Wacko

Joe Don Baker cracked me up in this comedy about an inept cop who is the only one convinced there is a Pumpkin-Headed Lawn Mower Killer on the loose. I first saw this movie in the earlier 1980's, but unfortunately, it looks like it's not available anymore. All I can say is that the images I saw then inflicted emotional scars that took years to heal.....

It's Halloween, it's the night of a school prom, it's a Friday, the Moon is full and 13 years after a brutal murderous spree The Lawnmower Killer is back! Wacko is a horror-comedy with the emphasis very much on the latter, and by comedy I mean the over the top variety, the slapstick and surreal type found in movies such as "Airplane!" For me most of the gags worked and I did laugh out loud a few times though I must have been in the right frame of mind for it. Good production values and a decent cast helped a lot, though hardly a classic this could have been so much worse. Films parodied include Psycho, The Omen, Alien, The Exorcist and The Elephant Man. George Kennedy plays a doctor (his wife says "Mary! Your father is a doctor, he kills people every day") who likes to peep on his teen daughters through their bedroom windows. Not sure how even back then this was meant to be funny, it's creepy and perverted. As usual the school kids look more mid to late 20's than teens, including "Tony", a full blooded alpha male obviously inspired by John Travolta's Danny from Grease but with added crudeness. I always say the horror-comedy is a difficult genre to get right, fortunately Wacko proved to be a worthwhile watch. Furthermore it was made during the Golden Age of the Slasher Movie and that alone is a good enough reason to check it out.

I remember seeing this movie when I was a kid - I loved it and watched it at least 20 times from when I was 9 up to when I was 12, the video shop then changed hands to a big blockbuster type chain and they got rid of all the old movies whether popular or not.

A fantastic spoof that combined so many of the horror films of the 70's and 80's, the alien chest scene with the small lawnmower is one of my favs of the film.

If you like the spoof genre this is one of the best by far and a crime to miss

Parody of the first generation of US splatter pics works on about the level of a Mad Magazine parody, but one of the FUNNY ones. (You may have to be kind of old like me to remember those.)

Some veteran hams give it a kick along. Julia Duffy, (who was the snooty chambermaid who never did any work in the "Newhart" TV series set in an inn in Vermont)has exactly the right aloof/just don't care/not all there presence for the heroine here. Andrew Dice Clay has a great bit as the Vinnie Barbarino parody "Tony Schlongini". His theme-song/entrance is a case of 'once fingerpopped, never forgotten'.

Proudly unsophisticated comedy has the dual charm of complete conviction in its silly gags, and not pretending it's anything other than what it is. Very easy watch, with more than enough laughs to get you through.

I saw this movie in the mid to late 80's and laughed non-stop. My brothers and I still quote lines from it. It belongs up there with Caddy Shack, Animal House, etc, but never got the recognition it deserves. Andrew Dice Clay was a good addition, but definitely not the star of this movie. I think this might be the only comedy role Joe Don Baker (Detective Harbinger) ever did, but he was great. When he brings the psychologist into the Captain's office I thought I was gonna wet my pants. "If you p!ss him off, RUN!" I tracked down a copy of this movie on VHS and value it more than any of my DVDs. There are a few famous people sprinkled in there, but over all, you don't see much of these people, anymore. Still a great movie for quick laughs.