6.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
After being sent to the electric chair, a serial killer uses electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player who turned him in to the police.
Starring: Michael Murphy (I), Peter Berg, Camille Cooper, Mitch Pileggi, Richard Brooks (VI)Horror | 100% |
Thriller | 13% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
4K Ultra HD
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
After he made The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), Wes Craven formed his own production company under the auspices of Alive Films where he inked a multi-picture contract, working closely with his assistant, Marianne Maddalena (who became one of his regular producers). Like John Carpenter during this same period at Alive Films, Craven was granted complete creative control on his movies courtesy of executive producer Shep Gordon, who gave the genre directors a free hand. Some years earlier, Craven was developing an idea for a series titled Dreamstalker. Kyle Counts wrote in the autumn 1989 issue of Horrorfan magazine that Craven's concept was based on a male character who was electrocuted but failed to die. The man became rejuvenated and transported himself into other people's bodies "as pure electrical energy." Each week the character would take on another body or assume a different identity. 20th Century Fox Television had planned to develop the series but, according to Counts, the studio foresaw difficulties in expanding Craven's premise so the series fell through. Craven elected to make it into a feature instead by fleshing out the second act and adding a third act. His script, No More Mr. Nice Guy, later morphed into Shocker. In an archival commentary rehashed on these two recent discs from Scream Factory, Craven stated that Jack Sholder's The Hidden (1987) was an inspiration for Shocker. But in Counts's article on Shocker for Horrorfan, Craven all but admits that his treatment for Dreamstalker, which apparently contains several similarities to The Hidden, was written before the release of Sholder's film.
Around this same time, Craven's director friend Sean Cunningham had a similar idea for House III. Craven envisaged this as more than just a coincidence and confronted his filmmaking pal on whether or not he purloined any ideas from the Dreamstalker script. “I had long conversations with Sean, and he claimed that his idea had been around a long time," author Joseph Maddrey quoted Craven as saying in his recent book, The Soul of Wes Craven. "He [Cunningham] was not able to produce registered copies of the idea and at a certain point I left it at that. He gave me his word that he would never steal from me, and I believe him” (p. 264).
For an analysis of Shocker, you may consult a review of Scream Factory's 2015 "Collector's Edition" by my colleague Jeff Kauffman.
Pinker likes to practice electroshock therapy on himself.
Note: Twenty-five of my screen captures are pulled directly from the UHD disc and downsampled to 1080p. They don't encompass the full HDR and are not representative of the film's color values when projected at 2160p.
Scream Factory's new "Collector's Edition" of Shocker arrives as a 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray combo, which is housed with a slipcover duplicating the original theatrical poster art. The transfers are based on a 4K restoration from the original camera negative. The UHD is presented in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible). The picture appears in its native aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The transfer Jeff reviewed over nine years ago was likely sourced from a 2K scan of the interpositive, which Universal supplied to Scream. Jeff noted noted that a high degree of filtering was applied to the DI. Fortunately, no noise reduction is present here. In fact, I would go on record to say that the grain field is as prominent as most of the 4K transfers Shout! Factory has done in the last couple of years. Grain is thick but not too coarse. I noticed very small, dot-like white specks in a few shots. The DV and HDR truly come to life in the scene where Jonathan Parker (Peter Berg) is standing at a concession stand on his college campus. The red on the ketchup bottle as well as a few of the other brighter colors really pop out. (See Screenshot #21.)
I have incorporated ten screen captures from MCA Home Video's open-matte 1.33:1 LaserDisc transfer so you can see the sharp uptick in color on the 4K and also compare framing differences. The scene on the LD where Alison Clement (Cami Cooper) and her girlfriends watch Jonathan at a football practice has mid-range brightness compared to the 4K and new Blu-ray (cf frame grab #26 with #s 27 and 28). That shot is rather excessively bright (with the sun shining) on the UHD. This and similar shots remind me of some overly bright shots Shout had on its 4K transfer of Matinee. Skin tones have a warmer complexion on the 4K. (Compare screen cap #s 16-19.) The UHD boasts super-crisp black levels. Check out the interior shot (#34) where Lt. Don Parker (Michael Murphy) and police officers break into Horace Pinker's (Mitch Pileggi) TV repair shop. Contrast is manifestly superior on the 2160p and 1080p transfers. Look at how clearer Jonathan and his surroundings are by the lake (cf #s 39 and 40 with #38).
Craven has stated that Shocker was the first film in which he made considerable use of optical effects. The tight shooting schedule precluded the effects from looking as good as they could have (even though the visual effects team worked on them for four months), but they are still decently rendered on the new transfers. Steve Biodrowski wrote a piece in the November 1989 issue of Cinefantastique, which discussed the optical effects supervised by Bruno George. George developed a method of utilizing video technology to extract mattes from film footage. Biodrowski notes that the video sequences for Shocker were shot on videotape. The matte work depicts Pinker and later Jonathan within the realm of TV with their inserts appearing in stock footage of a Vietnam War documentary and a game show. Motion-control techniques were employed to optically matte Pinker when he shows up in the real world. Craven explained to Biodrowski that he wanted Pinker "to be plasmic—visible but transparent." Craven extrapolated on the motion control system to the aforementioned Kyle Counts of Horrorfan magazine: ''The camera is on a hot head that's connected to a computer so that after you finish the scene you shoot the scene again using the same precise moves frame for frame with nobody on the set," Craven explained. ''Then you pull a traveling matte off Mitch and drop that matte in over the empty set, and you pull out what's behind him as a matte, and suddenly he's transparent. We got into tremendous technical virtuosity moves based on Bruno [George]'s knowledge of what was possible. We'll be going back and forth between film and high-resolution video techniques. It's fun; it's like going in and out of dreams, only it's television." Fangoria's Marc Shapiro interviewed Bruno George to obtain his perspective. George stated that his VFX team applied a "computer-accurate motion control system to record a move with the actors in it, play back the move on a blank set, compare it with the information on the set with the actors, and then isolate the actors. This way, we were able to derive a sort of traveling matte. Shooting Pinker on those mattes, we were able to isolate him and give him a processed transparent look."
Shocker on a BD-100. The transfer boasts a mean video bitrate of 80.3 Mbps with an overall bitrate of 93.2 Mbps for the full disc. The MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50 carries an average video bitrate of 31000 kbps. The standard twelve scene selections accompany the 109-minute feature on both discs.
Screenshot #s 1-15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 28, 31, 34, 37, & 40 = Scream Factory 2024 4K Ultra HD BD-100 (downscaled to 1080p)
Screenshot #s 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 29, 32, 35, & 38 = MCA Home Video 1990 LaserDisc (1.33:1)
Screenshot #s 27, 30, 33, 36, & 39 = Scream Factory 2024 BD-50 (from 4K restoration)
Scream has supplied three audio track options to watch Shocker with on UHD and Blu-ray (in addition to two archival commentaries): a new Dolby Atmos mix (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible with a standard bitrate of 2959 kbps) encoded at an average bitrate of 3599 kbps and a maximum bitrate of 3729 kbps; a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround remix (3885 kbps, 24-bit); and a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo mix (2013 kbps, 24-bit). I listened to all three tracks with special concentration on the Atmos and stereo mixes. While listening to the Atmos, the front stage sports excellent bass when The Dudes of Wrath perform "Shocker" and also when Megadeth sings "No More Mr. Nice Guy." Sound f/x are emphasized in the fronts throughout the presentation. I did hear chirping birds and the occasional thunderclap along the rears. But the back surrounds and overheads don't really use the height channels much. I found the side speakers along the front frequently active. They demonstrate outstanding range. In addition, I also sampled a number of scenes on the 5.1 track. Spoken words are clear and audible at just the right pitch. Balance is pretty solid.
I played both the DTS-HD MA 2.0 and the Ultra Stereo mix on the LaserDisc. The stereo track on the UHD and Blu-ray is good but the matrixed surround mix on the LD is definitely superior. The treble is great and delivery is ultra-clear. While the fronts and rears were not always active, the LD delivers reverbs coming out of the mono surrounds at a higher frequency than Scream's stereo mix. Sound f/x are more clearly accented on the LD. The satellite speakers on the UHD and Blu-ray do bring out lightning strikes and raindrops but they're only employed on a few occasions.
I appreciate William Goldstein's electronic score more and more as I listen to it on the optical discs and on Varèse Sarabande's score album. Goldstein wrote a leitmotif for the Pinker character that has synthesizers delivering a scampering-around effect, foreshadowing Pinker's imminent attacks. The composer also wrote a lovely melody that represents Jonathan's foster-care family and Alison.
Scream's optional English SDH is almost 100 percent complete. (It's only missing a "Hey" at the beginning of one line.) The subtitle track also clarified when Jonathan is saying "Don" rather than "Dad," which was pretty much all the time.
Scream has retained all bonus features from its 2015 CE and produced three new, relatively brief interviews courtesy of Justin Beahm's Reverend Entertainment. For summaries of the previous extras, please refer to Jeff's original review.
DISC ONE: 4K UHD
Shocker (1989) is a very good horror/black comedy from Wes Craven. I can see how it could have influenced the filmmakers who made Jason Goes to Hell (1993). Indeed, there are electronic elements in Goldstein's score that remind me of Harry Manfredini's thematic material for New Line's first Friday production. Scream Factory's 4K UHD is incredibly film-like with deep blacks and vivid colors occasionally popping up. I appreciated the label including a Blu-ray because it includes a few scenes that are not as bright. Of the three audio presentations I listened to, I prefer the new Dolby Atmos mix. The 2.0 stereo mix is solid but not as dynamic as the LaserDisc's audio track. Supplements from the 2015 CE are retained here along with three recent interviews that are relatively brief but still informative. (I wish that Peter Berg's interview could have been longer.) A PRETTY STRONG RECOMMENDATION. I hope that either Arrow or Scream commissions a 4K restoration of Craven's underrated Deadly Blessing (1981).
Unrated Director's Cut
2006
1986
2013
Collector's Edition
2003
2019
2005
Unrated Director's Cut
2009
2011
Hatchet IV
2017
2019
2015
2006
2016
Collector's Edition
1988
Uncut
2008
1982
2013
1982
Collector's Edition
1989
Collector's Edition
1998