Shocker: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Rating:
Summary: Shocker: The Book
Review: For all of you that may tout the lines, "The book is usually better than the movie", this is a classic example of such. Wes Craven's movie is good for what it is, a stylistic slasher film. Mitch Pileggi plays Horace Pinker extremely well and pulls off one liners at times to make the movie less scary than it is funny. As I have watched it many times in the theater and on video, the only scene that really does scare you is when Pinker, in a small girl's body, drives a Bulldozer at Jonathan Parker. Other than that the movie is very Nightmare on Elm St.-esque in that it's humor outdoes it's horror.

Randall Boyll's book however, shines Pinker in a much more ominious light. The writer gives an entirely terrifying face to Pinker and the murders he has committed. The book goes into detail about some of the killings and not only are they not your average murders, they are absolutely grotesque in nature as well as bordering on the immoral to even think about at times.

In this setting though, even the most horrific murder has it's place and it truly makes you want to see Pinker captured even more. In the movie it's a fun cat and mouse game between Pinker and Parker, in the book it's a lot more serious in the chase because when you know what's really happened to the families Pinker has murdered, you do want to see him fry.

The book goes off into the supernatural with Pinker's abilities to use bodies and electrical charge, just as the movie does, but with a lot less of the cornyness that precedes the movie's opening credits.

Overall a good read and redemption for Shocker fans out there that are trying to show everyone why Horace Pinker is scarier than the movie makes him seem.