Shocker
by Wes Craven
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Actor: Camille Cooper, Michael Murphy, Mitch Pileggi, Peter Berg, Sam ScarberDirector: Wes Craven
Brand: Universal
Writer: Wes Craven
Producer: Barin Kumar
Producer: Marianne Maddalena
Producer: Peter Foster
Producer: Robert Engelman
Producer: Shep Gordon
Producer: Warren Chadwick
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-03-16
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Shocker
DVD Review: TV Is Hazardous To Your Health
Summary: 2 Stars
When Wes Craven first released "A Nightmare On Elm Street" back in 1984, he may or may not of known how the world of dreams would impact his career from this point on. This film, which came out in 1989, continues to follow the dream trend he created in his work with his classic "Elm Street". And, sadly, it doesn't hit the jackpot. After Craven saw his Freddy films get sequeled into oblivion and having not had a hand in them, albeit having problems with the studio and stuff over it, Alive Films approached Wes with an offer to create a new franchise and a new horror hero. Excited by the new chance, Craven took the offer and the end result was mixed. The movie centers around young football player Jonathan Parker(played by future "Chicago Hope" vet and director, Peter Berg), who, in quintessential Craven dream-like form, witnesses the brutal slaying of his foster family in a dream. When he sees the killer's face and his van with the name of his business in his dream, he informs his police lieutenant father Donald Parker(Michael Murphy)about it, and the hunt is on. The killer is Horace Pinker(Mitch Pileggi, who would later claim fame as Walter Skinner on "The X Files"),a TV repairman with a bald head and one nasty limp. With the help of Jonathan's dreams, Horace is caught and given the death sentence. After Horace is given the chair, the terror really starts to begin as he concocted some magic voodoo spell that has transformed him into an evil electricity that can use energy waves to move around and to possess unsuspecting people. And what is his main mission now?. That's right, get the kid who identified him. For a movie that is obviously over the top and silly, it sometimes gets too silly and over the top for it's own good and collapses under the weight. It's uneven and the mythology that Craven has created for the character and what Horace can now do can sometimes be confusing and you are not sure of what he can do or if he can do that at all. New ideas for the character and the ways he can move and stuff seem to just be created as Craven goes along. To his credit, I have to say that Mitch Pileggi is a great bad guy. He really does a great job with Horace. There are moments of pure camp, but he manages to be real and threatening without embarrasing himself. If he does overdo it at times, then it is only for the benefit of the film. I enjoy his performance with this character and he was very convincing. Peter Berg also does a pretty good job with Jonathan. It's unusual to see a male as the lead in a teeny-type horror film, but he does a decent job. Not all is bad with this film. It is far from being anywhere close to being Craven's best work, but even when Craven isn't hitting on all fronts, his films and writing and storytelling are still wildly inventive, creative, hip, and smart. There are a number of good scenes here and visuals and cool ideas that keep the film afloat and show that Wes definitley has the right idea, but they don't always come out on film the way they do on paper. The end battle scene with Jonathan and Horace is wild and crazy and kind of funny, but it doesn't really have any great impact or emotional depth to it. It's more of a use of stock footage and for people to point out who they recognize. "Shocker" isn't a total failure. It's not great, but it is highly watchable and has a great camp feel to it that will keep it alive and keep somewhat interesting as you watch it.
Description of Shocker
Bonus features: theatrical trailer film highlights talent bios production notes and web links. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 09/02/2003 Starring: Michael Murphy Richard Brooks Run time: 109 minutes Rating: R Director: Wes CravenWes Craven's horror pictures always have a few wild ideas knocking around inside them, and this 1989 slashfest is no exception. The electrocution of a mass murderer turns into a kind of cosmic jump-start: evil Horace Pinker is reborn as an elusive electronic phantom, capable of leaping from one body to another. (This trick is also used to good effect in The Hidden and Fallen.) Pinker's a stinker, and Craven was clearly trying to set up another franchise villain in the vein of his Nightmare on Elm Street champ, Freddy Krueger--perhaps a bit too baldly. However, amidst the mayhem, the film's real subject is the poisonous presence of mass media, as Pinker (played by The X-Files' Mitch Pileggi) insinuates himself as a free-floating spirit run amok in television itself. In its own pulp way, Shocker gets at the heart of media-culture inanity quicker than a ten-week college class on the subject, and although Craven occasionally lapses into generic bloodletting, he always snaps right back with some crazy angle on the TV nation. The hero is played by a young Peter Berg, the Chicago Hope star who would go on to direct his own shocker, Very Bad Things. Shocker failed to catch on with audiences (somewhere there's a warehouse full of unsold Horace Pinker action figures), but it's definitely worth a look for horror fans. --Robert Horton
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