"[6] Variety wrote, "At first glance (or at least for the first 40 minutes) 'Shocker' seems a potential winner, an almost unbearably suspenseful, stylish and blood-drenched ride courtesy of writer-director Craven's flair for action and sick humor.

As it continues, however, the camp aspects simply give way to the ridiculous while failing to establish any rules to govern the mayhem.

"[7] Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times stated that the film "is crammed with dazzling bursts of macabre technique" but "is so diffusely organized it's almost three separate movies.

"[8] Johanna Steinmetz of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "A gory thrill show for underdeveloped sensibilities, it is sloppily organized and jarringly paced.

Its single conceit, that a barrage of television programs has weakened both our values and our grasp of realities, while an excuse for a climax of ingenious special effects, can't sustain an entire movie.

"[9] Richard Harrington of The Washington Post said, "For the longest time, 'Shocker' is low voltage, just another gathering of slasher cliches.

"[10] Kim Newman wrote in The Monthly Film Bulletin that "all the characters, especially the dumb-hunk hero and his dead but chatty girlfriend, are cardboard, and none of the connective tissue makes any sense.

Asked to turn out 'another Nightmare on Elm Street', Craven has sadly resorted to facile self-imitation rather than coming up with something as fiercely original as his biggest hit movie.

Of the film's conclusion, Muir wrote, Shocker's final 20 minutes are a stylistic special effects tour de force and well worth the price of admission.

The site's consensus reads: "With an intriguing enough premise and horror legend Wes Craven on writer-director duty, the real Shocker here is just how lame the end results turned out to be".

We pulled every favor in town to get all those special effects done very quickly, and some of them are pretty sketchy.”[14] Metacritic scored Shocker 51 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

The movie's title song was written by Jean Beauvoir and Desmond Child and recorded by The Dudes of Wrath, a supergroup composed of Paul Stanley of Kiss and Desmond Child, both on vocals, Vivian Campbell and Guy Mann-Dude on guitars, Whitesnake's Rudy Sarzo on bass guitar, and Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee on drums.

The band also included backing vocals by Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony and Kane Roberts.