Director: by Greydon Clark
Screenplay: Dana Olsen, Michael Spound, Jim Kouf, David Greenwalt
Starring: Joe Don Baker, George Kennedy, Stella Stevens, Julia Duffy, Scott McGinnis, Jeff Altman, E.G. Daily, Andrew Clay, Michele Tobin, Sonny Carl Davis, Anthony James
Country: USA
Running Time: 87 min
Year: 1982
BBFC Certificate: 15
In the 1980s, the combined success of the slasher movie and the success of Airplane! (1980) created a boom in slasher/horror parodies. Some forewent the slasher structure for a more Shiver and Shake aesthetic (Saturday the 14th (1981), the truly execrable Hysterical (1983)), while others took a more specifically targeted look at what Leslie Halliwell would refer to as ‘the teenage assassination thriller’, e.g. Student Bodies (1981) and Pandemonium (1982). Wacko (1983), now out on a lovely blu-ray as part of 88 Films’ Slasher Classics Collection is maybe not the best slasher parody (Student Bodies has a cult following but suffers from a non-union cast), but alongside Pandemonium, it is the MOST slasher parody. The film begins with a knife cutting into a pumpkin and the ‘Pumpkinhead Killer’ struggling to breathe in his vegetable fizzog-covering (prefiguring the Lord Dark Helmet asphyxiation joke in Spaceballs).
Thirteen years ago, the Pumpkinhead Killer drove a lawnmower and killed several children. Now, thirteen years later, survivor Mary (Julia Duffy), the sister of a victim is still comedically suffering mental trauma, seeing lawnmowers everywhere. Her parents (George Kennedy and Stella Stevens) are worried. And cop Dick Harbinger (Joe Don Baker) is supposed to solve the mystery. Can he?
Director Greydon Clark, a veteran of the exploitation scene behind such films as Black Shampoo (1976), Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977), Angels Revenge (1979) and Without Warning (1980), hit a run of films in the early to mid 80s starring Joe Don Baker, a few years down his brief Hollywood A-lister run with Walking Tall (1973), and after an even briefer run as a top TV star in shows such as Eischeid and Power, but before his resurgence as a character actor thanks to The Natural (1984) and Edge of Darkness (1985). While Final Justice (1985) is a Maltese variant of Coogan’s Bluff and Joysticks (1983) an arcade-themed sexcom, this is EVERYTHING. In many ways, it predates the Seltzer and Friedberg model of parody. That is you don’t resort to jokes as much as references. Here, we have a psycho who is obsessed with his mother’s corpse, and his name is Norman Bates. There is a creepy kid called Damien, albeit played by adult dwarf actor Michael Lee Gogin, who resembles Peter Bark in Burial Ground (1981), rather than any juvenile lead of the Omen franchise. There is a sub-Travolta love interest named Tony Schlongini played a pre-Diceman Andrew Clay. And Joe Don Baker’s family are black, in a reference to The Jerk (1979).
That said, the film has a perverse, goofy charm. There are actual jokes (a football team called the De Palma Knives), among rememberberries (the school’s called Hitchcock High, and we constantly hear the Alfred Hitchcock Presents theme). The film riffs on Prom Night (1980) as well as Halloween (1978). The veteran players (Stevens, Baker, Kennedy, Charles Napier) know this is a goof, and play it as a goof. Duffy is likeable, though like most slasher teens, rather too old (older IRL than school staff member Jeff Altman). E.G. Daily plays her best mate, while Scott McGinnis (star of the flop steampunk WW1 adventure Sky Bandits (1986) is as forgettable a leading male as many similar characters in actual slashers. And that’s the thing – at times it feels almost too like an actual slasher, especially the twist. It’s punchier than most of Clark’s more serious films, but the irony is it now plays as campily and as much as a time capsule of the Eighventies as actual slashers. There’s not much difference between this and say Happy Birthday to Me (1981) or Pieces (1982).
Film: 
Wacko is out on 7th April on region B Blu-Ray, released by 88 Films (pre-order it here).
LIMITED EDITION FEATURES
– High Definition Blu-ray presentation in 1.85:1 aspect ratio
– Original Mono 2.0 Audio
– Optional English SDH
– Audio Commentary by The Hysteria Continues
– Trailer
– Reversible Sleeve
– Booklet with essay by Dr. Calum Waddell (LE only)
– O-ring slipcase (LE only)
Disc/package: