This Day in Horror History: Wes Craven’s SHOCKER Opened in 1989
Mike Sprague
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On this day in horror history, writer-director Wes Craven’s supernatural slasher flick Shocker with Peter Berg and Mitch Pileggi as Horace Pinker opened in 1989.
Co-starring Michael Murphy and Cami Cooper, the film sports some fun cameos like Heather Langenkamp (Nancy in A Nightmare on Elm Street) as Horace Pinker’s first victim shown on TV, Craven’s son and the film’s visual effects coordinator, Jonathan Craven as a jogger, and Craven himself as a male neighbor.
According to Craven, it took around thirteen submissions to the MPAA to receive an R-rating. Needless to say, the film was severely cut including scenes such as a longer and more graphic take on Pinker’s electrocution execution (bad name).
Shocker was released in 1,783 theaters back in 1989 and snagged $4.5M opening weekend (against Look Who’s Talking) and ultimately grossed $16.6M in the US.
The movie begins after Horace Pinker (Pileggi), a television repairman, is captured for a series of gruesome murders, and faces execution by the electric chair — but a deal with the devil allows him to come back as electricity. Once he changes into his new form, Pinker goes after the detective that brought him down, Lt. Don Parker (Murphy), as well as Parker’s adopted son, Jonathan (Berg). However, Jonathan’s mysterious connection to Pinker through dreams might help track the killer.
The film sports a 24% on Rotten Tomatoes with a Critics Consensus that reads: With an intriguing enough premise and horror legend Wes Craven on writer-director duty, the real Shocker here is just how lame the end results turned out to be.
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