SHOCKER [1989]

 "I JUST HAAAAAAAAD TO LAUGH!" 

Let's get this movie straight in our minds, OK?  From the beginning, our 'hero' runs headlong into a goalpost.  Our 'serial killer' shows up to kill a family and parks his TV repair van WITH HIS ACTUAL NAME EMBLAZONED ON THE SIDE in front of the house.  Why doesn't he just sell tickets to the cops.  I mean, this movie doesn't even make sense with it's own internal logic.  It is a comedy pure and simple.  Wes Craven is having fun here.  I mean, there's that whole sequence where Horace Pinker chases Jonathan through TV show after TV show

(which is frankly the best part of the film) which seems lifted right from the John Ritter comedy STAY TUNED . . . .which hadn't even been made yet!  SHOCKER and it's killer Pinker (admittedly a really great visual) was meant to launch another horror franchise and didn't simply because the film is awful.  And stupid.  Badly written, badly acted and, dare I say it, even badly directed (i.e. when the Coach is sent to Jonathan's house to get his diving mask and Jonathan slowly enters the house . . . . the bathroom door is ajar and we see the "Jonathan Stop Him" writing in blood on the mirror about half a minute before Jonathan enters the bathroom and we cut to a 'surprise' reveal shot of  . . . . the writing on the mirror).  I mean, this was obviously supposed to be a 'surprise' or else why the cut to the mirror; but if so, why is the mirror mostly on camera for half a minute BEFORE the reveal?!?!?

  I have to admit that no, I've never seen all the silly Freddy Krueger sequels -- I've only ever seen the first film -- and if they were as stupid and silly as SHOCKER then no wonder they killed horror movies after the 1980's.  Unfortunately, if SHOCKER was in the 'so bad it's good' category it would be great but the film is just too dull for that.  Illogical, wacky stuff happens but not enough to make this movie a lot of fun.  There are just too many dull stretches.  The thumbnail synopsis has Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi) as a serial killer who likes to kill entire families.  After Jonathan (Peter Berg) slams into a goalpost, he starts having prophetic dreams in which he sees the killings happen in his dreams; he sees Pinker's TV repair van in his dream as well as Pinker himself doing the killings.  Jonathan tells his policeman father (Michael Murphy) and they go catch Pinker who is given the electric chair.  Pinker has been having a 'thing' with electricity so the electric chair only manages to give Pinker's 'ghost' the ability to body-hop (a la DC Comics' DEADMAN) from person to person. Naughtiness ensues.  As I've said, this fairly straight-forward plot has a script that will have you saying "WHAT?!?!?!?!" at the screen every 5 minutes as another wacky thing happens that doesn't quite make any sense.  I've never seen an interview with the director but I'd love to know what Wes Craven had to say about this film; whether it was just for the money or whether he was experimenting with deliriously hallucinogenic storytelling.  But sadly for me, SHOCKER is neither enough of one thing or the other.  Without the wackiness, it would've been a pretty good slasher and with much more of the trippinesss it would've been much more entertaining and interesting.  Unfortunately, we're left with a movie which really doesn't know what it wants to be.