Here’s another flick I remember reading about in the Psychotronic Video Guide back in the day. It’s a short (under an hour long), low budget, black and white genre mishmash that’s quite inventive and a lot of fun. There’s enough ingenuity here to put big budget productions to shame. It definitely deserves a bigger cult following.
A mental patient named Jim (Brad Isaac) escapes from the nuthouse and steals a car. He picks up a girl (Cyndy McCrossen) on the road who gives him a mysterious watch. When she is kidnapped by gangsters, Jim teams up with her scientist father to rescue her. The bad guys wind up being aliens and Jim becomes a superhero to stop them.
Shock! Shock! Shock! plays like a mix of an old timey Saturday afternoon serial and a flat-out fever dream. Right from the opening scene that feels like a mash-up of Leave It to Beaver and Halloween, you know you’re in for something fun, and the way it pinballs from one genre to another is a real joy. (I’ve seen more than one review that compares it to Rat Pfink a Boo Boo.) There are just too many inspirations to list (the stuff with the scientist plays like an episode of Mr. Wizard), but things really kick into high gear when it becomes a tribute to old Japanese superhero movies. The cool animated opening title sequence and the bitching surf guitar theme song by The Cyphers are equally impressive.
The low budget effects (ping pong ball eyeballs, negative scratches death rays, etc.) and decent gore (there’s face ripping and a decapitation) work surprising well and are done in the same spirit as the rest of the movie. There’s also a pretty cool freakout scene, an awesome stop motion monster, and some truly great dialogue like, “Your human love makes me sick!”
Also, look fast for James Gandolfini making his film debut.
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