Shocker (film)

Last updated

Shocker
Shockerposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Wes Craven
Written byWes Craven
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Jacques Haitkin
Edited byAndy Blumenthal
Music by William Goldstein
Production
company
Alive Films [1]
Distributed by
Release date
  • October 27, 1989 (1989-10-27)
Running time
110 minutes [2]
CountryUnited States [1]
LanguageEnglish
Box office$16.6 million [3]

Shocker (also known as Wes Craven's Shocker) is a 1989 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven, and starring Michael Murphy, Peter Berg, Cami Cooper, and Mitch Pileggi. The film was released by Universal Pictures on October 27, 1989, and grossed $16.6 million. [3]

Contents

Plot

A news report shows a victim being pulled away on a stretcher. It is revealed that a serial killer, having murdered over thirty people, is on the loose in a Los Angeles suburb. Horace Pinker, a television repairman with a pronounced limp, is the culprit. When the investigating detective, Lt. Don Parker, gets too close, Pinker murders Parker's wife, foster daughter, and foster son.

However, his other foster son, a college football star named Jonathan, develops a strange connection to Pinker through his dreams and leads Parker to Pinker's run-down shop. In a shootout in which several officers are killed, Pinker escapes and targets Jonathan's girlfriend Alison in retribution, killing her as a "birthday present" while he is at practice.

Another dream leads Lt. Parker and the police to Pinker, whom they apprehend in the act of an attempted murder. Pinker is quickly convicted and sentenced to die in the electric chair.

Prior to his execution, Pinker reveals that Jonathan is, in fact, his son, and that as a boy, Jonathan had shot him in the knee while 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 executed, he does not die but instead becomes pure electricity. He is able to possess others to continue his murderous ways. Some of the people who are killed are prison staff and Jonathan's friends.

He soon possesses Lt. Parker, who uses his strength to fight off Pinker, and Pinker escapes into a TV dish. Jonathan and his friends try to find a way to fight him. Jonathan's friends, including Rhino, head to the power station to disable the power.

Jonathan, with the aid of Alison's "spirit", devises a scheme to bring Pinker back into the real world and accidentally discovers that Pinker, as with all energy sources, is bound by the laws of the real world; Jonathan uses this limitation to defeat Pinker, and traps him inside a television. Pinker threatens Jonathan that he will find a way out of his "prison". Alison's voice tells Jonathan to take care of himself, while Jonathan's neighborhood suffers a blackout, caused by his friends blowing out the power main, trapping Pinker in the television. Jonathan goes outside amid all his neighbors and looks up at the sky, agreeing with Alison that the stars are beautiful.

Cast

Release

Rating

According to Craven, the film was severely cut for an "R" rating. It took around thirteen submissions to the Motion Picture Association of America to receive an "R" instead of an "X". Some scenes that were cut included Pinker spitting out fingers that he bit off of a prison guard, a longer and more graphic electrocution of Pinker, and a longer scene of a possessed coach stabbing his own hand. Despite fan interest, an uncut version has never been released.

Box office

Shocker was released on October 27, 1989 in 1,783 venues. It earned $4,510,990 in its opening weekend, ranking second behind the third weekend of Look Who's Talking . [4] The film ultimately grossed $16.6 million in the United States. [3]

Critical response

The film received a split vote from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on their weekly television show, with Siskel giving it "a marginal thumbs up" but Ebert voting "thumbs down" and explaining "I felt it would have been a better movie if it had played with more rules." [5] Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "If the movie's metaphors are as obvious and as portentous as the heavy metal music that punctuates the action, 'Shocker' at least has the feel of a movie that was fun to make. Just when you think that every trick has been thrown in but the kitchen sink, it goes in too, along with stove and the refrigerator." [6] Variety wrote, "At first glance (or at least for the first 40 minutes) 'Shocker' seems a potential winner, an almost unbearably suspenseful, stylish and blood-drenched ride courtesy of writer-director Craven's flair for action and sick humor. As it continues, however, the camp aspects simply give way to the ridiculous while failing to establish any rules to govern the mayhem. The result is plenty of unintentional laughs that undermine the few legitimate chuckles and most of the remaining action." [7] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times stated that the film "is crammed with dazzling bursts of macabre technique" but "is so diffusely organized it's almost three separate movies." [8] Johanna Steinmetz of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "A gory thrill show for underdeveloped sensibilities, it is sloppily organized and jarringly paced. Its single conceit, that a barrage of television programs has weakened both our values and our grasp of realities, while an excuse for a climax of ingenious special effects, can't sustain an entire movie." [9] Richard Harrington of The Washington Post said, "For the longest time, 'Shocker' is low voltage, just another gathering of slasher cliches. Toward the end, though, it comes to life thanks to an extended special effects package that is only hinted at earlier." [10] Kim Newman wrote in The Monthly Film Bulletin that "all the characters, especially the dumb-hunk hero and his dead but chatty girlfriend, are cardboard, and none of the connective tissue makes any sense. Asked to turn out 'another Nightmare on Elm Street', Craven has sadly resorted to facile self-imitation rather than coming up with something as fiercely original as his biggest hit movie." [11]

In Wes Craven: The Art of Horror, John Kenneth Muir described Shocker as "Craven's response to the Freddy Krueger film series" for Universal. Muir describes several similarities between the series, though he says Shocker is more comedic. Of the film's conclusion, Muir wrote, Shocker's final 20 minutes are a stylistic special effects tour de force and well worth the price of admission." [12] As of October 2023, the film holds a 30% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 27 reviews. The site's consensus reads: "With an intriguing enough premise and horror legend Wes Craven on writer-director duty, the real Shocker here is just how lame the end results turned out to be". [13]

Later Wes Craven said: “I’d like to redo Shocker just to get the special effects right because we had a real special effects disaster on the film. The guy who was doing all the visual effects kind of flamed out, had a nervous breakdown because he was attempting more than he could actually do. When he told us towards the end of the movie that not a single one of the special effects was actually working, he was working on a new technique, my son’s job specifically became just to find all the negative. It was all around town in unmarked boxes and under people’s editing [benches]. It was a nightmare itself. We pulled every favor in town to get all those special effects done very quickly, and some of them are pretty sketchy.” [14]

Metacritic scored Shocker 51 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[ citation needed ]

Home media

The film was released on DVD by Universal Studios in 1999. [15] It was subsequently re-released by the studio in 2007 as a double feature, alongside Craven's The People Under the Stairs . [16] The film's first Blu-ray edition was released by Shout! Factory on September 8, 2015. [17]

Literature

Shocker received a novelization written by Randall Boyll in 1990.

Video games

Horace P. Gauge is a main antagonist in the video The Suffering released in 2004. His name and fate are a direct reference to the shocker.

Music

Wes Craven's Shocker - No More Mr. Nice Guy - The Music
Soundtrack album by
Various Artists
ReleasedOctober 4, 1989
Genre Heavy metal, hard rock
Length37:44
Label SBK Records

Original musical contributions included songs by Alice Cooper (who would later play Freddy Krueger's abusive foster father, Mr. Underwood, in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare ) and Megadeth, who covered Alice Cooper's 1973 hit "No More Mr. Nice Guy", among others. The movie's title song was written by Jean Beauvoir and Desmond Child and recorded by The Dudes of Wrath, a supergroup composed of Paul Stanley of Kiss and Desmond Child, both on vocals, Vivian Campbell and Guy Mann-Dude on guitars, Whitesnake's Rudy Sarzo on bass guitar, and Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee on drums. The band also included backing vocals by Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and Kane Roberts. The soundtrack was released on Capitol/SBK Records in 1989. [18]

Soundtrack listing
No.TitleArtistLength
1."Shocker"The Dudes of Wrath3:58
2."Love Transfusion" Iggy Pop 4:22
3."No More Mr. Nice Guy" (Alice Cooper cover) Megadeth 3:02
4."Sword & Stone" Bonfire 3:57
5."Timeless Love" Saraya 4:08
6."Shockdance"The Dudes of Wrath4:31
7."Demon Bell (The Ballad Of Horace Pinker)" Dangerous Toys 3:56
8."The Awakening"Voodoo X6:02
9."Different Breed"Dead On3:48
10."Shocker (Reprise)"The Dudes Of Wrath2:54

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wes Craven</span> American filmmaker (1939–2015)

Wesley Earl Craven was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Amongst his prolific filmography, Craven was best known for his pioneering work in the horror genre, particularly slasher films, where he mixed horror cliches with humor and satire. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural impact and influence of his work.

<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i> (franchise) American supernatural slasher franchise

A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American supernatural slasher media franchise consisting of nine films, a television series, novels, comic books, and various other media. The franchise began with the film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), written and directed by Wes Craven. The overall plot of the franchise centers around the fictional character Fred "Freddy" Krueger, the apparition of a former child killer who was burned alive by the vengeful parents of his victims, who returns from the grave to terrorize and kill the teenage residents of the fictional Springwood, Ohio in their dreams. Craven returned to the franchise to co-script the second sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), and to write/direct Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994). The films collectively grossed $472 million at the box office worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freddy Krueger</span> Horror film character

Freddy Krueger is the antagonist of the A Nightmare on Elm Street horror film franchise. Created by Wes Craven, he made his debut in Craven's A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as the malevolent spirit of a child killer who had been burned to death by his victims' parents after evading prison. Krueger goes on to murder his victims in their dreams, causing their deaths in the real world as well. In the dream world, he is a powerful force and seemingly invulnerable. However, whenever Freddy is pulled back into the real world, he has normal human vulnerabilities and can be destroyed. He is commonly identified by his burned, disfigured face, dirty red-and-green-striped sweater and brown fedora, and trademark metal-clawed, brown leather, right hand glove. This glove was the product of Krueger's own imagination, having welded the blades himself before using it to murder many of his victims, both in the real and dream worlds. Over the course of the film series, Freddy has battled several reoccurring survivors including Nancy Thompson and Alice Johnson. The character was consistently portrayed by Robert Englund in the original film series as well as in the television spin-off Freddy's Nightmares.

<i>Wes Cravens New Nightmare</i> 1994 film by Wes Craven

Wes Craven's New Nightmare is a 1994 American meta supernatural horror film written and directed by Wes Craven, creator of 1984's A Nightmare on Elm Street. A standalone film and the seventh installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, it is not part of the same continuity as previous films, instead portraying Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world and haunts the cast and crew involved in the making of the films about him. In the film, Freddy is depicted as closer to what Craven originally intended, being much more menacing and less comical, with an updated attire and appearance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heather Langenkamp</span> American actress (born 1964)

Heather Elizabeth Langenkamp is an American actress, writer, director, disc jockey, and producer. Although she has acted in many film genres, she is primarily known for her work in horror films, in addition to her work on television sitcoms. Langenkamp has been referred to as a scream queen and was inducted into the Fangoria Chainsaw Hall of Fame in 1995.

<i>Freddys Nightmares</i> American horror anthology television series (1988–1990)

Freddy's Nightmares is an American horror anthology television series, which aired in syndication from October 1988 until March 1990. A spin-off from the A Nightmare on Elm Street film series, each episode is introduced by Freddy Krueger, and features two different stories, with eight of them throughout the series actually having Freddy Krueger as the main antagonist. The pilot episode was directed by Tobe Hooper, and begins with Krueger's prosecution on child-murdering charges.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Wyss</span> American film and television actress

Amanda Wyss is an American actress. She began her career in the early 1980s in teen-oriented roles such as Lisa in the coming-of-age comedy film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Tina Gray in the slasher film A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), and Beth in the film Better Off Dead (1985). Additionally, she had a supporting role as investigative reporter Randi McFarland in the television series Highlander: The Series (1992–1993). She is also known for playing Woody's ex-girlfriend, Beth, in two episodes of Cheers in the mid-1980s.

<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i> 1984 American slasher film by Wes Craven

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 1984 American supernatural slasher film written and directed by Wes Craven and produced by Robert Shaye. It is the first installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, and Johnny Depp in his film debut. The film's plot concerns a group of teenagers who are targeted by Krueger, an undead child killer who can murder people through their dreams, as retribution against their parents who burned him alive.

<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors</i> 1987 film by Chuck Russell

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is a 1987 American fantasy slasher film directed by Chuck Russell in his feature directorial debut. The story was developed by Wes Craven and Bruce Wagner and is the third installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise and stars Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Larry Fishburne, Priscilla Pointer, Craig Wasson, and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Nancy Thompson, now a psychiatrist, and Kristen, a patient who can bring others into her own dreams, team up with other kids to launch a daring rescue into the dreamland and save a child from Freddy Krueger.

<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master</i> 1988 film by Renny Harlin

A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master is a 1988 American fantasy slasher film directed by Renny Harlin, and is the fourth installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Serving as a sequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), the film follows Freddy Krueger who, following the death of Nancy Thompson and completing his revenge against the families who killed him, reappears in the dreams of Kristen Parker, Joey Crusel, and Roland Kincaid, where he uses Kristen's best friend, Alice Johnson, to gain access to new victims in order to satiate his murderous needs. The Dream Master is often popularly referred to as "the MTV Nightmare" of the franchise.

Nancy Thompson (<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i>) Main character in the A Nightmare on Elm Street series

Nancy Thompson is a fictional character in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. She first appears in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) as a teenager hunted in her dreams by enigmatic serial killer Freddy Krueger. In this film, she was portrayed by Heather Langenkamp—who reprises the role in the sequel, A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987). Langenkamp later portrayed a fictional version of herself who embodies the role of Nancy in Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994). A reimagined version of the character, Nancy Holbrook, is portrayed by Rooney Mara in the 2010 remake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kristen Parker</span> Film character from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series

Kristen Parker is a character from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series. She is a co-protagonist and final girl of the third film of the series A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and the false protagonist in the following film A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, and has appeared in various merchandise as well. She is played by actress Patricia Arquette in Dream Warriors and Tuesday Knight in The Dream Master. She is the central member of the titular Dream Warriors, seven teens who have to learn to fight as a group in order to survive their spectral tormentor, enigmatic murderer Freddy Krueger, and has the ability to bring others into her dreams as well as being an Olympic-level acrobat in her dreams.

Jonathan Craven is an American writer and director. He is the son of the late filmmaker Wes Craven and Bonnie Broecker. He co-wrote the horror sequel The Hills Have Eyes 2 and worked on the short-lived NBC horror series Nightmare Cafe. He manages the group the Chapin Sisters. He also co-produced the 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left, which is a remake of the 1972 version written, directed and edited by his father, Wes Craven.

<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i> (2010 film) American supernatural slasher film by Samuel Bayer

A Nightmare on Elm Street is a 2010 American supernatural slasher film directed by Samuel Bayer, written by Wesley Strick and Eric Heisserer, and starring Jackie Earle Haley, Kyle Gallner, Rooney Mara, Katie Cassidy, Thomas Dekker, and Kellan Lutz. Produced by Michael Bay and Platinum Dunes, it is a remake of Wes Craven's 1984 film of the same name, as well as the ninth overall installment of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film is set in a fictitious town in Ohio and centers on a group of teenagers living on one street who are stalked and murdered in their dreams by a disfigured man named Freddy Krueger. The teenagers discover that they all share a common link from their childhood that makes them targets for Krueger.

<i>Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy</i> 2010 American film

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy is a 2010 American direct-to-video documentary film that chronicles the entire Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, except for the 2010 remake. The documentary also explores the rise of New Line Cinema. Written by Thommy Hutson, produced by Daniel Farrands and Thommy Hutson, and co-directed by Daniel Farrands and Andrew Kasch. Heather Langenkamp, who portrayed Nancy Thompson in three of the Nightmare films, served as the project's executive producer and narrator. As of February 2019, the documentary has grossed over $400k from video sales.

<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddys Revenge</i> 1985 film by Jack Sholder

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge is a 1985 American supernatural slasher film directed by Jack Sholder and written by David Chaskin. It stars Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger, and Robert Rusler. It is the second installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. The film follows Jesse Walsh, a teenager who begins having recurring nightmares about Freddy Krueger after moving into the former home of Nancy Thompson from the first film.

Tina Gray (<i>A Nightmare on Elm Street</i>) Fictional character

Christina "Tina" Gray is a fictional character in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. She was created by Wes Craven. The character was portrayed by Amanda Wyss in the original film and Katie Cassidy in the 2010 film. Julianna Damm also portrayed the character as a preadolescent in the 2010 film's flashbacks and dream sequences. A high school student whose death is the catalyst for the events of the series, Gray is the false protagonist of the 1984 original film. She also appears in the novels, Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994), Freddy vs. Jason (2003), 2010 reboot, merchandise based on the films, and a claymation version of the character is shown in the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (2010). The imagery featuring Gray in the body bag during the dream sequences have been regarded as iconic.

1428 Elm Street, also known as [the] Elm Street House, is a fictional residential house and street address in Springwood, Ohio, and is an important location in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, where it has been the home of Nancy Thompson and her mother, later Jesse Walsh and his family, and finally Lori Campbell and her father, throughout the film series. It has also been implied to have been Freddy Krueger's home at some point before the events that take place in the films. It appears in some form in nearly all the films, as well as literature, comic books, toys, and music videos. The house, like Freddy Krueger, Nancy Thompson, Tina Gray, and Kristen Parker, were all conceived by Wes Craven.

References

  1. 1 2 "Shocker". AFI Catalog of Feature Films . Retrieved February 5, 2019.
  2. ↑ "Shocker (18)". British Board of Film Classification . December 1, 1989. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 "Shocker (1989)". Box Office Mojo . Internet Movie Database . Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for October 27-29, 1989". Box Office Mojo . Internet Movie Database. October 30, 1989. Retrieved September 1, 2016.
  5. ↑ Siskel & Ebert. Buena Vista Television. November 4, 1989.
  6. ↑ Holden, Stephen (October 28, 1989). "A Mix of Gore and Freud". The New York Times . 16.
  7. ↑ "Film Reviews: Shocker". Variety . November 1, 1989. 34.
  8. ↑ Wilmington, Michael (October 27, 1989). "A TV Freak You Can't Escape in 'Shocker'". Los Angeles Times . F6.
  9. ↑ Steinmetz, Johanna (October 31, 1989). "'Shocker' slogs through babble on the way to a smart finale". Chicago Tribune . Section 5, p. 5.
  10. ↑ Harrington, Richard (November 2, 1989). "Electrified Revenge". The Washington Post . B15.
  11. ↑ Newman, Kim (May 1990). "Shocker". The Monthly Film Bulletin . 57 (676): 142.
  12. ↑ Muir, John Kenneth (2004). Wes Craven: The Art of Horror. McFarland. ISBN   9780786419234.
  13. ↑ "Shocker (1989)". Rotten Tomatoes . Flixster . Retrieved July 28, 2019.
  14. ↑ "Peter Berg Would do a Shocker Remake". May 28, 2014.
  15. ↑ "Shocker (DVD)". dvdempire.com. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
  16. ↑ "People Under The Stairs, The / Shocker (Double Feature)". dvdempire.com. Retrieved April 13, 2011.
  17. ↑ "Shocker (blu-ray)".
  18. ↑ "Shocker [Original Soundtrack]". AllMusic.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.