Horace Pinker, local television repairman and novice Satanist, fills his spare time with butchering families. Poor Horace has a problem. A young boy name Jonathan Parker(strange coincidence this is SO closely related to the Dracula character Jonathan Harker?) can see where and what he is doing in his dreams. Parker leads the police, led by his step-father, played ably by character actor Michael Murphy, to the scene of a crime. Horace is incarcerated and stands for execution by the electric chair. Well, needless to say, Horace beats this rap in electrifying fashion. I could go on - but might give too much away or just confuse myself even more. Shocker is one of those horror movies that has the power to engage the viewer enough to keep him interested even though there is no earthly way he knows WHAT is possibly going on. We have people shifting bodies, traveling through television currents, landing on reruns of Leave it to Beaver even, dead walking around giving out lucky charms, and many other implausible things. Director Wes Craven does way too much here, and it might be his attempt at making a bad story seem credible, by polluting it with so many other bizarre plot devices. The acting is pretty decent for this type of film. Peter Berg plays Parker adequately as does Michael Pileggi as the grouchy serial killer with a limp. Despite its ridiculous storyline and silly ending, Craven, through his use of creating moody, eerie scenes with well-timed pacing, makes a movie that will at the very least hold your attention. Craven doesn't take it too seriously either having Pinker utter one-liners throughout. There are also some genuine thrills and a couple good scares.
