Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786301603386
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 6301603389
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: 1998-01-01
Running Time: 109
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1989-10-27

Wes Craven's horror pictures always have a few wild ideas knocking around inside them, and this 1989 slashfest is no exception. The electrocution of a mass murderer turns into a kind of cosmic jump-start: evil Horace Pinker is reborn as an elusive electronic phantom, capable of leaping from one body to another. (This trick is also used to good effect in The Hidden and Fallen.) Pinker's a stinker, and Craven was clearly trying to set up another franchise villain in the vein of his Nightmare on Elm Street champ, Freddy Krueger--perhaps a bit too baldly. However, amidst the mayhem, the film's real subject is the poisonous presence of mass media, as Pinker (played by The X-Files' Mitch Pileggi) insinuates himself as a free-floating spirit run amok in television itself. In its own pulp way, Shocker gets at the heart of media-culture inanity quicker than a ten-week college class on the subject, and although Craven occasionally lapses into generic bloodletting, he always snaps right back with some crazy angle on the TV nation. The hero is played by a young Peter Berg, the Chicago Hope star who would go on to direct his own shocker, Very Bad Things. Shocker failed to catch on with audiences (somewhere there's a warehouse full of unsold Horace Pinker action figures), but it's definitely worth a look for horror fans. --Robert Horton

Customer Rating:
Summary: Wish you could rate a movie 'below' one star
Comment: Anyone whose watched lots and lots of movies, always encounters some bad ones...it's the law of averages. But this movie, Shocker...was not just bad, it was horrible. No, horrible would be too kind. I was hoping it ended about 47 minutes before it actually closed it's final curtain. If you ever buy this movie in any format...remember...you were warned !!!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not Shocking
Comment: When you think of the greatest villians in cinema the name Horace Pinker will not pop up. Who is he? In this film, he is a sadistic mass murder who kills entire families. He is cold and heartless, a pure joy to watch. Cops cannnot figure out how he gets in and out without a trace. This is the sound of an excellent film but things turn sour fast. Jonathan dreams of Pinker killing his foster mother and the kids she is caring for. Wait, is this Nightmare on Elm Street? John tells his father, a cop, and they go after Pinker. Really? The cops couldnt figure this one out for themselves? The same van outside every murder? The movie really does not explain things very well. Like how he did get in there homes without being noticed. They finally capture Pinker after he kills John's girlfriend and he gets fried in the chair. Before he is fried, he preaches to tv and gets super powers. You'd think Pinker would go thru various electric devices to get to John but instead he travels from body to body. Sure, the little girl was predictable but fun. Like I said, it doesnt follow a plot and its way to close to Craven's Nightmare on Elm Street. The end where he dreams and fights Pinker thru various tv shows and its fine but couldnt save this film. The part were Pinker is a couch is Freddy esque but cool. John uses the pause button on Pinker and just talks and wastes time. I dont have a button on my remote that makes me jump up and down on my bed. Then the movie ends and everyone should be happy.

Overall, it appears that Craven tried to recreate A Nightmare On Elm Street with this film. It had a good story but the film doesnt follow the plot well and there is alot of missed chances. Pileggi is a tour de force with Pinker and is the only thing that can save this film. Its a good thing they did not try to make a sequel to this.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Shockingly awful!.
Comment: I really wanted to like this film but I couldn't, no matter how many times I watched this I still end up being bored I'm not sure why some horror fans liked this as it seems to have a cult following and the film itself was a flop. The film had an interesting plot but somehow it just didn't work. Shocker is a very weak slasher film done by Wes Craven, the acting was really bad and not to mention the script was full of plot holes. The story's about a serial killer and television repairman named Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi) who is sentenced to die for a series of brutal murders, he is sent to be electrocuted with Jonathan Parker played by Peter Berg on watch since Jonathan sent Pinker away for killing some members of his family. Pinker though made a pact with the devil and had been increasing his own tolerance for electricity by jolting himself in his own prison cell and so the electrocution attempt fails when Pinker turns into a burst of energy and escapes through the electricity lines, he also has the ability to go from body to body which means that the main character has difficulties knowing whose body he has entered. This might sound like a fun and interesting horror film but its not its absolute rubbish, there aren't any scares in the film and its kind of hard to take seriously since the killer keeps saying awful oneliners and the overall tone of the film is very bright instead of being dark and gritty, the film had a few bloody death scenes but there was little gore and most of it was disappointing. Well there was one part that I did find interesting which was the chase scene in the park where Horace Pinker keeps switching bodies until he finds a little girl who starts screaming and cursing which was quite funny then she starts operating a bulldozer with an evil grin on her face trying to kill Jonathan but that wasn't enough to keep me interested cause half of the time I just thought it was a very silly and dull film and the special fx looked awful, the only good thing I could think of about Shocker was the great 80's metal soundtrack which totally rocked. Overall I would say it was a terrible film from Wes Craven who has made better films then this obviously but this one just stinks and I suggest you avoid it unless you wanna watch every film done by Wes Craven, now I know that Amazon are not going to post this review cause for some reason I wasn't allowed to review Shocker last year for some odd reason.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Two Stars....For the Soundtrack
Comment: What starts off as a decent "slasher" movie, turns into prolonged "hair metal" video that Beavis and Butthead would laugh at. I did like Mitch Pileggi as "Horace Pinker", he was sufficently menacing, and came out with some decent one-liners ala Freddy Krueger. The overall storyline to "Shocker" is too similar to another 80's horror flick called "The Horror Show" which is much better. "Shocker" tries to go for some laughs (like the scene where Horace possesses a little girl who then jumps into a bulldozer to try and run down the hero...cussing all the while), but usually the humor falls way short. The goofy scenes with the hero chasing Horace through various television programs is just plain goofy, neither funny or horrific...just kind of blah!
The best part of the film for me was the hair metal soundtrack provided by 80's hair metal mainstay Desmond Child. Featuring Alice Cooper, Paul Stanley of Kiss and many others, the soundtrack is will run through your head long after the storyline of the film is forgotten. Pass on this one and get "The Horror Show" instead.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Pretty fun "horror" flick
Comment: I know horror flicks aren't meant to be funny but the Shocker comes off pretty damn funny at times. Horace Pinker is a serial murderer. After a string of family homicides he is caught and put to death by the electric chair. Of course this is only a foreshadow to something much worse. He resurfaces again as a totally different being. To reveal anymore would result in a huge spoiler.

The special effects are ok for its time. There is a decent bit of gore. The plot doesn't put you to sleep at all, it gets straight to the point. A couple of things didn't really add up to me. Still this is a decent flick to check out especially if your a fan of Wes Craven's work. A shame the Shocker didn't begin a long line of sequels. With some creative ideas behind this, the character would have been recognized as one of the major boogeymen of the horror genre.

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