Zapped!

[3/27]“Zapped!” (1982) is definitely a film that when I did watch it in the past I could remember it warmly in my youth. But I remember my stepfather’s half brother really loving this film so much he would rewatch it on a videotape he had over and over throughout a day. He had certain films like that—I recall he would watch the Kenny Rogers “Six Pack” comedy (with kids) a lot as well, as well as, “Midnight Madness”, starring a young Michael J Fox—he would just leave in his VCR and watch them on repeat. He was born with an undeveloped brain and had his own little extended home separated from my stepfather’s father’s main house (a garage between them). So I visited him from time to time. While a lot of the comic bits just don’t age well (Heather Thomas is a consistent victim of telekinetic disrobing, certain to be a polarizing aspect of the film in the climate of today), and some of the tricks are obvious (a couple of school rivals pull down their pants while their girlfriends mock Baio’s botanist, Barney, and pay the price of his telekinetic revenge), while some of the playful jabs at popular films of the past (“Carrie” and “The Exorcist”) don’t work despite inspired attempts to try—Barney’s mom brings priests to exorcise her son, and Barney just disrupts the prom by using his powers to cause girls to “lose their clothes” (including Thomas) and stir up a wind that turns over tables and scatters the decorations—while Willie Aames encourages his friend to help him torment a rival dating Thomas (although, despite one scene where she seems drunk and vulnerable in his room, has no interest in Aames at all). Speaking of Thomas, I realized I knew her from a “tech motorcycle” action flick called “Cyclone” that was a favorite of when I was a kid. She has some exaggerated expressions and is over tasked with playing a ditz but she’s the head cheerleader and quite a complete woman despite being expected to portray an 18 year old. She’s totally the prototypical glamor modal you might find on the hood of a car on an auto magazine. Aames, I am guessing, was supposed to have some type of charm but I just considered him a trouble-making and rather obnoxious bad influence for Baio’s Barney…he wants to exploit Baio’s gifts for his own personal gain. Mews Small (as Baio’s busybody, overbearing mother) is probably best remembered by horror fans for “Puppet Master” (1989); she’s the victim of Baio’s ventriloquist dummy antics, prompting the request of exorcists. Schachter is Baio’s love interest, sort of a mixed bag character who is equal parts interested in him while also frustrated with his letting Aames involve him in gambling schemes and telekinesis-related chicanery. A subplot has the school principal (Mandan, primarily remembered for his television work) sexually involved with a schoolteacher (Langdon, who cracked me up in Weird Al’s “UHF” (1989)), such as an under the table restaurant bit. The film can be quite cringey (the film poster art has Baio and Aames and an upskirt telekinetic trick, following the spate of sex comedies aimed at teens and young adults of the time) with its soft pop music, mind control removal of women’s tops, a starship model sequence including a trip through a fish tank (with a Star Trek crew seemingly on board as the pet dog bites into the bridge of the model ship), “projectile across-the-room vomit” into a sink, parents worried about their son to the point that they ground him only for him to still go out after scaring his mom with the dummy, and Aames’ smarmy Peyton. Carrie’s murder of folks at the prom replaced by bare breasts and teens with no clothes is par for the course for this film. Totally juvenile, “Zapped!” is aimed for a certain demo in the 80s and the critics scalded it hot with scathing reviews. This is part of a comedy genre that is a dying breed. I watched it from the Sony Movie channel during early Friday afternoon. My son happened to come into the room right as the tops were flying off and boobs exposed. 2/5

Token Eddie Deeze appearance