Zapped! [1982]

For all its naked breasts, pot plants and vomiting contests, Zapped! belongs less to the current high-school hi-jinx genre than with the childish fantasy comedies Disney used to make. Scott Baio's telekinetic Barney is obviously intended as a parody of Sissy Spacek's Carrie, but his awkward relationship with Bernadette and slapstick showing on the baseball pitch made him seem more like a successor to Tommy Kirk in The Misadventures of Merlin Jones. Although it is a shame that waste Robert Mandan in a lame reprise of his Soap performance, Zapped! does quite well by its supporting actors - particularly Scatman Crothers' coach, who has a very strange marijuana fantasy involving Einstein and salami; Felice Schachter as the junior Lois Lane, getting sensibly to the bottom of the story like a refugee from some bygone CFF feature; Heather Thomas as a drippy prom queen, with a modest announcement in the end credits to the effect that she did not really take her clothes off in the film; and Irwin Keyes as "Too Mean" Levine, a bear-like pitcher reduced to tears by Barney's dirty ball-playing. Quite a lot of the gags fall flat, but Zapped! has a species of juvenile charm that would make it excellent entertainment for the kind of rebellious under-fifteens who have nerve enough to get past the censor's certificate and into the cinema.
KIM NEWMAN

First Published In: Monthly Film Bulletin vol.51 no.603 [April 1984] pp.128-129 [UK]

Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com