Shocker (1989)

Thanks for the memories!

Just perfect...

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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.

I have no idea what Wes was thinking when he decided he wanted to make this movie. He can do so much better than this. The whole concept of the storyline is bland and there's no real twists or turns. There's no scares whatsoever. Like he said on one of his interviews, he tried to create another iconic horror character, like Freddy Krueger. It's a huge failed attempt. I love Wes as a filmmaker and that's why I see his movies. If you're not a movie reviewer, avoid this movie at all cost. The power that he which is going through TV sets is a terrible concept and I feel that if this was labeled as a Sci-Fi and crime film it might've worked a lot better. Sadly, they tried to make this a horror film, for horror, this doesn't work at all. Sorry, it just doesn't work. The special Effects are realistic and that's great, but the wacky acting in this film doesn't help the story at all within the motion picture. All in all, a terrible film and to me, a failure.

Responsible for a ending a mass murderer's rampage, a teen finds himself and his friends the target of the killer's wrath as he returns from the grave to seek revenge and into a final showdown to end his killing spree.This turned out to be quite an enjoyable and somewhat entertaining entry. One of the better features is the manner in which hes eventually caught in the beginning as the backdrop of the reign of terror and his rampage through the city makes for a pretty effective start to this. That makes the early scenes line the police search at the repair-ship or the encounters among the family's is all rather fun and chilling as they all are built off that early storyline premise. That also works with the later scenes of him now being confronted directly and trying to outwit the killer through the neighborhood which is continued later on when the body-hopping part of the story kicks in. these are just as fun with the park chases being a lot more enjoyable and really fives this one quite a punch in the middle segments. These are enough to make for a rather enthralling time in the finale which is the film's crazies set of circumstances where they begin fighting through the different TV programs and movies which are so much fun and highly entertaining to see them in such classic moments and footage which just adds to the whole appeal of this one. As well, the whole sequence for the prison execution is incredibly fun with the actual execution and escape which makes for a wholly thrilling sequence that has plenty to like about it. These do manage to help overcome the few flaws present, which are enough to hold this down somewhat. The biggest problem here is the rather lame body-hopping storyline which is never explained or developed beyond just the limp which makes all of this poorly developed and quite haphazard. That feeling also ties into the special effects and fantasy part of the storyline as both of these are equally underwhelming since they tie into each other, the fantasy element driven along by the special effects to show the ghosts battling each other and them fighting through the TV shows. It looks back in execution and seems stupid in concept. The last problem here is the rather neutered gore on display, which is very noticeable since the kill count isn't very impressive and is all mostly found after-the-fact without really showing it on-camera. These do hurt it somewhat, but there's more than enough to knock this down somewhat.Rated R: Graphic Language, Violence and Brief Nudity.

Probably one of the craziest movies Wes Craven ever made, and one of the craziest movies ever. Now, i like many critically acclaimed movies that got bunch of awards and stuff, but i also love wild movies such as Shocker. This is one of those movies that i can always watch and never get bored by it. It's hard to list everything that i like about it; Heavy metal soundtrack, serial killer with a limp, bunch of hallucinations and nightmares throughout, final fight between hero and villain in TV world... It's just one hell of a movie. There is some gore, but instead of being torture porn like Saw or Hostel movies, it has its limits with violence and juicer scenes and it doesn't hurt the movie but actually helps a lot, cause you can watch it without feeling sick by on screen carnage and still have fun with it even if you are 100% gore hound. Story? Watch the movie and try to tell its story; In first part we have slasher that goes around neighborhood killing entire families, our main hero is actually son of the villain but he doesn't knows it at first (no sht), he has dreams about murders that his daddy commits, daddy kills son's new family and girlfriend, gets caught,burned to crisp and resurrects as electrical ghost not even minute after, then in second part of the movie we have main villain entering other people's bodies and goes after hero, hero starts seeing ghosts of his dead girlfriend and other people that villain killed, villain gets bored with his new ability and returns to his old hobby of killing families but this time by going through TV sets, hero goes after him and fights him through the bunch of different channels of the TV world while "Demon Bell" is playing in background and in the end traps him in TV and walks away into the night. Yep, that pretty much says it all. Acting and directing; Well,pretty much O.K. But then again, if somebody's gonna take this movie seriously then they will be very critical about these two things. Horror and scary scenes; Quite a lot, and they work. Soundtrack...Best part of the movie. Songs are awesome, my favorites are "Shocker" that opens the movie, "Love Temptation" that plays after funeral of Jonathan's family, "Demon Bell" that plays in the craziest and funniest scene in the movie-the TV world fight, and two ending songs, "Sword And Stone" and "Timeless Love". "Awakening" i also like but mostly just first part of it, i personally think that it would fit well with the scene where Jonathan is searching for necklace of his dead girlfriend through the lake. I don't know when or is it actually played in the movie though. Score; Also excellent. Both scary and sad in places when it's supposed to be. My favorite part of it is in scene where Jonathan dreams his dead girlfriend coming out of the lake and later when they kiss. Say what you want about Wes Craven, but he always could get few things right in (most of) his movies, and getting a score that would get desired reaction from audience is one thing that his movies always had. Just check out scores for Nightmare On Elm Street, Deadly Friend, Shocker and Scream. Problems with movie; Not much, except maybe the fact that MPAA have cut out some gorier parts, but it's not that noticeable when watching the movie so it doesn't bother me that much. Still, uncut version would be nice. Does this movie deserves better release and special edition? Hell yeah it does! My final opinion; Fun as hell movie, one my favorites of the era and from director, with one kick ass soundtrack that makes it even better.

Wes Craven is a writer director of horror films who was not recognized for his genius until after his genius had already been exploited. "Last House on the Left" in it's original time.... UNHEARD OF!!!! GROUNDBREAKING!!!! "HIlls Have Eyes", SAME THING!!!! Sorry to any snobs out there who are actually bold enough to claim that "Nightmare On Elm Street" is ANYTHING but a perfect horror movie (you just want attention for intelligence that you don't have) "Shocker" for its time, premise, story, and(dare I?), acting... is great! Does it compare in effect to what he had already done up that point.... no. Does that make it a bad horror movie in the year it came out up against late sequels that were running their course... one of which being "Nightmare 5" which had a pen credit to Craven, no. In short... If you like Wes you'll like this... if you like horror of the time... you'll like this... WATCTH IT!!!