Movie Review #55: Shocker (1989)

 

Well, boy howdy do I have a lot to say about this motion picture. This very very stupid motion picture. Well let's get to work. Shocker is a film by Wes Craven made in the year of our lord 1989. It was a part of a 3 picture deal with Universal Pictures. (The other two movies were Serpent and the Rainbow and People Under the Stairs two movies that are much much much much much better than this.) I'm pretty sure Universal Pictures was like "Hey Wes, my good man, we'd like our own A Nightmare On Elm Street please. You can do what you want with the other two movies" and Wes was like "yeah alright fine" and we got this. Also did you know that Wes Craven liked bird watching? I didn't know where to put that fact but I felt I needed to mention that here.

Anyway I have a lot of problems with this movie. A lot of them. First off Peter Berg is not a very good actor. He's one of those "Oh wait I'm in a movie" kinda guys. He's like bored being in this movie. It's amazing he got work after this as an actor. He actually isn't too bad when it comes to making movies. It's not a perfect film but I actually enjoyed Very Bad Things. He also wrote the script to The Losers which was a fun comic book movie. So he's not on my shit list. Except if he decides to act again. Do not do that Peter. Secondly the rest of the acting is fine I suppose, except for Mitch Pileggi. This man is literally acting like his life depends on acting like the biggest craziest mother fucker on this planet. Seriously if there is a reason to watch this movie it's for him.

The other problem is that they just leave so many weird unanswered questions in this movie. Like how the hell does Peter Berg's main character get the power to get into dreams and see where Horace Pinker, the Shocker is. I mean does he get it from the fact he hit his head on that thing from football games you kick the football into? The goal post. Yeah that's it. Does he get it from that? Because it looks like he did because he was able to find out what Horace Pinker was doing via dreams? Is it the fact that he might actually be Horace Pinker's son? (Horace Pinker says this to freak him out while he's watching him die via the electric chair) That's never explained. What also is not explained is how Peter Bergs character (I forgot his name because I do not care) girlfriend comes back from the dead several times as a Ghost. It just happens. Not even a "hey this is because they loved each other so much" or something. Nada. She just appears. I'm pretty sure she appears because Wes Craven wrote himself into a corner and did not care enough to start over. I'm pretty sure this is all because Wes Craven wanted to either work on those other two movies you could clearly tell he cared about more or wanted to see a red breasted eagle or whatever the hell birdwatching people look at.

You know how I said Mitch Pileggi is the best part of this movie. Well there's a big problem with that and I'll give it to you over the main plot of the movie. Horace Pinker is a serial killer who ends up being found out by Peter Berg's magical powers that come out of nowhere. He gets some super power via a television and black magic. He then survives the electric chair and then gets the power to grab onto people and take over their bodies. This means less Mitch Pileggi and more people trying to act like him. I will admit it was funny with the little girl trying to kill Peter Berg but still I wanted more of Mitch himself! He does come back for the third act which is really where the movie finally picks up and gets to be a bit of fun. The ending has them jumping through TV shows which is fun weird insanity. You get the feeling that Wes Craven had the idea and the ending came to him and just threw shit together to get to said ending. I will take some fun insanity but I don't really like "I don't care about this movie" attitude the rest seems to have.  Even most of the direction is not as interesting or entertaining as a lot of other Wes  Craven movies.

FINAL VERDICT: I don't like this movie for the most part but I'm still torn because I genuinely seriously think that everyone needs to see Mitch Pileggi in this film. Sweet mother of mercy it's something else. I just wish everything else in the movie was better. I guess I'll say this in the fact that someone should take all of Mitch's scenes and that one scene with the little girl trying to act like him and just make a youtube video out of that. That youtube video would be better than the entirety of this movie.