Film

Shocker (1989)

Director: Wes Craven

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Wholesome college boy Jonathan (Berg) is beset by nightmares, visions of mayhem which are subsequently enacted in real life by serial killer Horace Pinker (Pileggi). When his foster family and girlfriend come under the knife, the teenager uses his 'psychic bond' to facilitate Pinker's arrest and electrocution. The massive shock turns Pinker into a vengeful entity who can travel through bodies, televisions and household wiring with ease...After the uncertain cross-generic wanderings of The Serpent and the Rainbow, this finds Craven returning to his low budget origins, delivering straightforward kinetic horror with unapologetic brashness, his usual preoccupations to the fore: psychic dream states, parental guilt revisited upon children, the intrusion of a chaotic, alternative world into comfy suburbia. Problems arise from an uncharacteristically loose structure, which frequently brings the movie to the brink of narrative collapse; Craven's visual flair and enthusiastic pacing nevertheless deliver ample (if sometimes frustrating) rewards.

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