News

Late to the Party: Wes Craven’s Shocker

Published

8 years ago

August 9, 2016

Welcome back to “Late to the Party”, iHorror’s weekly column where the writers pick a movie that’s on the “Everyone’s seen that” list and watches it for the first time. I had the great privilege this week to watch Wes Craven’s Shocker, and it’s one I won’t soon forget!

To summarize briefly before we really get started, Shocker tells the story of Horace Pinker (masterfully played by Mitch PIleggi), a serial killer whose MO is killing entire families. A young college football player named Jonathan (Peter Berg) begins have nightmares that soon prove to be a psychic connection to Pinker which leads to the killer’s arrest. When he is taken to the electric chair, Pinker manages to free his own spirit with the ability to possess others and travel by electrical current. What follows is one hell of a ride as Pinker possesses and kills some of Jonathan’s closest friends as the young man does his very best to stop him.

Shocker

Written and directed by Craven, this movie is a shining gem in the horror auteur’s career. Every twist and turn, ever shock if you’ll excuse the play on words, was an expansion of ideas he had only begun to toy with when he wrote and directed the first A Nightmare on Elm Street. In Pinker, he created a madman on the same scale as Kreuger and gave his audiences a brand new source of paranoia. If Nightmare made us afraid to dream, then Shocker convinced us that turning on the lights or the television could be just as dangerous.

PIleggi and Berg played off each other just as well as Englund and Langenkamp had just a few short years before. Jonathan is a remarkably vulnerable and emotionally open character in a way we don’t see in many male characters in the genre, and it was his openness that made us care about him and his connection to Pinker. It also made him the perfect foil for the rabid and inhuman Pinker.

Aside from Pileggi and Berg, the cast was rounded out by some terrific talent that could have easily stolen the show. If you look closely, you’ll see Ted Raimi playing the football teams manager and trainer, and Sam Scarber brought militant heat as Jonathan’s teammate. If you look really closely, Craven filled out the cast with an unexpected array of talent that plays like the ultimate Easter egg hunt. Look closely and you’ll spot, Heather Langekamp, Craven’s children Jessica and Jonathan Craven, Wes Craven himself, and even Timothy Leary as a late night televangelist.

Special props also go to young Lindsay Parker who, at 9 years old, played Pinker’s youngest victim of possession. Young Parker played it to the hilt as she maniacally drove construction equipment and cursed like a 3 foot tall sailor before Jonathan managed to force Pinker from her body. It was a great moment in a movie filled with great moments.

shocker2

Another point that really worked for the film is how Craven handled the script. It would have been all too easy to start out with Pinker’s execution and an hour and a half of his rampage afterward, but in a masterstroke, the writer started in the midst of the Pinker’s killing spree while he was alive. It was fully halfway into the film before the execution takes place. This gave us time to get to know the characters and learn more about their motivations. Pinker wasn’t just a supernatural menace. He was also a serial killer who killed whole families and we saw him do it. It made his villainy all the more real when he is loosed from his body in the electric chair.

If I had one complaint for the film, it was that there were a few too many things that went completely unanswered. There were suggestions that Jonathan might have actually been Pinker’s son and while they played on that throughout the film, I was ultimately left wondering if it was true or not. Likewise, I wasn’t sure why Jonathan’s plan to banish Pinker actually worked or if it ultimately had at all. PIleggi has said in interviews that he really thought Wes had intended to turn the film into a franchise, but was never able to get it done. I have to wonder if some of those answers weren’t held for sequels that never happened.

Ultimately, this is a movie that I’m so glad I finally had the opportunity to watch. Entertaining and chilling, the film was everything a fan could want in a Wes Craven movie. It gave us questions and left some of them up to us to answer about the nature of evil and how we ourselves would confront the personification of it. As I said before, it’s a hell of a movie and I highly recommend you watch it soon if, like me, you’re late to the party.

Join us next week as Jacob Davison takes on 1981’s The Burning! And as always, take a few moments to leave a comment or share the article along if you like what you see!

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Editorial

Yay or Nay: What’s Good and Bad in Horror This Week

Published

2 days ago

May 4, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Welcome to Yay or Nay a weekly mini post about what I think is good and bad news in the horror community written in bite-sized chunks.

Yay:

Mike Flanagan talking about directing the next chapter in the Exorcist trilogy. That might mean he saw the last one and realized there were two left and if he does anything well it’s draw out a story.

Yay:

To the announcement of a new IP-based film Mickey Vs Winnie. It’s fun to read comical hot takes from people who haven’t even seen the movie yet.

Nay:

The new Faces of Death reboot gets an R rating. It’s not really fair — Gen-Z should get an unrated version like past generations so they can question their mortality the same as the rest of us did.

Yay:

Russell Crowe is doing another possession movie. He’s quickly becoming another Nic Cage by saying yes to every script, bringing the magic back to B-movies, and more money into VOD.

Nay:

Putting The Crow back in theaters for its 30th anniversary. Re-releasing classic movies at the cinema to celebrate a milestone is perfectly fine, but doing so when the lead actor in that film was killed on set due to neglect is a cash grab of the worst kind.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Lists

The Top-Searched Free Horror/Action Movies on Tubi This Week

Published

3 days ago

May 3, 2024

Timothy Rawles

The free streaming service Tubi is a great place to scroll when you’re unsure what to watch. They are not sponsored or affiliated with iHorror. Still, we really appreciate their library because it’s so robust and has many obscure horror movies so rare you can’t find them anywhere in the wild except, if you’re lucky, in a moist cardboard box at a yard sale. Other than Tubi, where else are you going to find Nightwish (1990), Spookies (1986), or The Power (1984)?

We take a look at the most searched horror titles on the platform this week, hopefully, to save you some time in your endeavor to find something free to watch on Tubi.

Interestingly at the top of the list is one of the most polarizing sequels ever made, the female-led Ghostbusters reboot from 2016. Perhaps viewers have seen the latest sequel Frozen Empire and are curious about this franchise anomaly. They will be happy to know it’s not as bad as some think and is genuinely funny in spots.

So take a look at the list below and tell us if you are interested in any of them this weekend.

1. Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters (2016)

An otherworldly invasion of New York City assembles a pair of proton-packed paranormal enthusiasts, a nuclear engineer and a subway worker for battle.An otherworldly invasion of New York City assembles a pair of proton-packed paranormal enthusiasts, a nuclear engineer and a subway worker for battle.

2. Rampage

When a group of animals becomes vicious after a genetic experiment goes awry, a primatologist must find an antidote to avert a global catastrophe.

3. The Conjuring The Devil Made Me Do It

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren uncover an occult conspiracy as they help a defendant argue that a demon forced him to commit murder.

4. Terrifier 2

After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to Miles County, where his next victims, a teenage girl and her brother, await.

5. Don’t Breathe

A group of teens breaks into a blind man’s home, thinking they’ll get away with the perfect crime but get more than they bargained for once inside.

6. The Conjuring 2

In one of their most terrifying paranormal investigations, Lorraine and Ed Warren help a single mother of four in a house plagued by sinister spirits.

7. Child’s Play (1988)

A dying serial killer uses voodoo to transfer his soul into a Chucky doll which winds up in the hands of a boy who may be the doll’s next victim.

8. Jeepers Creepers 2

When their bus breaks down on a deserted road, a team of high school athletes discovers an opponent they cannot defeat and may not survive.

9. Jeepers Creepers

After making a horrific discovery in the basement of an old church, a pair of siblings find themselves the chosen prey of an indestructible force.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

News

Morticia & Wednesday Addams Join Monster High Skullector Series

Published

3 days ago

May 3, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Believe it or not, Mattel’s Monster High doll brand has an immense following with both young and not-so-young collectors.

In that same vein, the fan base for The Addams Family is also very large. Now, the two are collaborating to create a line of collectible dolls that celebrate both worlds and what they have created is a combination of fashion dolls and goth fantasy. Forget Barbie, these ladies know who they are.

The dolls are based on Morticia and Wednesday Addams from the 2019 Addams Family animated movie.

As with any niche collectibles these aren’t cheap they bring with them a $90 price tag, but it’s an investment as a lot of these toys become more valuable over time.

“There goes the neighborhood. Meet the Addams Family’s ghoulishly glamorous mother-daughter duo with a Monster High twist. Inspired by the animated movie and clad in spiderweb lace and skull prints, the Morticia and Wednesday Addams Skullector doll two-pack makes for a gift that’s so macabre, it’s downright pathological.”

If you want to pre-purchase this set check out The Monster High website.