“It's Halloween, it's prom night, there's a psycho loose, so don't open the door, don't answer the phone, don't look in the attic, don't go to the bathroom, don't go into the ocean, and don't go into space 'cause no one can hear you scream," when Greydon Clark covers all the bases with the slasher parody WACKO, on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

Exactly thirteen years ago on the Halloween Pumpkin Prom, young Mary and her friends saw her sister Pam (Claudia Lonow, EATING) and her boyfriend Danny (John Avery, BLOOD BIRTHDAY) literally mowed down by a lawnmower riding assailant wearing a pumpkin on his head. Since then, Mary (Julia Duffy, NIGHT WARNING) has lived in fear of the very sound of a lawnmower, and Detective Dick Harbinger (Joe Don Baker, WALKING TALL) has earned the derision of his co-workers and superiors for being on the lookout each Halloween for the killer's return; so much so that he has no support from the chief (Charles Napier, SUPERVIXENS) when a patient escapes from the state mental facility that morning who cannot be identified because of destroyed records. It's prom night again, and Mary is planning to lose her virginity to preppy Norman Bates (Scott McGinnis, JOYSTICKS); that is, if he can stop sounding like a lawnmower whenever he gets aroused. Fellow cheerleader Bambi (Elizabeth Daily, ONE DARK NIGHT) is planning to have her way with greaser Tony Schlongini (Andrew Clay before the "Dice") while Rosie (Michelle Tobin, YOURS, MINE, AND OURS) is so in need of a date to the prom that she is considering the bald weirdo (David Drucker, THE PAPER CHASE) who has been lurking around the campus all day. Mary's peeping tom father Dr. Graves (George Kennedy, UNINVITED) and happy-go-lucky mother (Stella Stevens, THE MANITOU) are chaperoning, janitor Zeke (Anthony James, THE FIFTH FLOOR) carries an axe everywhere he goes, "vice" principal Harry Palms (Jeff Altman, AMERICAN HOT WAX) is waging a war on promiscuity, chemistry teacher Dr. Moreau (Victor Brandt, NEON MANIACS) is experimenting on the football team, and a weirdo (Sonny Carl Davis, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH) has been popping up around the campus doing the "Crazy Ralph" routine.

Predating RETURN TO HORROR HIGH, the SCARY MOVIE franchise, and even PANDEMONIUM, the slasher parody WACKO – originally titled THE LAST HORROR SHOW but probably changed to discourage confusion with the Joe Spinell/Caroline Munro MANIAC follow-up THE LAST HORROR FILM – was marketed as the "comedy that takes off where AIRPLANE landed." While it is quite obvious that director Greydon Clark (WITHOUT WARNING) and writers Jim Kouf (THE BOOGENS) and Dana Olsen (THE BURBS) have seen the major slashers – there's bits of HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH but mostly PROM NIGHT – the approach to comedy is of the Zucker-Abraham-Zucker "slather it on" variety with numerous sight gags and jokes: Mary's baby brother is named Damian and has three sixes on his forehead, it goes without saying that Norman Bates brings "Mother" to dinner, and there is a coda that owes as much to the final scare of CARRIE as it does to ALIEN. As heavy-handed as this approach is, the younger, less experienced performers come off best, particularly Duffy, Daily, and surprisingly Clay while the veteran cast sometimes seem embarrassed or trying to be good sports. Nicholas Von Sternberg (TOURIST TRAP) and composer Arthur Kempel (GRADUATION DAY) provide the horror movie atmosphere when required but the overall enterprise is more miss than hit. Clark regulars Jaqulin Cole (SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS) and Darby Hinton (THE RETURN) have small roles.

Released theatrically by Jensen Farley Pictures (CURTAINS) and video by Vestron – along with an Image Entertainment laserdisc – WACKO bypassed the DVD era entirely (apart from a fullscreen German DVD) and comes to Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome in a 4K-mastered 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen transfer from the original camera negatives. The results are clean and colorful in keeping with the basic technical proficiency of Clark's films. Opticals are always grainier than the rest of the film, but that is to be expected. The DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 mono track is also well-rendered in terms of dialogue, musical accents, and many a comical sound effect. Optional English SDH subtitles are included, although they do futz a joke in which Moreau accidentally reveals himself to be Dr. Mengele (which the subtitles transcribe as "Mangler").