Late Night Classics – Shocker

Wes Craven’s 1984 magnum opus – A Nightmare on Elm Street – transcended the horror genre with an icon for the ages. Cinema had never seen a villian like him before, or since – a child murderer who returns from the grave to avenge his death after the “Elm Street” parents exact retribution by catching him on fire for the murders of their children. The real genius is introducing the rubber reality realm as a way by which Freddy could invade your dreams. We all have to sleep sometimes, and if you do, a butchering is awaiting.

For the film to get made though, Wes gave up the rights to New Line Cinema’s CEO Bob Shaye, leading to legal entanglements that caused serious friction between the two over the years. Though Wes would eventually return to the franchise he created in 1994 [New Nightmare], he yearned to establish a new madman to call his own.

Nightmare would go on to become a box-office sensation and put New Line on the map -  to this day the company is referred to as ”the house that Freddy built”.

Universal Pictures releases Shocker on October 27, 1989.

TV repairman/serial killer Horace Pinker [Mitch Pileggi] has been limping around Los Angeles slaughtering one family after another. When detective Don Parker [Michael Murphy] starts closing in on Pinker, he murders his wife, daughter, and biological son. Jonathan [Peter Berg] is his adopted son, who has a unique connection where he can see the killings before they happen.

Jonathan leads the police to a repair shop where Pinker makes a getaway, not before slicing and dicing some police officers. He sets his sights on Jonathan’s main squeeze Alison [Cami Cooper], brutally murdering her. Eventually Horace is caught and sent to die in the electric chair, not before he made a deal with the evil gods and becomes a high-voltage phantom upon death. He now has the ability to jump in and out of bodies, televisions, and airwaves. How do you stop someone who doesn’t take human form?

The first thing you notice right off the bat is that this is not straight-up horror. Starting in the mid-80′s with films like Re-Animator and Return of the Living Dead, humor was being injected into fright flicks, sometimes with inconsistent results. Even though Shocker is a not-so guilty pleasure of mine, it’s not without its faults.

The first fifteen minutes are played straight and you think this could be a real white knuckler, but it becomes apparent the more you see Pinker, the more you realize that he is more comic relief than terrifying. Quotes like  “Come on, boy, let’s take a ride in my Volts Wagon!” and “Finger lickin’ good!” fall flat, then hit the zenith when a possessed little girl starts up a bulldozer and says “Come on, you fucker! Move! ”

The official remake for A Nightmare on Elm Street hits cinemas in 2010, and you could call Shocker a quasi-redux considering all the similiarities between the two. The suburban setting, dream scenarios, and even the opening credits ape Craven’s trendsetter.

At the end of the day, this is still is a fun, head bangin’ horror film. The soundtrack is the best since Lamberto Bava’s Demons. There is Megadeth belting out a cover of Alice Cooper’s No More Mr. Nice guy and The Dudes of Wrath screaming the main title track.

What a lot of fans might not realize is that while this film is a bloodbath, it was heavily censored by Jack Valenti’s violence crusaders at the MPAA. Time after time it was sent back for trimming. I’m not sure if the footage exists, but I’d love to see a Director’s Cut released one day.

Sadly, Shocker didn’t fair well with tickets sells, nixing any chance of a return visit by Craven’s latest designer psycho.

Wes Craven’s Shocker is derivative of everything from The Thing to The Hidden, and won’t win points for being frightening. I say take it for what it is – a hoot and half that should be experienced with a six pack of beer.

Heather Langenkamp cameos as a potential victim, Wes Craven as the neighbor at the end, and Dr. Timothy Leary as a television evangelist.

To commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Shocker, the New Beverly in Los Angeles held a screening with Wes Craven, Ted Raimi [Pac-Man], Richard Brooks [Rhino], and Vincent Guastaferro [Pastori] in attendance.