Shocker (1989)
Directed & Written by Wes Craven
Starring: Michael Murphy, Peter Berg, Cami Cooper, Mitch Pileggi, Heather Langenkamp
Plot Synopsis: (via IMDb)
After being sent to the electric chair, a serial killer uses electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player who turned him in to the police.
My Opinion:
Been meaning to watch this for ages as I love old Wes Craven (RIP) horrors. I’m a huge fan of A Nightmare On Elm Street and think Scream is pretty great and, hell, I even like Deadly Friend and Red Eye. Shocker isn’t a very well known Craven film and I can now see why, unfortunately. Well, I still had some fun with it despite it certainly not being anywhere near Elm Street standards. We even get a Heather Langenkamp cameo in this! Which I didn’t notice in the slightest until reading her name in the credits online… Damn.
I’ll start with the bad: The effects are dodgy as hell and the acting isn’t the greatest. Not that you expect too much from an old slasher but these elements somehow worked beautifully in 1984’s Elm Street. Shocker was five years later but looks and feels so much worse. The bad guy is also bland and boring. How could we go from Freddy Krueger, one of the best slasher villains with loads of personality, to this? All the characters in this movie are weak compared to such strong ones in Elm Street (Freddy & Nancy are great).
Also, the story is a mess. I know it’s not rocket science but my mind kept wandering and then when I paid attention again I couldn’t figure out what the hell was going on. This was partly due to a lot of things occurring when our main good guy was in a “dream state”, I think (Ha! Like Elm Street!). But, also: The serial killer, who ends up being, um, “electricity” or some shit after being in the electric chair, didn’t seem adhere to the “rules” set out by his situation. Yeah yeah – I know it’s ridiculous anyway. But I didn’t understand how he was defeated in the end (Oops. Spoiler? Not really – it’s a cheesy old slasher. The killer is always defeated). The good guy wasn’t “electricity” – how was he diving into televisions and shit? And is this town just never ever going to turn on the electricity ever again??? Huh? Why am I even thinking about this…?
Well. I’m glad I saw Shocker as I love Craven and had just never gotten around to seeing this one. Oh yeah… I said I was gonna start with the bad as if I had a long list of good things too. Um. Hmm. I guess I kind of liked the absolutely ridiculous ending where they’re hopping about inside different television shows within TV sets. Although that made NO fucking sense whatsoever so maybe that’s not a “good” thing. But it’s the only time the movie had a slight sense of fun. This movie is actually listed as comedy as well as horror at IMDb but there was zero comedy until that slightly amusing bit at the end. Oh, and some silly stuff at the very start where the main guy was being all dorky in front of his pretty girlfriend. Maybe the whole movie would’ve been better if it had been more of a comedy.
My Rating: 5.5/10
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