Purely Joyful Movie!

How sad is this?

Fantastic!

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

WACKO is an amazingly unfunny slasher spoof made by director Greydon Clark, he of the variable film quality. This one's set in a high school menaced by a figure known as the 'lawnmower killer', and everything is played out as high farce with lots of terrible overacting and general inanity. I did find the endless references to movies and movie characters to be somewhat endearing, what with characters including Dr Moreau and Norman Bates, and the use of the ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS theme music is cleverly done. Cast-wise, we get turns from a hammy George Kennedy, a typically voluptuous Stella Stevens, Charles Napier as a police chief yet again, and an annoying Joe Don Baker.

"Wacko", "Student Bodies", "Pandemonium" and "Class Reunion" are all slasher parodies that were released in either 1981 or 1982. In other words, at a time when the trend of prototypical 80's high school slashers still had to boom beyond proportions, there were already FOUR movies spoofing the typical trademarks of such films like "Black Christmas", "When a Stranger Calls", "Friday the 13th" and particularly "Halloween". The main problem with these films is that, for every remotely fun gag or ingenious element of parody, there are an average of two dozen painfully misplaced, pathetic and even downright agitating bad jokes. I swear, some of the jokes in "Wacko" are so deplorable that you'll feel embarrassed for the actors and actresses that actually have to tell them with a straight face. Nevertheless this is a remarkable little film with a peculiar ensemble cast and a handful of perplexing (both good and bad) sequences. Thirteen years after she witnessed her sister getting slashed by the Lawnmower Killer – a traumatic mental experience which is bound to screw her up for life – Mary is preparing herself to go to the Halloween prom with her boyfriend, Norman Bates. The same morning, however, a loony who is believed to be the killer escapes from the nearby mental asylum. Fortunately for Mary, or perhaps not, obsessive copper Dick Harbinger never considered the case of the Lawnmower killings to be closed and shows up during the prom as well. The Lawnmower Killer wears a Halloween pumpkin over his/her head and he could pretty much be everyone, like Mary's father who's always mowing the lawn or her boyfriend who can't help producing the sound of a rusty lawnmower when sexually aroused. Writer/director Greydon Clark made a handful of remarkably eccentric and memorable horror flicks, like "Satan's Cheerleaders", "Without Warning" and the ridiculously atrocious "Uninvited". All three of them were actually funnier than "Wacko" even though this is supposed to be the goofy one. It's really weird that Clark managed to gather such a respectable cast. "Wacko" stars veterans like Joe Don Baker ("Walking Tall", "Welcome Home Soldier Boys"), Stella Stevens ("The Poseidon Adventure", "The Ballad of Cable Hogue") and George Kennedy! Now, George appeared in many inferior movies but I never thought he'd played the role of a perverted father who watches his own teenage daughters undress! Say it isn't so, George! There are also familiar 25+ year old's to play the roles of high-school teenagers, like Andrew Dice Clay (the one and only Ford Fairlane gives away a wondrous John Travolta spoof) and the unearthly ravishing E.G. Daily.

I was 4 when this came out and it is a vivid memory of both my brother and I. I have been going into HMV for years saying can you order a film called "the lawnmower killer." Now i know where i have been going wrong. Oh my God, what a film, "Daddy what are you doing??" "Just, err, mowing the lawn." "Sure Daddy, that's what you always say." And the guy who spat the pea soup out after his head rotated 360 degrees. Pure genius and the cop who sees a pool of blood and bends over and picks a sandwich from his pocket, dips into the blood, bites the sandwich, "erm... ketchup." Comedy Genius!!!!!!!!!!!!!I also recall Damian at the dinner table and lots of cake being handed out. It was like everyone got a slab of cake and after it was handed out, Damian at the table pulled a fork out of his leg and ate with it and when he finished the cake, he stabbed the fork back into his leg. Great!! And Daddy took the chainsaw out and chopped off his missus's hair, which was an afro. These are all just memories from over 20 years ago so i think i am doing great.

Move over Star Wars, Wacko is the greatest movie of all time. This movie has it all … from lawnmowers to carrots you don't want to miss Wacko. If you do you are an idiot! Andrew Dice Clay gives a balanced, poignant performance as Tony Schlongini (hey lets all sing along: "Tony Schlongini I am respected everywhere ... Tony Schlongini ... you know how it goes). Jon Don Baker as Dick Harbinger could go down as the greatest hero since Jesus. While some movies are afraid to push the envelope of brilliance (I'm looking at you Godfather!!!) Wacko takes the horror genre to places not scene in Hollywood. Oh by the way I love black women.