Shocker (film)

Infobox Film
name = Shocker


imdb_id = 0098320
writer = Wes Craven
starring = Mitch Pileggi
Peter Berg
Michael Murphy
director = Wes Craven
producer = Barin Kumar
Marianne Maddalena
Wes Craven (executive)
distributor = Universal Pictures (USA)
Carolco International (overseas)
released = October 27, 1989
runtime = 110 min.
language = English
music = Michael Bruce
William Goldstein
awards =
budget = $5 million (US)

"Shocker" is a 1989 horror film written and directed by Wes Craven. The relatively low-budget film has since become a cult classic. It starred Mitch Pileggi, who later gained fame as Assistant Director Walter Skinner in "The X-Files" television series, as the antagonist, Horace Pinker.

Both Wes Craven and Universal had hoped for the film to launch a franchise. (Craven had particularly wanted to create a new series since he felt he had not been given due profits from New Line Cinema resulting from the Nightmare on Elm Street series.) However, due to the middling commercial performance of the film, no sequel was made.

A special edition DVD was released in 1999.

Plot

A serial killer is on the loose in a Los Angeles suburb, and a television repairman with a pronounced limp named Horace Pinker becomes the prime suspect. When the investigating detective, Lt. Don Parker gets too close, Pinker murders Parker's wife, daughter and his biological son. However, his adopted son, Jonathan, develops a strange connection to Pinker through his dreams and leads Parker to Pinker's rundown shop. In a shootout in which several officers are killed, Pinker manages to escape. He targets Jonathan's girlfriend, Allison (Cami Cooper) in retribution.

Another dream again leads Lt. Parker and the police to Pinker, who is in the midst of a kidnapping. This time, Pinker is arrested and quickly convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair.

Prior to his execution, Pinker reveals that Jonathan is, in fact "his" son, and as a boy, Jonathan had shot him in the knee trying to stop the murder of his mother. But what they do not realize is that Pinker has made a "deal with the devil"; when he is executed, he does not actually die, but instead becomes pure electricity who is able to possess others to continue his murderous ways (it is unknown if the possessed hosts lived or died after Pinker leaves their body).

Eventually, Jonathan, with the aid of Alison's "spirit" devises a scheme to bring Horace Pinker back into the real world and accidentally discovers that Pinker, like all energy sources, is bound by the laws of the real world and uses this limitation (and a television remote) to defeat him.

Music

Original musical contributions were made by Alice Cooper (who would later play Freddy Krueger's abusive foster father, Mr. Underwood, in ""), Megadeth who covered Alice Cooper's 1973 hit No More Mr. Nice Guy. The movie's "title song" was recorded by The Dudes Of Wrath, which was comprised of KISS' Paul Stanley and producer Desmond Child both on vocals, Def Leppard's Vivian Campbell on guitars, Whitesnake's Rudy Sarzo on bass guitar, and Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee on drums. Also backing viocals by Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony & Kane Roberts.

Cast

* Michael Murphy - Lt. Don Parker
* Peter Berg - Jonathan Parker
* Mitch Pileggi - Horace Pinker
* Sam Scarber - Cooper
* Camille Cooper - Alison

Cameos

*Heather Langenkamp as an intended victim of Pinker's. Langenkamp played Nancy Thompson in Wes Craven's landmark 1984 horror film, "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and two of it's sequels, and Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
*Wes Craven as the neighbor
*Jessica Craven (Wes Craven's daughter) as the clerk
*Jonathan Craven (Wes Craven's son and the film's visual effects coordinator) as the jogger
*Dr. Timothy Leary as the television evangelist
*Brent Finkelstien as the talk show guest
*John Tesh as the TV newscaster
*Kane Roberts (the guitarist from Alice Cooper's band) as a buff construction worker
*Eric Singer as a member of the band on the talk show
*Ted Raimi as the executioner

Remake

A 2009 remake of the film is in the works with Midnight Pictures. The film is going to be produced by Wes Craven and Marianne Maddalena; genre websites have rumored that "Wrong Turn 2" director Joe Lynch will direct, though this has yet to be confirmed. Henry Rollins is rumored to be up for the lead role of the killer Horace Pinker. Screenwriters Dakota A. Thomas and Stephanie Flores has signed onto the project (according to the IMDB's page for the Shocker remake).

External links

*imdb title|id=0098320|title=Shocker
* [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shocker/ "RottenTomatoes.com" review]
* [http://www.dvdmaniacs.net/Reviews/Q-T/shocker.html "DVDManiacs" review]