Reviews: Shocker (1989) Movie Review
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Subgenres: Killer, Supernatural, Police, Revenge, Suburbs, Supernatural Serial killer (Top Supernatural Serial Killers in Movies)
Where does Shocker (1989) stand among horror films? Our review examines the scares, pacing, and what makes it unique in the genre.
Shocker (1989) is an American horror comedy thriller that is 109 minutes long and was filmed in several areas of California, USA. Director and writer Wes Craven (Scream (1996), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), New Nightmare (1994), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)) did not excel in writing and directing this film. The movie contains extreme violence, bad language, murders, electric chair, back from the dead, slasher killer, possession, minor suspense, and twist.
Shocker revolves around a serial killer that has killed over 30 people so far leading to Horace, who is a television repairman to become the prime suspect. We soon saw Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi - The X-Files (1993), The X Files (1998), Basic Instinct (1992), The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)) killing Lt. Don Parker’s wife, foster daughter, and foster son after Don got to close to him. Don’s (Manhattan (1979), Batman Returns (1992), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), White House Down (2013)) other foster son Jonathan got a weird connection to Horace. Jonathan (Peter Berg - Lone Survivor (2013), Collateral (2004), Battleship (2012), Friday Night Lights (2006)) somehow see’s what Horace is doing in his dreams and lead Don to Horace’s rundown shop. Horace, of course, escaped although there were several officers who ended up dead. Horace is not sick in the head or mentally ill because his next target was Allison (Camille Cooper - General Hospital (1963), Lawnmower Man 2: Beyond Cyberspace (1996), Like Father Like Son (1987)) who is Jonathan’s girlfriend.
Skip forward - Horace is captured and sentenced to the electric chair, and the movie takes a twist here with an unexpected truth that I did not see coming, and I cannot say. I will not name which two people but why do they come back as ghosts? I also did not understand how Horace was able to make a deal with Satan and then magically gain electrical powers. If that is not weird enough, Horace can now possess other people, I was just shaking my head and wondering what in the world did I just get myself into? I am a huge fan of Wes Craven, but this movie was a total waste of my time - it is one of Wes Craven’s worst movies where the only good thing is the soundtrack. The script was poorly written with huge plot holes and the scatter dialogue made the movie unwatchable because some scenes just do not make sense.
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Sources Used to Shape This Review
Insights in this review are drawn from director interviews, fan commentary, production notes, and long-form breakdowns across genre-specific platforms. Content is written uniquely and reviewed for accuracy.
- Shocker Rating Scores
- Our Score: 2/10
- Overall Score: 3.65/10
- IMDB: 5.5/10
- MetaCritic: 5.1/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 3.0/10
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