What a waste of my time!!!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

An uneven blend of horror and comedy, this film is definitely entertaining if not exactly good. Directed by Wes Craven, who has had years of experience behind him now, the film seems to have stolen from a number of sources - HOUSE, THE EVIL DEAD, and the director's own A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. However, the influences blend together into a pleasing film which is virtually a remake of NIGHTMARE, but with a different 'monster' and an opportunity for better special effects. The layout of the film is erratic. It starts off as a standard slasher film, before becoming an undead electrified killer on the loose film (shades of HOUSE 3 here) and then a strange weird film which is quite unlike anything I've seen before, where the opponents fight through the television sets. The final part of the film is by far the most original and the best bit.The acting is pretty much standard here, but all involved acquit themselves nicely with their roles and there are some interesting names to look out for. The main hero, played by Peter Berg (who reminds me of a young Bill Paxton) is pretty much adequate in his role, and is not given much to do except fight a lot and provide a character for the rest of the film to centre around. Interestingly the actor has now gone on to directing, namely VERY BAD THINGS and BATTLESHIP. However, the role of Horace Pinker was given to a then relatively unknown actor, Mitch Pileggi, who is better known these days as Assistant Director Walker Skinner from THE X-FILES! It was a big surprise to see good old Skinner ripping off people's fingers and generally being an all round bad guy, and it makes for entertaining viewing. In fact Pileggi's wild overacting makes the film worth watching, he's hilarious in his role.Added to this is a cameo from NIGHTMARE regular Heather Lagenkamp as a victim (what else?) and Ted Raimi as of Parker's friends. Raimi goes his usual way, getting killed in a most bloody fashion! Horace Pinker is pretty much a standard maniac bloke, stabbing people with a big knife, but halfway through the film he also starts spewing a ton of Freddy Krueger-inspired wisecracks, such as biting off a man's fingers and shouting "finger licking good!". As these lines are delivered by Pilegge with gusto I couldn't help laughing. The film also has some excellent special effects, especially when Pinker runs around in a fuzzy, electric-type form, and these are well worth watching for. The film is a derivative affair, but it's handled with pace, and there is a lot of action in it (just watch for the extended fight scene at the end, where the pair practice wrestling moves on each other!) and if you're in the right goofy mood then you'll probably enjoy it like I did. It's quite difficult not to enjoy really.

Wes Cravens' "Shocker" is often one of the more derided in the directors' career, but in this own reviewers' humble opinion, it still manages to be pretty entertaining, even as it gets awfully silly and keeps wavering between a serious, sombre tone and an insane, over the top one. It doesn't help that it's too obvious that Craven was trying to create another Freddy Krueger in the form of raving maniac Horace Pinker, a savage psychopath played to foaming-at-the-mouth perfection by Mitch Pileggi, eventually to become better known for playing Skinner on 'The X-Files'.Pinker's on the loose, slaughtering whole families, but opposing him is college football star Jonathan Parker (a remarkably sincere Peter Berg), a nice guy who was raised by a police lieutenant (Michael Murphy). Jonathan and Horace, who are connected in a way that the younger man doesn't anticipate, are also psychically linked, and Jonathan is able to give the cops his name and place of business and before too long the killer is caught and executed.But the story doesn't end there, as Pinker, in league with Satan, "survives" the electric chair and lives on to overtake various unlucky people and control their bodies, including, in the movies' most memorable sequence, a little girl. How can one hold in their laughter watching this blonde haired moppet curse like a sailor, and try to operate a bulldozer?Ultimately, the movie is a little too absurd for its own good, but damn if it doesn't have some good atmosphere, show off some amusing ideas, and go overboard on the bloodshed. One particular murder scene is just drenched in the red stuff. One of the methods used to combat Horace is pure corn, involving Jonathans' love for girlfriend Alison (Camille Cooper) and an all-important locket. The best stuff is the wonderfully ridiculous climax in which a rampaging Horace and Jonathan run amok through TV programming (they end up in an episode of 'Leave it to Beaver' where Jonathan pleads for the Beavers' help). This does show some invention, and the special effects are effectively cheesy. (One has to love the "You got it, baby!" moment.)The cast is extremely game throughout this thing; also popping up are Ted Raimi as an assistant coach, Vincent Guastaferro ("Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI") as a victimized cop, Heather Langenkamp in a tiny, non-speaking cameo as a murder victim, Richard Brooks ('Law and Order') as football player Rhino, Ernie Lively as the warden, rock guitarist Kane Roberts also doing the cameo thing as a road worker, and Cravens' kids Jessica and Jonathan in bits. The heavy metal soundtrack adds to the fun.Overall, this may not be something this reviewer would necessarily consider "good", but it's still something of a hoot, and may keep some people watching out of sheer disbelief.Six out of 10.

Assuredly the lowest point of Wes Craven's filmography, Shocker is a jumbled and often absurd horror/comedy that woefully misfires on both counts. The convoluted plot crowds in so many mismatched pieces that it seems like Craven decided to cram sketches of several movies into this one, and the end result is an over-long pastiche of clichés that limps along to its obnoxiously lame conclusion begging desperately to be put out of its misery.I'm hoping that writing the plot down will help me make sense of it in my own mind, so let's give it a shot. The story is centered around a brutal serial killer named Horace Pinker (played by the normally solid Mitch Pileggi, who eschews acting here in favor of presenting an over-blown caricature of a movie psycho) and a twenty-something protagonist named Jonathan Parker, who, in a fine example of how relentlessly silly this movie is, we later discover is actually Pinker's long-lost son.Though this is never made clear, the sequence of events seems to suggest that after suffering a concussion at football practice, Parker somehow develops supernatural powers that allow him to dream of Pinker's murders while they're happening. After Pinker butchers Jonathan's entire family (except for his detective father), and later his girlfriend, the vengeful lad makes catching the madman his personal mission. This leads to a Nightmare On Elm Street-cloning moment where Jonathan forces himself to fall asleep to see where Pinker will strike next and asks a friend to wake him up at the first sign of trouble.Through Jonathan's resourceful plan, Pinker is captured and eventually executed via electric chair (the next day, apparently, since no effort is made to suggest any sort of time elapsing in between). However, before this justice is meted out the crafty maniac performs a Satanic ritual with the television in his cell, during which demonic yellow electricity overtakes him, ostensibly giving him the ability to transfer his essence into other people's bodies and take them over. Using this power, Pinker is able to escape his demise in the chair by jumping into someone else's body, and the killer is then free to roam the streets again while masking his identity with a series of human disguises (remember the movie The Hidden? If not, you should check it out, since it's a hell of a lot better than this one).Clearly miffed that Jonathan foiled his murderous plans, Pinker's first order of business is getting revenge on his nemesis. Luckily, Jonathan is informed of Pinker's non-demise thanks to a dream he has, in which his dead, covered-in-blood girlfriend appears to warn him. In the vision, she hands Jonathan the necklace he once gave her and tells him it's the secret weapon that will stop Pinker once and for all (???), and, in yet another Elm Street lift, Jonathan wakes up to find the necklace in his bed.Thus begins the second phase of the film, in which Pinker pursues Jonathan while inhabiting a variety of bodies. Apparently our hero read the script ahead of time, because the first time he is confronted by Pinker (disguised as a police officer), he immediately sees through the ruse and deduces that the malevolent spirit of Pinker is controlling the cop's body, and he also figures out without hesitation that when the body's life force is used up, Pinker will have to find another vessel to occupy.In one of the film's ludicrous high-points, Pinker zaps into the body of a little girl, who then commandeers a conveniently abandoned tractor with the key in the ignition and tries to run Jonathan over with it. Despite Pinker's ability to leap into someone's body by touching them, he fails to use this skill when our hero picks up the little girl (wouldn't it be easier for Pinker to just jump into Jonathan's body and force him to kill himself?).After escaping a few more retarded twists during this scenario, Jonathan seeks help from the first person anyone with a shape-shifting murderer chasing them would run to: his football coach (who, naturally, believes our hero's entire story without question and can't wait to help). Pinker takes over more bodies, he kills some people, he gets a few guns along the way and shoots at Jonathan approximately 819 times without hitting him, etc.It takes almost two hours for this tripe to arrive at its thudding conclusion. Jonathan eventually figures out a plan to stop Pinker (way too involved and stupid for me to waste your time with here), but before he implements it he takes a break to have sex with the ghost of his dead girlfriend. In case you're curious, the climax finds Jonathan transforming into electricity (?), leaping into a television set (??), and doing battle with Pinker throughout TV land (???). Oh, and our hero also uses a remote control to force Pinker through a series of grade-school pratfalls (fast forward makes the brutish killer talk in a high squeaky voice, hardy har). Other than the ample displays of Pinker's gory handiwork, there is absolutely nothing to recommend in this wretched mess. The meandering plot never coheres into a rational story, and the padded sentimentality of Jonathan's visits from his ghostly lover belongs in a young adult romance novel, not a fright flick. About the only thing Craven gets right is ending the movie in a way that doesn't blatantly crack open the door for a sequel (I can't even imagine how awful Shocker 2: Electric Boogaloo would be...). The only shocker here is that the same film-maker who made a horror film as intelligent as New Nightmare also helmed this load of abysmal, mindless crap. Maybe he directed this after suffering a concussion at football practice?

This is better than expected. Wes Craven tries to create another boogeyman in the character of Horace Pinker. Pinker is a serial killer who studies voodoo and kills entire families in their sleep. A young college football player named Jon (Peter Berg) develops a psychic link with Pinker. Jon begins an attempt to help the police catch the crazed killer. The first half of the film is realistic and intense, but the second half is based in the supernatural. Pinker gets the electric chair but becomes an evil entity that can transfer from body to body (mush like "Fallen" with Denzel Washington) and move through electricity. Once again Jon must use his link to stop the killer. Or is the killer to powerful to be stopped? There is some surprising gore and a pretty nifty plot twist. It's fun to watch a young Peter Berg in an earlier role but the film tend to drag a little. This film came near the end of the slasher craze and Craven was trying to cash in on it one more time. Craven was trying to make a point about televisions and the media, it was evident in the film. Overall, it was a solid and better than average slasher flick with a supernatural killer.