Product Details

• Actors: Michael Murphy, Mitch Pileggi, Peter Berg, Sam Scarber, Camille Cooper
• Directors: Wes Craven
• Writers: Wes Craven
• Producers: Barin Kumar, Marianne Maddalena, Peter Foster, Robert Engelman, Shep Gordon
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 109 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301603389
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #295,747 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truely one of Wes Craven's best films!, August 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shocker [VHS] (VHS Tape)

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!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Electrifyingly good., May 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shocker [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Some people are disappointed with this, but I can't understand why. Alright, so Wes Craven had set out to create a new Freddy, but so what? The film is an excellent joining-together of interesting characters, imaginative special effects and a crackingly good script.

A serial killer is stalking the city. After an accident on the rugby pitch a teenaged boy has a dream in which he finds that the maniac is none other than local TV repairman Horace Pinker. When Pinker is put to death on the electric chair, he is able to return to life through anything with electrical systems including the TV and the human body.

Gripping, well-paced thriller. Horace Pinker himself is such a different character from Skinner in the X-Files that it's hard to believe it's the same actor. Pinker is certainly one of the better of the thousands of film psychopaths and this film is certainly a cut above most of the uninspiring Freddy sequels. A wonderfully dark and sombre soundtrack is the cherry on the proverbial bakewell.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bloody Marvelous, May 2, 1999

By 

James Wotzko - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shocker (DVD)

Shocker should be viewed for what it is - plain, old-fashioned cheesy horror fun! This is a great DVD to take to a movie night, or to watch with your girlfriend - i reckon she'll be grabbing onto you for most of its duration! The problem is, most people seem to take this movie too seriously. I give it 5 stars for being cheesy, and for making me laugh... BIG TIME!!!