On its 30th anniversary, we plug into Wes Craven’s outrageous attempt at a new iconic slasher villain with the body-hopping, TV-invading ‘Shocker!’

“Change the channel.”

Wes Craven is indisputably one of the most legendary names in horror. He’s responsible for several notable contributions to the genre that span multiple decades, but in conversations about the director, the films that typically get the most appreciation are A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, or The Hills Have Eyes. Maybe you’ll see The Last House on the Left or The Serpent and the Rainbow come up, but it’s a rarity that 1989’s Shocker is in the discussion, which is a real shame. Granted, Shocker is far from Craven’s best film—the director himself has even been transparent about its faults—but it’s one of his most creative efforts and it shows the growing talents of this horror auteur.

Alas, in spite of the ambitiousness on display in Shocker, it remains an outlier in Craven’s filmography that gets a lot more flak than it deserves. The movie’s biggest claims to fame are probably its memorable VHS cover and the Looney Tunes-esque final act that takes place inside the changing channels of a television set. But there’s a lot more to appreciate in this late ‘80s cult classic, so with the film now thirty years old, let’s take a look back on Craven’s electric slasher.

Shocker tells the grisly story of Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), a crazed serial killer who gets caught and undergoes execution in the electric chair, but then seems to accomplish even more murders after his supposed “death.” Craven weaves a heightened supernatural slasher that goes in an incredibly unique direction, almost as if to set up the groundwork for a future series of Shocker titles. Pinker’s abilities are a little inconsistent, but what is clear here is that Craven tries to set him up to be the “next” Freddy Krueger of sorts. Craven was vocal about the disappointment in the direction of Freddy’s character over the course of the Elm Street franchise and how he had become more of a novelty than a feared killer in many respects. Horace Pinker was meant to be the response to that and Craven’s attempt at a new supernatural serial killer that he could allow to stay in a vicious place.

In fact, the film’s introduction shows Pinker slaving away at a television set, but it’s a work sequence that plays out almost identically to Freddy’s glove construction in the original A Nightmare on Elm Street, almost as if it intentionally wants to invite the comparison. To go even further, Pinker first exposes himself through Jonathan’s dreams; dreams are repeatedly used as a way to connect with Pinker. You practically expect to see Pinker and Krueger flip a coin in dream land and debate over who should field this one. Characters say things like, “It’s more than just a dream” that feel like they could be straight from out of an Elm Street movie, while Pinker deals in one-liners like, “Take a ride in my Volts-wagon,” which doesn’t even make sense, but is pure Freddy. There’s also a scare that takes place towards the end of the film where a reclining chair morphs into Pinker that feels exactly like the kind of thing within Freddy’s repertoire of tricks, but the way in which Pinker creatively ricochets around the room as electricity keeps it fresh.

When Shocker begins it’s a little too slapstick and police procedural-y in nature, but it’s all for the sake of character development; the first 40 minutes feel like Craven is directing a bizarre Law & Order episode. The film also tries to differentiate itself from Elm Street with how it features a male protagonist (Peter Berg as Jonathan Parker), versus the direction that most slasher films take. Shocker plays around with whether Jonathan or his stepdad will be the lead, and gives them both a reason to care about Pinker’s demise. It then turns into a strangely suspenseful action film for just a little bit, full of long jumps across roofs and kung fu flips that come from ordinary people; Pinker and Jonathan deliver a well-choreographed fight set on a rooftop that makes the most of its surroundings.

And then the horror really begins. Pinker’s first murder scene is genuinely scary and tense and paints the picture of an unhinged killer. The film makes it clear that Pinker has killed 30 people before his carnage in the movie even begins, which already makes him a bigger threat than Freddy. The way he goes about his mayhem feels like a hybrid of Freddy’s wisecracking nature and Jason’s brute strength and violence. Craven tries to course correct past “mistakes” here, like how you actually get a chance to know Pinker before his death, whereas audiences are only given mere minutes with Freddy before he dies as a human.

It’s curiously 40 minutes before Pinker fries on the electric chair and the film can really get started with its premise. It feels like the movie could easily begin with Pinker’s execution as the introductory scene and feature quick flashbacks to his rampage that got him there. It’s an interesting strategy, but in a film that’s nearly two hours and coasts off of Craven’s goodwill from Elm Street’s success (a 90-minute film), the first act could easily be trimmed to little consequence, even if you can understand the character beats that it attempts to plant early on. At a certain point people just want a bonkers slasher, which is eventually what they get here.

It’s like the film knows that the wild voodoo ceremony that Pinker performs to the Electric Gods, or whatever, is ridiculous, but it doesn’t care. The rules around Alison’s necklace, why Pinker is vulnerable to it, and Alison’s abilities to reappear as a helpful ghost are also a healthy dose of nonsense. The same can be said for how his body disappears after his execution, or why Pinker and Jonathan share some sort of psychic dream connection. There’s a magical realism in play here. Shocker doesn’t want you to have questions, it just wants you to get caught up in the spectacle (and honestly a longer movie that answers these questions wouldn’t be a better thing). The effects are cheesy, but great fun for the late ’80s, and it’s entertaining to see how the film and Pinker continually weaponize electricity in crazy ways.

This is also just a gorgeous looking movie. The first shot of Pinker’s van outside the murder scene looks like it’s straight out of Zodiac. There are repeated moments of cinematography that are much better than they deserve to be, such as the introduction of the electric chair, and it’s clear that much thought went into these setups. The film’s production design is also top notch and Alison’s murder scene is gloriously decked out in blood as if the walls are painted in it. The practical effects during Pinker’s “mouth to mouth” moment are also incredible.

Curiously, there’s not a whole lot of actual on-screen violence throughout the film, but the film manages to trick the audience by just how brutal the aftermath of Pinker’s murders are. Shocker happened to be originally rated “X” until Craven went through many revisions to get it to an “R” rating. The biggest edits were that Pinker originally spits out fingers from one of the prison orderlies before his execution, Coach Cooper’s self-inflicted hand wounds were originally more graphic, and Pinker’s big execution was more intense.

Shocker only becomes stronger as it embraces it’s crazier tendencies. The first body-jumping scene is pure chaos and gets thrown at you with zero warning. There’s a follow up sequence that’s set in broad daylight where Pinker hops multiple bodies, including a young girl, in order to reach his target. There are some creative white noise-like effects to simulate Pinker’s body-hopping, but for the most part it’s dependent on the actors to each briefly embody Pileggi’s angry performance, which is also a lot of fun (especially when it’s channeled through a cute, innocent kid). Later on, Coach Cooper’s confusion over how Pinker possesses him is particularly disturbing, perhaps even more so than the graphic hand stabbing that follows.

Craven apparently viewed Shocker as a Greek tragedy of sorts and tried to channel this through his cast’s performances, which were intentionally bold and theatrical. This especially feels evident in Michael Murphy as Jonathan’s stepdad, Lt. Don Parker. A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Heather Langenkamp makes a brief cameo early on as one of Pinker’s victims, but Camille Cooper also feels incredibly Langenkamp-esque as Alison Clemons. The movie also goes for its own “Marion Crane moment” when Alison dies within the first half hour and it comes as a complete surprise.

Alison does reappear in ghost form and at one point the Good Ghost of the East version of Alison shoots magical energy at the white noise version of Pinker so he’s thrown into another room. The scene is capped off by Pinker repeating “I think I can. I think I can” to himself until he’s able to escape by transporting his essence into an electrical outlet. It’s sheer madness, but goddamn if it isn’t deliriously engaging. As insane as all of this is, Pinker’s absurd exit also segues into the best part of the entire film, the showdown that’s literally set within the changing channels of a television set.

Before all of this, an emotional climax is reached atop a giant communications tower as the characters wage war hundreds of feet above the city. It’s a creative, visually fascinating, and thematically sound place to reach the cathartic resolve between Jonathan and his stepdad. Craven fakes out the audience and cleverly makes it feel like this is the end and that the supernatural danger of Pinker will live on for a future sequel, before it then pulls the rug out from everyone and heads into its amazing finale. The final showdown takes place within the television set: This exchange of fisticuffs sprawls between war footage, a Leave it to Beaver rerun, an Alice Cooper rock concert, footage of the Hindenburg destruction, Tienanmen Square coverage, wrestling matches, news reports, evangelical programs, and even old Universal movie monsters, like Frankenstein.

By today’s standards, it’s just green screen fun, but it’s kind of amazing for 1989 standards. This apparently would have been more prevalent in follow-up sequels. Craven viewed the electromagnetic “television realm” that grabbed hold over the audience to be as powerful of a world as dreamscapes or psychic territory and this was attempt at playing with that. It’s a marvel to watch play out and the kind of thing that makes Craven really feel like an auteur. This is what Shocker is capable of and the mark that it wanted to leave on audiences. It’s fun to think about how this device may have changed and evolved in future installments. The gag where the two of them temporarily exit the television and continue their fight in someone else’s living room (complete with a joke about “audience participation) is a glorious addition that makes it feel like a Rick and Morty episode.

The episode’s big solution and how it uses a remote control’s functions to manipulate Pinker may appear in every variation on this idea that’s ever been done. Not to mention, the way in which Jonathan uses this opportunity to show how he’s better than Pinker and not a villain himself is super pat and on the nose, but it’s still a resolution that works. It feels a little rushed how everything comes to a close, but there’s a weird gonzo logic to it that makes sense.

Shocker’s soundtrack is also another major element of the film to get excited about. It features plenty of popular rock artists, with offerings from Megadeth, Dangerous Toys, Iggy Pop, and the Dudes of Wrath, who perform the film’s titular track, “Shocker.” “Shocker” is a fucking great, catchy song. As silly and over the top as the film’s rock soundtrack is, it fits. On top of that, there’s also a great score by William Goldstein, which really adds to the tension through the beginning of the film. There are plenty of exciting musical cues that pull from hard rock legends for inspiration, but it’s particularly entertaining that the electric chair gets its own bad ass needle drop moment (Pinker himself later quotes, “No more Mr. Nice Guy,” in a weird meta moment). That’s basically the tone of the film. Stone cold devices of murder are the heroes.

Shocker has the unfair reputation of a failure of sorts due to its poor critical reception and lack of a sequel, but it still brought in over $16.5 million domestically, which was over four times its budget. Plus, it also made more money than that year’s Friday the 13th and Halloween films (although it’s fitting that 1989’s Elm Street sequel did do better, as Pinker was just viewed as “Freddy light” in some respects). The film currently sits at a disappointing 20% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it’s remained relevant for Craven and horror fans alike. It was a surprising investment for Universal at the time, considering how anti-studio the film is, but clearly they were hungry for a piece of the “horror pie” that was becoming so popular during this era. Shocker found an audience upon its release and stuck with them, so the lack of a sequel likely isn’t due to a poor performance, but rather the evolving sensibilities of the horror genre in the ’90s and the other obligations of Craven, Universal, and company.

In spite of there being no actual sequel, Pileggi does appear as Horace Pinker in a Halloween installment of MTV’s Headbangers Ball in 1989 to help promote the film. His “See you on TV” line is also incredibly clever, considering audiences likely will not have seen the film yet. It’s a weird, but oddly appropriate “cameo” since Shocker does seem like the kind of movie that would play before a metal concert or exclusively on Alice Cooper’s tour bus.

Shocker remains a fun oddity from Craven’s career that has a strong premise, but it just doesn’t get enough use out of that premise or feature enough scares. Two or three more serious scares here along with some trimming would make such a difference. You can see the potential in all of this and how future films could refine this formula, especially with a lot of the heavy lifting of setup now out of the way, but it never quite gets there. This is a perfect example of a film where the sequel would arguably be better and get so much more done due to what’s accomplished in the original picture.

That being said, Craven, Mitch Pileggi, and Peter Berg all demonstrated interest in a Shocker remake all the way up to Craven’s death. Craven was always fascinated with the idea of a remake due to the film’s uneven structure and how he couldn’t finish the effects to his level of satisfaction and had to hand the duties over to another party when they ran out of money, who also proceeded to have a nervous breakdown and overextended himself. Craven was also interested in remaking The People Who Live Under the Stairs around the same time, but Shocker is the one with more potential and is in more need of a technical upgrade. There was definitely a feeling that Craven wanted to do this again, but “right” this time. Remake rumors picked up some steam in 2007 after Craven actually assisted with Alexandre Aja’s The Hills Have Eyes remake (as well as helping produce the Last House on the Left remake). With how far technology has come since 1989, it’d be fascinating to see how a modern take on the concept could fix the initial film’s weaknesses. Due to Craven’s passing, hopes of a remake are now likely dashed, but as the film celebrates thirty years, there’s no better time to check out one of Wes Craven’s earliest joys.

At the least, give Megadeth’s rendition of “No More Mr. Nice Guy” a listen.