Shocker (VHS, 1992)

After a series of unusual dreams, young football star Jonathan Parker (Peter Berg) captures serial killer Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi), a diabolical television repairman responsible for the deaths of several families. Pinker is sentenced to die in the electric chair, but the execution goes awry and more people are mysteriously killed. Jonathan realizes that Pinker has used black magic to transfer himself into electricity, able to travel through power lines into homes through television sets. Despite the skepticism of his police detective father (Michael Murphy), only Jonathan can track Pinker down and destroy him once and for all. Director Wes Craven combines his serial killer thriller with a dash of social criticism, satirizing the modern obsession with the media in ways similar to his later hit SCREAM. Horace Pinker is a tough slasher in the Freddy Krueger mode, making wisecracks between murders, making +SHOCKER a tense but funny horror movie, with appearances by John Tesh and Dr. Timothy Leary (as a televangelist) as well as a cameo by Craven himself. The film climaxes in a wild chase between Jonathan and Pinker through the dangerous television landscapes, a realm where anything can happen.