Wes Craven’s SHOCKER This Weekend at The Des Peres – Late Nite Grindhouse

” You like killing too, huh? There’s nothing about it. We’re killers. “

Destroy the Brain‘s monthly ‘Late Nite Grindhouse’ film series is back in its new location! Head to the Marcus Des Peres Cinema (12701 Manchester Rd, Des Peres, MO 63131) this Friday and Saturday (March 20th and 21st) at 10pm for Wes Craven’s 1989 horror saga SHOCKER. Since this is a Marcus Theater, you’ll need to reserve your seats ahead of time HERE. There may (or may not be) Tickets available the nights of the screenings, but they may be going fast! Tickets are $8. A Facebook invite for the event can be found HERE

As SHOCKER proved, back in 1989, that even Wes Craven’s lesser films were almost always wildly imaginative and invested with a distinctive horror style. SHOCKER’s central plot is that a mad killer named Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi) can survive the electric chair and invade dreams. High school stud Jonathan (Peter Berg) is having dreams where he can see the identity of a serial killer terrorizing the city. His father, Detective Don Parker (Michael Murphy), doesn’t initially take his son seriously. But after he loses some of his men during a raid on an abandoned machine shop, Pinker is finally caught and executed. And then returns from the grave, wreaking havoc and invading other bodies through his ability to morph into “pure energy”. And that’s all she wrote.

Where SHOCKER shines is in its gonzo final act and hilariously dated Heavy Metal ethos. Pileggi, spitting out one-liners like Freddy Krueger in a comedy club, chases Berg through television sets, Leave It To Beaver episodes and every permutation of TV reality imaginable. This is the closest thing to a live action looney tunes presentation I’ve seen, and Pileggi just rolls with it. Then there’s the soundtrack stuffed with the likes of Megadeth and Dangerous Toys and other Metal bands I never listened to but was aware when I saw it when it was new, that SHOCKER’s whole raison d’etre at times seemed to be to embody the zeitgeist of metal culture circa 1989.

Don’t miss your chance to see SHOCKER this weekend at The Des Peres.

DESTROY THE BRAIN’s site can be found HERE