“For now, maybe… but when you wake up… It’s back… in the saddle… again.”
Freddy Krueger- A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
When people say, “They don’t make movies like this anymore,” they are talking about movies like Shocker. Wes Craven’s film is an aggressive, original, and bonkers take on the slasher genre. This forgotten gem starring Peter Berg is smashed between A Nightmare on Elm St and Scream and feels like the perfect bridge.
Horace Pinker is a serial sent to the electric chair. The serial killer makes a deal with the devil via electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player, played by Peter Berg, who helps the police catch the killer. Mitch Pileggi plays Pinker. You might recognize Pileggi as Skinner from the X-Files. Both Pinker and Berg are doing some very interesting things in this movie.
Craven’s script is, let’s be honest, insane. We are dealing with a killer that works through electricity, and Berg’s character, Jonathan Parker, has clairvoyant dreams. His dreams catch the killer but not before he murders a lot of people. There’s a scene early in the film where the killer murders Parker’s adopted family. He sees this in his dream. His Dad, who happens to be the lead detective on the case, uses this intell to arrest Pinker. All this occurs within the first 15 minutes of the film.
The first act is silly to the point of exhaustion. There’s so much setup and backstory happening that you forget that this is a horror film. The second act is crazy. The film quickly becomes a chase film mashed with psychic powers, laser beams, possession, and characters getting sucked into a TV set. It sometimes feels like a lost Nightmare on Elm St sequel.
Craven has a beautiful knack for creating tension in situations that are beyond ludicrous. We have a serial killer who travels via electricity and can shoot it from his hands like a Mortal Kombat character, yet we believe our protagonist will eventually outwit him.
The special effects aren’t very good, even for 1989. This is a problem because the film relies heavily on them. I’ve read that Craven’s biggest wish is that he could redo the movie with today’s effects. There’s also a wild twist forty minutes in that completely surprised me. I’m not sure it was completely necessary, but it just adds to the insanity.
Shocker isn’t a good movie. It has tons of holes and silliness, but somehow, Craven makes it work. Shocker seems like a creator’s first attempt at filmmaking, but in reality, it was the studio giving Craven complete control of his vision. There’s blood, plot twists, possessions, ghosts, psychic powers, and slapstick comedy. It’s like Craven thought he might never get a chance to make another horror film, so he put every single trope in this one. They don’t make films like Shocker anymore, but then again, they never really did.
