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[[quoteright:260:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shockerz.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:260:It's sho- oh, nevermind.]]

->”On October 2nd, at 6:45 a.m., mass murderer Horace Pinker was put to death. Now, he’s really mad.”
-->-'''{{Tagline}}'''

''Shocker'' is a horror film directed by Creator/WesCraven which was released in 1989.

The film centers around young Jonathan Parker (Creator/PeterBerg), who starts having [[DreamingOfThingsToCome prophetic dreams]] of SerialKiller Horace Pinker (Creator/MitchPileggi) after he kills most of his foster family. Seeking justice, Jonathan turns to his police officer foster father Lt. Don Parker (Creator/MichaelMurphy) and convinces him that he can track Pinker through his dreams. With Jonathan's help police are able to capture Pinker, who is sentenced to die in the electric chair. However, before the moment of his execution Pinker makes a DealWithTheDevil and becomes one with the electricity after his execution. This gives him the ability to possess the bodies of others, allowing him to continue his killing spree from beyond the grave.

!!This movie provides examples of:

* AndThisIsFor: Jonathan lists Pinker's victims as he forces him to thrash around with a remote control. Complete with TheReasonYouSuckSpeech.
* ArchnemesisDad: Horace Pinker reveals during his execution that Jonathan is actually his son and that he killed his mom. For trying to stop him, Pinker has apparently made it his life's goal to destroy his son and brutally murder everyone he loves, including his adoptive family and his girlfriend.
%% * AwardBaitSong: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZLqoG0zqMk Timeless Love]] by Sayara.
* AxCrazy: Pinker is almost always in a murderous frenzy.
* AxeBeforeEntering: Pinker, while possessing coach, goes through two doors to get to Jonathan.
* BackupFromOtherworld: Alison gives assistance from the realm of the dead.
* BaldOfEvil: Pinker is both bald and a violent, murderous brute.
* BatterUp: Jonathan arms himself with a baseball bat to defend himself from Pinker.
* BehindTheBlack: Jonathan is unable to hear a bulldozer driven by Pinker when it is offscreen.
%%* BigNo
%% * BodySurf: Pinker's special powers. He's very bad about selecting bodies with bad hearts, though.
* TheCameo:
** Creator/HeatherLangenkamp appears briefly as a corpse.
** Music/AliceCooper cameos in yet another Wes Craven film!
* CassandraTruth: Averted and played straight: Jonathan's friends immediately believe him when he says that Pinker is still alive, but [[PoliceAreUseless the police]] do not.
* ChekhovsGift: The necklace that Jonathan gave to Allison before she was killed, comes back from the afterworld as means to stop Pinker.
* CouldntFindAPen: Pinker leaves messages written in blood to taunt Jonathan.
* CreatorCameo: Wes Craven appears near the end of the movie.
* DealWithTheDevil: Pinker does this before going to the electric chair, and his new powers are given to him by a [[AnimateBodyParts disembodied mouth]] appearing from a television screen.
-->'''Pinker''': Come on! Give it to me!
-->'''Mouth''': You got it, baby.
* DisneyAcidSequence: The final chase scene, which takes place ''[[TrappedInTVLand through the medium of television itself]]!'' Jonathan and Pinker weave in and out of the [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar riots in Berlin,]] a boxing match, an Music/AliceCooper concert, ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver'', stock footage of Atomic Bomb testing (with Pinker as ''the explosion''), ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'', a live Newscast (to the shock of the anchorman), UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, and into a Series/{{Roseanne}}-{{Expy}}'s house.
* DreamingOfThingsToCome: While Pinker is still alive, Jonathan can predict the next victims with the help of his dreams.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Played with... the necklace Jonathan wears (a token that he [[ThePowerOfLove gave to his girlfriend]] at the beginning of the movie) affects Pinker the way a Cross would affect a Vampire - badly. It can weaken Pinker's hold on [[BodySurf the person he is "wearing" at the time,]] and when he is corporeal it can destabilize him enough to drive him back into the airwaves.
%% * EvilLaugh: When not taunting, Pinker's laughing.
* FakingTheDead: Pinker pretends to have died from his deal with the devil to hurt two guards.
* FamilyExtermination: Horace Pinker targets the family of the police detective who has been investigating his murders, and also because the same detective previously adopted Pinker's biological son Jonathan (Pinker had killed his own wife as well), killing almost his entire adoptive family in front of him.
* {{Fingore}}: Pinker bites off a prison guard's finger. Earlier, he chopped off three of Jonathan's brother's fingers.
--->'''Pinker:''' Finger lickin' good!
* GlamourFailure: Even when Pinker has a new body, he continues limping on his bad leg.
* HandyRemoteControl: Jonathan manages to get his hands on a TV-remote control during the final ChaseScene through the television world, and uses it to mess with Pinker for a while.
%% * IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: Jonathan does this twice to people possessed by Pinker.
%% * ImColdSoCold: Allison says this when she appears in Jonathan's dreams for the first time.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Pinker's aim with guns is horrendous. He's likely aware of this, given his usual means of murder involves knives and tearing people apart with his ''bare hands''.
* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Pinker puts on a police uniform to evade the cops at his workplace.
* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: This movie is often called ''Wes Craven's Shocker''.
* ItAlwaysRainsAtFunerals: Jonathan's foster family's funeral is accompanied by rain.
* LaughablyEvil: Aside from being dangerously AxCrazy, Pinker is a definite doozy. He's basically ComicBook/TheJoker as a PsychoElectro.
* LukeIAmYourFather: At the moment of his execution, Pinker reveals to [[HeroicBastard Jonathan]] that he is his father. Also, just to be even more of a dick, he also gloats about murdering his mother. Hinted at all of a couple minutes earlier during the arrest. "It runs in the blood" indeed.
* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: It may actually be half of the movie rather than its beginning, but it is the beginning of what Pinker thinks will be the fulfillment of his plans.
* NeckSnap: When possessing the prison doctor, Pinker snaps a cop's neck before possessing the other.
* NighInvulnerability: After Pinker is granted his powers, he is as vulnerable as any human... but if something happens, he'll just switch bodies.
* NoBodyLeftBehind: After Pinker's now electrified soul leaves from his body, the corpse turns into ash.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Pinker says this to Jonathan about how they enjoy killing. But at the end, Jonathan refused to kill him by knife.
%% * {{Novelization}}: By Randall Boyll.
* OffingTheOffspring: Pinker's main goal is to kill Jonathan, who is actually his son.
* OhCrap: During the first BodySurf chase scene, when Pinker leaps from the body of a small mother... into a massively muscled Construction Worker (played by Music/AliceCooper's guitarist Kane Roberts). Cue SlasherSmile.
* OneWordTitle
* PeekABooCorpse: Pinker's soulless corpse gives one last scare before burning away.
* ThePowerOfLove: Allison's love for Jonathan enables her to help him from the other side.
%%* PsychoElectro
* PracticallyJoker: Like ComicBook/TheJoker, Horace Pinker's an AxCrazy LaughablyEvil LargeHam threat. Ironically, his actor would go on to [[WesternAnimation/TheBatman voice]] [[TheCommissionerGordon the complete polar opposite]].
* ReligionOfEvil: Pinker worships the devil... Or the television. The preacher kicks Pinker's shrine, calling it "blasphemy".
* ResurrectedMurderer: Horace Pinker makes a DealWithTheDevil to bind his spirit to electricity, so he can use it to possess people and claim more victims.
%% * ResurrectiveImmortality: Pinker's ultimate reward granted by Satan. Or by television, whichever happens to be more evil.
* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: This movie is a perfect example; [[spoiler:that starts with the villain brutally murdering the hero's family, builds up to a chase through TV Land and ends with the hero making the villain jump up and down on the bed like an idiot]].
* RideTheLightning: Pinker uses electirc sockets and television sets for travel.
* ScaryBlackMan: Jonathan's football coach who seems to have a thing about breaking people's necks.
%% * SerialKiller: Who could it be?
%% * SlasherSmile: Pinker gives one to Jonathan while possessing the body of his stepfather.
%% * SpiritAdvisor: Allison, and all the other people Pinker killed for Jonathan.
%%* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch
* TrappedInTVLand: The last ChaseScene between Jonathan and Pinker takes place between television programs.
%% * VertigoEffect: Used on Jonathan when Pinker causes an explosion outside the prison.
* VillainBall: Pinker might have gotten away with his crimes [[spoiler:if he didn't insist on continuing to kill families even after successfully framing Jonathan]].
* VillainSong: The soundtrack has several for Horace Pinker. Examples include "No More Mr. Nice Guy," "Shocker," "Different Breed," and the most obvious "Demon Bell — The Ballad of Horace Pinker."

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