Shocker (1989) *

 A serial killer of families, Horace Pinker(Mitch Pileggi, really overexerting himself), makes a deal with a demon or evil spirit or something for which provides him with an opportunity to travel from human body to human body thanks to some sort of electrical current spawning from a botched execution in the Chair. He has one main goal, other than killing as many families as possible, and that is to kill his son, Jonathan(Peter Berg, whose face remains frozen in a state of cluelessness for most of the picture when he isn't constantly running from the killer). He already brutally murdered Jonathan's mother and lover Alison..he even kills the guy's football coach and pal(Ted Raimi, Sam's bro). Michael Murphy(why is he in a movie like this?)portrays Don, Jonathan's foster father and cop trying to nab Pinker and then worried about his son Jonathan sore afraid he's losing his mental faculties as well with all this talk of Pinker flowing through the bodies of different people and electrical outlets. Jonathan's pretty lucky Pinker couldn't shoot if his life depended on it because he wastes two different guns trying to plug him. Once Pinker has become this electrical traveling journeyman, only one thing can stop him from taking over a host shell until the lifeforce is sucked dry..strong willpower or a specific heart-shaped necklace worn by Jonathan's beloved victim of Pinker. Soon, Pinker and Jonathan battle inside the television switching from program to program until his football buddies shut off the main power to the city closing the gateway of electrical travel.

Really, really awful Wes Craven vehicle is bad beyond mere mortal words. It has lots of special effects in it, but the story-telling is so insipid, uninspired, and reckless you never fully know how the hell Pinker could accomplish such a feat. The film is crippled by ineptitude thanks to the premise's overall goofiness. What also hurts is the fact that Alison's ghost seems to fight Pinker..how? The necklace that seems to weaken Pinker and how Alison just communicates away with Jonathan..these elements just compile to create an unmitigated disaster. By far one of Craven's worst films..if one didn't know Craven's other films, probably couldn't believe there isn't an amateur in the director's chair calling the shots. I mean the film never makes much sense and creates situations for it characters as it goes. What a disaster. - January 2007