A product of the gross-out teen movie explosion of the early 1980s. Inspired by the success of ANIMAL HOUSE in 1978 and PORKY’S in 1981, such films tended to be marked by student film worthy filmmaking and rather blatant misogyny. The line-up included bummers like SCREWBALLS, HARDBODIES, JOY OF SEX, PRIVATE SCHOOL and quite a few horror movie spoofs, including STUDENT BODIES, NATIONAL LAMPOON’S CLASS REUNION, SURF II and ZAPPED! (1982).
The latter film was intended as a PG rated teen comedy, but after the release of PORKY’S underwent extensive reshoots to attain an R rating. Surprisingly, it was a minor financial success, and has amassed a sizeable cult following (Eli Roth is said to be a fan), due most likely to the cast of familiar faces, which includes HAPPY DAYS heartthrob Scott Baio, Willie Aames of EIGHT IS ENOUGH (and CHARLES IN CHARGE, which he’d headline with Baio), longtime supporting player Scatman Crothers and eighties pin-up queen Heather Thomas.
Barney (Baio) is a nerdy high schooler who inadvertently creates a serum that grants him telekinetic powers. He uses those powers mostly to snap ladies’ tops and make things work out for his troublemaking pal Peyton (Aames).
Barney falls in love with the nerdy Bernadette (Felice Schachter), who’s actually a good looking young woman who need only remove her glasses to look hot, but he allows Peyton and his parents, who are convinced he’s demonically possessed, to lead him astray. Not to worry, though, because at his school prom Barney repairs his relationship with Bernadette and, most importantly, uses his powers to humiliate the stuck-up prom queen Jane (Thomas, whose nude scenes, as the end credits make sure to inform us, were done with a boob double).
ZAPPED! was one of two directorial credits by the late Robert J. Rosenthal (the other being 1978’s MALIBU BEACH), who demonstrates very little in the way of filmic aptitude. The film is at least coherent, which puts it ahead of most eighties gross-out comedies, but it’s marked by lazy storytelling that among other sins has both Bernadette and Peyton learn of Barney’s powers by peeking at his antics through a window—the same window in both cases. Then there are the many elaborate gags that go nowhere, such as a brief STAR TREK spoof that’s dropped before it can really get going and a hallucination involving a salami-shooting bazooka that is likewise cut short. The same is true of the prom-set climax, whose major special effect consists of Barney making women’s tops pop off, an effect we’ve already seen repeated several times.
Beyond that there are innumerable elements plagiarized from previous films, some in the form of “homages” and others in more shameless form. TAXI DRIVER’S “You Talkin’ to Me?” speech is quoted interminably, in addition to the under-the-table blowjob scene from SHAMPOO and, of course, the climax of CARRIE, all in severely clumsy, watered-down form by a cast that woefully fails to distinguish itself. The marginally talented Scott Baio, the star, delivers the best performance, which tells you all you need to know about the film’s acting level (Scatman Crothers aside, who essentially plays his likeable self).
One more thing: in 1990 a straight-to-video sequel, entitled ZAPPED AGAIN, appeared without the participation of Baio, Aames or Thomas. It’s about what you’d expect, being a film whose primary charm is that it actually makes one wonder if the original ZAPPED! wasn’t so terrible after all.
Vital Statistics
ZAPPED!
Embassy Pictures
Director: Robert J. Rosenthal
Producer: Jeffrey Apple
Screenplay: Bruce Rubin, Robert J. Rosenthal
Cinematography: Daniel Pearl
Editing: Robert Ferretti
Cast: Scott Baio, Willie Aames, Robert Mandan, Felice Schachter, Scatman Crothers, Roger Bowen, Mews Small, Greg Bradford, Hilary Beane, Sue Ane Langdon, Heather Thomas, Hardy Keith, Curt Ayers, Merritt Butrick, Jennifer Chaplin, Irwin Keyes, Henry Ford Robinson, Dick Balduzzi, Eddie Deezen