By Geno McGahee
I have stated in the past that I hated SHOCKER, but time heals all and I gave it another chance. Hell, this movie had the best soundtrack of ANY film in the history of film and that alone forced me to give it another chance. Wes Craven was still riding high off of the success of Freddy Krueger and came up with a new bad guy named Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), a serial killer that also is damn good at fixing TV sets.
Jonathan Parker (Peter Berg) is a football player that is a star but can’t stay on his feet. In one scene, he’s sacked, runs into a post, and then falls over a table. I am not sure if Wes thought that it was comedic gold, but if he did, he’s fucked in the head. There is a lot of humor in this that doesn’t work, but there is some unintentional humor that cracks me up. When one of the cops is strangled by a chord to the radio, the cop has this shocked look on his face and they keep cutting to him just in case you missed it the first twenty times. I couldn’t help but to laugh.
Pinker murders the Parker family, with the exception of Jonathan and his father, Lt. Don Parker (Michael Murphy). We find out that (spoiler) Jonathan is actually the son of Pinker and has a connection with him, which helps him lead the police to him and bust him. Pinker gets executed, but not before praying to the God of TV to help him out with life beyond the human existence. The TV God says “you got it baby” and we have a supernatural horror movie on our hands now. It is a shocker!
Before Pinker goes, he actually kills Jonathan’s girlfriend, Alison (Camille Cooper), making this a revenge movie. When Jonathan finds his girl, the reaction he gives is priceless. He just looks at her and has his mouth open wide. It’s that great silent scream that we love so much. Good job Berg!
The execution of Pinker doesn’t go according to plan and some strange things happen, but everyone is pretty secure that he is dead. Unfortunately, that damn TV god or whatever has allowed him to jump from body to body, but he still cannot get beyond his disability. Pinker has a bum leg and that carries over to every body that he takes over, making it pretty easy to tell just where he is. If that doesn’t do it, the evil smile and demeanor that screams bad guy will.
Jonathan has to find a way to stop Pinker and since the TV God was responsible, TV is the only way to get him. At one point, Pinker uses a satellite dish to launch himself onto cable and kills people in their homes by jumping out of their TVs. Maybe this movie should have been 3-D. This prompts Jonathan to set him up and have one final showdown with the man that is not Mr. Nice Guy anymore.
The finale is as silly as the rest of the movie is, but there is plenty of charm here. I have to be honest and say that I really disliked this movie for years, but I guess it takes watching it dozens of times before it grows on you. SHOCKER is not a classic film, but I found it very enjoyable and silly. I am actually recommending it here. Wow. I am recommending SHOCKER after all these years. That is a shocker.
Rating: 6/10
