaves you scratching your head going, “Wow, really?” The killer, Horace Pinker, in a speed record for the justice system, is sent to the electric chair. Naturally that doesn’t kill him, it only makes him mad and, for some reason, gives him the ability to jump into different bodies and possess people for a short time. If that sounds familiar, that’s because the movie The Horror Show did the exact same thing, but since both that and this came out in 1989, I’m not leveling any charges of plagiarism, it’s just kind of weird is all. Anyway, soon Horace steps up his game and starts jumping into TV shows, which leads to one of the goofiest finales of all time. So if you are looking for an actually scary horror movie, Shocker ain’t it. But it’s just so cornball, so ludicrous at times, that if you are a fan of such things, it can be loads of fun in an almost so-bad it’s-good kind of way. Oh, and it also has a deliciously 80s heavy metal soundtrack, and in my book, that’s always a good thing.
The new Blu-ray from the always excellent Scream Factory has a shocking (ha) amount of extras for such an overlooked and forgotten flick. There are two audio commentaries here, one with director Wes Craven and the other is an odd one: it was pieced together from three different interviews with director of photography Jacques Haitkin, producer Robert Engelman, and composer William Goldstein. Speaking of interviews, you have a new one here with the Shocker himself, Mitch Pileggi, that runs over 17 minutes. There is one with actress Cami Cooper that’s also 17 minutes. There’s a third interview with producer Shep Gordon and it’s 12 minutes. There is a 26 minute featurette about the awesome heavy metal soundtrack and another that’s a classic press release that’s almost nine minutes long. A trailer, storyboard gallery, still gallery, radio spots, TV spots, and a trailer round up this impressive collection of special features.
So Shocker would not fall into the good camp as it is traditionally defined, but that doesn’t mean that I, and many others, don’t love it. When I watch it, while it doesn’t frighten me in the least, it does put a smile on my face and makes me laugh. A lot. And I like that, so despite its flaws, I do recommend this movie to any horror fan that doesn’t take every film seriously and who are just looking for a good time. Shocker will give you that, for sure.
