On the thirteenth anniversary of a lawnmower massacre a psychotic killer escapes a mental institute. Now a small town is gripped in terror as the lawnmower killer threatens to strike on Halloween again. Can a grizzled detective catch the killer before the bodies start piling up?
Greydon Clark’s film Wacko (1982) is a broadly comic spoof of Halloween (1978). The film, like Clark’s Joysticks (1983), draws on the comic traditions of Airplane! (1980) and Young Frankenstein (1974). However, unlike these films, there is no self-critique or sophisticated reflexivity. Wacko is a film of ham fisted stupidity.
Wacko sees Andrew Dice Clay turn over a table with his giant boner. It’s a film where there’s a running gag that George Kennedy is trying to see his daughter naked. It’s a film where the waring football teams are the Hitchcock Birds and their mortal enemies are the De Palmas. Everything is trite and silly with nothing to say and little to observe with regards to the horror genre being lampooned.
The saving grace is the blustering performance of leading man Joe Don Baker. Baker drunkenly stumbles about like some anti-hero from the seventies. His character is an authentic pastiche that feels wholly genuine compared to the hollow fanfare going on around him. Baker carries this moronic comedy with self-deprecating irony.
Hollywood doesn’t make comedies like Wacko anymore. It’s a film dated by its humor and form. This makes the film something of an acquired taste. Wacko isn’t going to be for everyone. But if you like your comedies horny and stupid then Wacko is something of a must-see.
