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.

This is absolutely fab. Among the greatest cult movies ever, although it isnt rated like that - yet.

Put your brains on the table and enjoy.

Joe Don Baker - I salute you.

During the early 80s the slasher film had already become a genre ripe for parody. "Student Bodies" and "Pandemonium" are two more of the well-known examples. This one wasn't always terribly funny, in this viewers' humble opinion. It tried so hard to be funny, but didn't always hit the mark. Still, there's an agreeable amount of goofiness and enough good laughs to make it tolerable for an admittedly well-paced 87 minutes.

Joe Don Baker is at his most slovenly as a dedicated police detective who's determined to prove that the dreaded Lawnmower Miller, who last terrorized his city 13 years earlier, is due to return. One of LMs' previous victims was the older sister of virginal Mary ('Newhart's' Julia Duffy), and since she witnessed it, she carries deep emotional scars that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

Among the four credited writers are Dana Olsen ("The 'Burbs") and Jim Kouf ("Stakeout"), and in the directors' chair is prolific B filmmaker Greydon Clark. They take aim at a variety of horror films, from "Psycho" to "The Omen" to "The Island of Dr. Moreau" to the run of slasher pictures of the period. Oddball characters include Mary's brother Damien (Michael Lee Gogin), and the obligatory Red Herring Gardener / Creep (the great character actor Anthony James).

Andrew "Dice" Clay makes his screen debut (without the "Dice" nickname), playing a somewhat Travolta-esque character, and he's reasonably amusing. But he's just one of a number of familiar faces that appear. George Kennedy plays Mary's dad, a voyeur who tries to explain away his creepiness with the repeated refrain of "just mowing the lawn". Stella Stevens, Scott McGinnis, Elizabeth Daily, Sonny Carl Davis, Jeff Altman, Charles Napier, Darby Hinton, and Jacqulin Cole (the directors' wife) are all present and accounted for. But it's Baker who comes off the best. A total slob, his is a character who REALLY can't live without his coffee. He even has a brief scene after the closing credits, if you wait for it.

Overall, a fairly funny comedy, but "Student Bodies" is the best of this genre at the time, at least according to this viewer.

Six out of 10.

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.