"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.
