Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Leofwine_draca An uneven blend of horror and comedy, this film is definitely entertaining if not exactly good. Directed by Wes Craven, who has had years of experience behind him now, the film seems to have stolen from a number of sources - HOUSE, THE EVIL DEAD, and the director's own A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. However, the influences blend together into a pleasing film which is virtually a remake of NIGHTMARE, but with a different 'monster' and an opportunity for better special effects. The layout of the film is erratic. It starts off as a standard slasher film, before becoming an undead electrified killer on the loose film (shades of HOUSE 3 here) and then a strange weird film which is quite unlike anything I've seen before, where the opponents fight through the television sets. The final part of the film is by far the most original and the best bit.The acting is pretty much standard here, but all involved acquit themselves nicely with their roles and there are some interesting names to look out for. The main hero, played by Peter Berg (who reminds me of a young Bill Paxton) is pretty much adequate in his role, and is not given much to do except fight a lot and provide a character for the rest of the film to centre around. Interestingly the actor has now gone on to directing, namely VERY BAD THINGS and BATTLESHIP. However, the role of Horace Pinker was given to a then relatively unknown actor, Mitch Pileggi, who is better known these days as Assistant Director Walker Skinner from THE X-FILES! It was a big surprise to see good old Skinner ripping off people's fingers and generally being an all round bad guy, and it makes for entertaining viewing. In fact Pileggi's wild overacting makes the film worth watching, he's hilarious in his role.Added to this is a cameo from NIGHTMARE regular Heather Lagenkamp as a victim (what else?) and Ted Raimi as of Parker's friends. Raimi goes his usual way, getting killed in a most bloody fashion! Horace Pinker is pretty much a standard maniac bloke, stabbing people with a big knife, but halfway through the film he also starts spewing a ton of Freddy Krueger-inspired wisecracks, such as biting off a man's fingers and shouting "finger licking good!". As these lines are delivered by Pilegge with gusto I couldn't help laughing. The film also has some excellent special effects, especially when Pinker runs around in a fuzzy, electric-type form, and these are well worth watching for. The film is a derivative affair, but it's handled with pace, and there is a lot of action in it (just watch for the extended fight scene at the end, where the pair practice wrestling moves on each other!) and if you're in the right goofy mood then you'll probably enjoy it like I did. It's quite difficult not to enjoy really.

ivo-cobra8 Shocker (1989) is a master of horror Wes Craven's underrated excellent horror flick, that I do believe is a classic and I love it to death! It is my third favorite Wes Craven's horror flick. This movie is a memories on my childhood, I grew up watching this movie as a kid. The same thing that was with the Chinese director John Woo by me, I had no idea who was Wes Craven or that it was directed by him. The only movie I memorized by Wes was Scream, which become my favorite film when I was 15 years old, I watched Scream with my mom and even my mom liked Scream. I found out a year later about this film Shocker, but version I had on VHS was extremely horrible lousy picture quality and awful audio. The subtitles were extreme lousy dubbed so I couldn't watch this film. Now recently I got this film on Blu-ray and I really had a blast watching this horror film! A Nightmare on Elm Street and New Nightmare are my favorite Wes Craven's horror films that I love to death and Shocker is my third favorite horror film is my number 3 Wes Craven's slasher horror flick, that I love to death! This amazing stylish horror film from the late 80's is about a diabolical mass murderer who harness electricity for unimaginable killing powers. Why I love this film? because Horace Pinker is a bad ass, kick-ass villain! The film simply reminds me on A Nightmare on Elm Street the original flick. Btw I hate horror idiotic icon Michael Myers from Halloween franchise, I hate him and I hate Jason Voorhees the same as Myers, but Horace Pinker could kick both of their assess! I love this film because in any horror film that I remember the main hero of the whole film is a kick ass guy who is likable decent male hero character trough whole film! In every horror film that I remember the main hero is always some stupid girl, but Wes tried something else which it worked.You have a great horror, likable characters, a lot's of action, a lot of fantasy in it and a lot of fun. This is Peter Berg's best film in his whole career which is an awesome classic! Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) from A Nightmare on Elm Street is my favorite number 1 horror icon heroine but Jonathan Parker is my favorite number 1 horror icon which I love him to death.I love the music scores from Megadeth and The Dudes of Wrath, I love soundtracks No More Mr. Nice Guy and shocker to death.My favorite scene is when Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi) posses the body of 9 year old girl and drives an excavator and try's to kill Jonathan which that scene was incredible awesome! Horace posses the body of Lt. Don Parker (Michael Murphy) and hunts down Jonathan (Peter Berg) and shots with a gun on him, missing him and they both fight face off on a tower when they both climbing up and Don Parker kick's him away.Ghost Alison Clemens (Camille Cooper) kick's Horace's spirit away from Jonathan.Jonathan face's off Horace him self and fight's him off and finally beat's him in his own game, like Nancy did and he survives.The cast is very solid in here: Mitch Pileggi gave a solid performance, Peter Berg's best underrated role, Camille Cooper is very underrated and excellent actress in here.You also have Ted Raimi in here and Heather Langenkamp in a cameo scene as Horace's Victim.Wes Craven did amazing job as script writer and director you have a solid script and awesome dialogue in the film.R.I.P. - Wes Craven (1939 - 2015) I really miss you and thank you for all the Freddy movies, thank you for all horror franchise and movies like are: A Nightmare on Elm Street, New Nightmare, Scream, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Shocker and The People Under the Stairs. I love you so much I wish you could done more horror movies I really love them.Overall: I love Shocker to death and it is my third favorite Wes Craven's horror film! The rating is a 10/10 for me.Shocker (also known as Wes Craven's Shocker) is a 1989 American horror film written and directed by Wes Craven. It stars Michael Murphy, Peter Berg, and Mitch Pileggi as the evil antagonist Horace Pinker 10/10 Grade: Bad Ass Seal Of Approval Studio: Universal Pictures, Alive Films Starring: Michael Murphy, Peter Berg, Cami Cooper, Mitch Pileggi, Sam Scarber, Richard Brooks, Ted Raimi, Heather Langenkamp, Lindsay Parker, Janne Peters Director: Wes Craven Producers: Warren Chadwick, Wes Craven, Bob Engelman, Peter Foster, Shep Gordon, Barin Kumar, Marianne Maddalena Screenplay: Wes Craven Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 50 Mins. Budget: $5.000.000 Box Office: $16,554,699

happyendingrocks Assuredly the lowest point of Wes Craven's filmography, Shocker is a jumbled and often absurd horror/comedy that woefully misfires on both counts. The convoluted plot crowds in so many mismatched pieces that it seems like Craven decided to cram sketches of several movies into this one, and the end result is an over-long pastiche of clichés that limps along to its obnoxiously lame conclusion begging desperately to be put out of its misery.I'm hoping that writing the plot down will help me make sense of it in my own mind, so let's give it a shot. The story is centered around a brutal serial killer named Horace Pinker (played by the normally solid Mitch Pileggi, who eschews acting here in favor of presenting an over-blown caricature of a movie psycho) and a twenty-something protagonist named Jonathan Parker, who, in a fine example of how relentlessly silly this movie is, we later discover is actually Pinker's long-lost son.Though this is never made clear, the sequence of events seems to suggest that after suffering a concussion at football practice, Parker somehow develops supernatural powers that allow him to dream of Pinker's murders while they're happening. After Pinker butchers Jonathan's entire family (except for his detective father), and later his girlfriend, the vengeful lad makes catching the madman his personal mission. This leads to a Nightmare On Elm Street-cloning moment where Jonathan forces himself to fall asleep to see where Pinker will strike next and asks a friend to wake him up at the first sign of trouble.Through Jonathan's resourceful plan, Pinker is captured and eventually executed via electric chair (the next day, apparently, since no effort is made to suggest any sort of time elapsing in between). However, before this justice is meted out the crafty maniac performs a Satanic ritual with the television in his cell, during which demonic yellow electricity overtakes him, ostensibly giving him the ability to transfer his essence into other people's bodies and take them over. Using this power, Pinker is able to escape his demise in the chair by jumping into someone else's body, and the killer is then free to roam the streets again while masking his identity with a series of human disguises (remember the movie The Hidden? If not, you should check it out, since it's a hell of a lot better than this one).Clearly miffed that Jonathan foiled his murderous plans, Pinker's first order of business is getting revenge on his nemesis. Luckily, Jonathan is informed of Pinker's non-demise thanks to a dream he has, in which his dead, covered-in-blood girlfriend appears to warn him. In the vision, she hands Jonathan the necklace he once gave her and tells him it's the secret weapon that will stop Pinker once and for all (???), and, in yet another Elm Street lift, Jonathan wakes up to find the necklace in his bed.Thus begins the second phase of the film, in which Pinker pursues Jonathan while inhabiting a variety of bodies. Apparently our hero read the script ahead of time, because the first time he is confronted by Pinker (disguised as a police officer), he immediately sees through the ruse and deduces that the malevolent spirit of Pinker is controlling the cop's body, and he also figures out without hesitation that when the body's life force is used up, Pinker will have to find another vessel to occupy.In one of the film's ludicrous high-points, Pinker zaps into the body of a little girl, who then commandeers a conveniently abandoned tractor with the key in the ignition and tries to run Jonathan over with it. Despite Pinker's ability to leap into someone's body by touching them, he fails to use this skill when our hero picks up the little girl (wouldn't it be easier for Pinker to just jump into Jonathan's body and force him to kill himself?).After escaping a few more retarded twists during this scenario, Jonathan seeks help from the first person anyone with a shape-shifting murderer chasing them would run to: his football coach (who, naturally, believes our hero's entire story without question and can't wait to help). Pinker takes over more bodies, he kills some people, he gets a few guns along the way and shoots at Jonathan approximately 819 times without hitting him, etc.It takes almost two hours for this tripe to arrive at its thudding conclusion. Jonathan eventually figures out a plan to stop Pinker (way too involved and stupid for me to waste your time with here), but before he implements it he takes a break to have sex with the ghost of his dead girlfriend. In case you're curious, the climax finds Jonathan transforming into electricity (?), leaping into a television set (??), and doing battle with Pinker throughout TV land (???). Oh, and our hero also uses a remote control to force Pinker through a series of grade-school pratfalls (fast forward makes the brutish killer talk in a high squeaky voice, hardy har). Other than the ample displays of Pinker's gory handiwork, there is absolutely nothing to recommend in this wretched mess. The meandering plot never coheres into a rational story, and the padded sentimentality of Jonathan's visits from his ghostly lover belongs in a young adult romance novel, not a fright flick. About the only thing Craven gets right is ending the movie in a way that doesn't blatantly crack open the door for a sequel (I can't even imagine how awful Shocker 2: Electric Boogaloo would be...). The only shocker here is that the same film-maker who made a horror film as intelligent as New Nightmare also helmed this load of abysmal, mindless crap. Maybe he directed this after suffering a concussion at football practice?

Vivekmaru45 This one is his best, apart from his other gem, The Serpent And The Rainbow.In this one, Mitch Pileggi plays his most famous and iconic role, the psychopath Horace Pinker: TV repairman by day, serial killer and practitioner of the occult arts at night.Our hero in this film is played by the excellent Peter Berg.Plot: One day Jonathan (Peter Berg) has a dream in which he witnesses his family being slaughtered by a maniac. Having seen Pinker's TV repair-van in his dreams, he now tells his father, detective Lt. Don Parker (Michael Murphy) where to find Pinker, but under one condition: that he accompany his father on his mission to capture Pinker... But Pinker is not the easy prey that they think.