'Shocker' was basically an attempt by wes Craven to give the world another horror franchise with another gimmicky maniac. He wasn't anywhere near as successful as he was with the legendary pop-culture figure Freddy Kruger, but this film has both gore and laughs to offer the horror fan.

The plot concerns Horace Pinker, television repair man by day, multiple murderer by night. After being finally caught, he is sentenced and duly executed in the electric chair. However, this turns out merely be the start of his crimes, as he is transformed into some weird, unspecified electro man, who also has the handy power to posess people, jumping from body to body. set against him is the decidedly wimpy Jonathan, who seems to have some bizarro connection with the killer, and often finds himself 'seeing' the murders as and before they happen, a trait which leads the police to suspect him of the dreadful deeds. As the bodies pile up, Pinker and Jonathan become locked together in deadly battle..........

Nothing new, right ? Well thats true, but the film is still plenty of fun. PInker, played by Mitch Phileggi (Skinner from the X-Files) is an amusingly over the top buffoon who belows his way through the role, and although it was obvious he never had the charisma that propelled Jason Voorhees and The Shape through so many adventures, he's good value as a one off psycho.

There's plenty of action, and ol' Wes as usual delivers the gore goods, in particular with one great lip ripping scene. There are also lots of laughs, although admittedly some of them are unintentional: like when Pinker posesses a little girl, who turns foul-mouthed, and adopts his crazy limp.
As with any posession pic, there are geat scenes of characters wrestling to control the evil spirit, for exmple by grappling with their own hands when he tries to make them murder. I guess no-one could ever accuse this film of being suspenseful or atmospheric, but,
hey, what do you expect ?

The effects themselves are pretty good, especially in the amusing end scene, and overall they help to make the film move along briskly.
Overall, if you are a horror fan, this is a good, solid genre entry. There is plenty of action, its never boring and its 5 by 5 for entertainment. Its a great film for geting some beers in with your buddies, and thats as good a reccommendation as any.