A serial killer known as ‘The Banana Killer’ (bananas are found at the site of his murders) is terrorising a town in Southern California. He turns out to be akin to the missing link between man and an ape. He falls in love with a local young woman and resorts to kidnapping her when she doesn’t reciprocate his affections.

This is the first film by John Landis and features the work of the as-yet-unheard-of Rick Baker. Landis couldn’t get Schlock distributed. As luck would have it, Johnny Carson saw it and loved it and so invited Landis onto his show to talk about his opus and hopefully get the film a distribution deal. And it worked!

Apparently, Landis hated this film for years. This reminds me of the Sam Raimi film, Crimewave which he said was on the same level as porno filler material (he’s wrong. It’s brilliant).

Schlock is brilliant. Very funny, very idiosyncratic and a true original. It pokes fun at a number of different genres at once and succeeds effortlessly.

I’m so glad that this film was rediscovered decades later and given a new lease of life courtesy of an Arrow Video Blu-Ray transfer that is beautiful to behold.

I urge you to see Schock as it shows that the genius of Landis and Baker was there for all to see from their very first cinematic effort. Oh, and it’s nice to see that See You Next Wednesday is mentioned even in Landis’ debut.

4.5 out of 5 stars