Product Description

Bonus features: theatrical trailer film highlights talent bios production notes and web links. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 09/02/2003 Starring: Michael Murphy Richard Brooks Run time: 109 minutes Rating: R Director: Wes Craven

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46584 in DVD
• Brand: Universal Studios
• Released on: 1999-03-16
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 109 minutes

Amazon.com
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 Reviews

Truely one of Wes Craven's best films!
I love the movie Shocker and feel it deserved a second chance. Though the serial killer character of Horace Pinker is not Freddy Krueger, he still is just as terrifying and the films is just as good as Craven's A Nightmare of Elm Steet(and definitely better than its sequels). Mitch Pileggi of X-Files gives a wonderfully scary performance as Tv repairman/serial killer Horace Pinker. I think it definitely deseres a look by Craven and just plain Horror fans alike. So in response to Mr. Horton's review above, I would love to get my hands on some Horace Pinker action figures. What a great idea!

Finger licking good
Shocker says "finger licking good" after he bites off the fingers of a security gurard. Now thats comedy!!!

The Shocker gets the power to move his soul into different people's bodies. It becomes humorous when he goes into the bodies of a female doctor, and the body of a 10 year old girl. He also gets the power to tellepot through electric wires.

This movie is good old-fashioned bloody horror, without the million dollar special effects that you see in movies nowadays.

An underrated classic!
Wes Craven's renown for many of his classic horror films, but Shocker is one of his better movies, despite getting little accord from most critics. It's got great thrills throughout, especially considering that the psychotic Horace Pinker (played by then-unknown Mitch Pileggi) can transform his spirit into other people to do his bidding, including at one unnerving point a police officer. This is a horror film for sure, but there are also some elements of dark humor thrown in for good measure. As if Pinker's unhinged persona wasn't a captivating proposition enough, "Shocker" even features cameos by Timothy Leary, Eugene Chadbourne (of underground band Shockabilly, oddly enough) and the godlike John Tesh. I couldn't ask for much more than that.

The budget for this film, in retrospect, does appear to have been somewhat low, but it only enhances the experience, giving it a street-level power. It's like comparing a lean 1980s Megadeth album to a one of the more recent, bloated Metallica albums. (Speaking of which, Megadeth offers up a pretty rocking rendition of an Alice Cooper song in the soundtrack; Iggy Pop and Paul Stanley contribute some songs as well.) Those high-production 1990s weren't a very good time for horror films anyway. Although this is an oversimplification, consider "Shocker" to be an indie-ish alternative to the glossy self-consciousness that's marred the horror genre of late. It should also be noted that the 1998 movie "Fallen" lifted more than one plot device from this film, so it's not like this film went unnoticed upon release. I'd definitely recommend that you buy "Shocker," or, if you're unsure, at the very least rent it. You will then know your destiny.