Shocker Year of Release: 1989 Director: Wes Craven

	1989 – Slashers were big (although their popularity was rapidly disappearing), Wes Craven, the master of horror and writer/director of the phenomenon that was A Nightmare on Elm Street made this film as an attempt to start a new slasher franchise for Universal – as there were never any sequels, we can see it didn’t turn out as successfully as planned. What it’s about: TV repairman Horace Pinker is on a murderous rampage, killing people all over town, leaving no clues for the police as to who is behind such dastardly actions. Introducing Jonathan Parker – high school football star and psychic dreamer...yep. Once Jonathan’s visions eventually get Horace behind bars it looks like it’s all over for the murderous TV repairman as he faces the electric chair. To sum up the rest of the plot quickly – Horace doesn’t die in the chair but instead uses electricity and stuff to kill victims in classic ‘80s slasher style. The Verdict: Shocker is deeply entrenched in the ‘80s – from its bad visual effects (even for the time they were quite shoddy) to its ‘80s soundtrack – the whole thing screams ‘80s. Now I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing, hell, I loved this movie for all its classic ‘80s type fun! It’s just that one could say it hasn’t exactly aged well. It’s quite obvious at times that Wes Craven was attempting to recreate the magic from his classic (and all round great movie) A Nightmare on Elm Street – Quite a bit of the film plays out in dreams and the first scene of both movies are very similar. In A Nightmare on Elm Street it opens with Freddy Krueger making his famous glove of knives, it’s all shot in close ups of hands etc. We never see his face. In Shocker we get the same scene, but instead Horace Pinker is making his own unique weapon, a TV. Now I’d just like to put this out there, for a slasher villain Horace Pinker has to be about the worst gun shooter ever! Seriously, this guy sucks. He shoots a hell of a lot in this movie and only lands one shot, even when his victim is straight in front of him (with no obstacles in between) and only metres away, he still misses. If I was being chased by someone with a gun, I’d want it to be him. For a horror there are really no scares at all, but it is a very entertaining and fun film. It always has plenty going on and there is never a dull moment. (4 and a 1/2 Craptastic Stars) Golden Craptastic moment: Ok, first I’d like to point out that the fight inside the TV going across multiple channels is quite entertaining and quite funny also. But beating this to award of best craptastic moment is the scene in which Jonathan falls onto his bed, only the bed ahs changed to water – It has the worst looking fake water splash you will probably ever see, it is actually quite funny to watch, although very brief.
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