Shock Treatment (1981)

The biggest problem with "Shock Treatment" is that at its core, it is a much, much deeper and somewhat darker film than "Rocky Horror". RHPS is more of a flat-out comedy, but "Shock Treatment" is very much a dark comedy. You have to think a little bit to "get" what the movie is pushing to you, and you'll probably have to watch it more than once before it'll all really make sense, and that's not something that most people are willing to do.It also doesn't help the fact that Brad and Janet, while technically still the same characters from RHPS, are played by different people - and that Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, and Little Nell are playing completely different characters. Again, this confuses the heck out of most people, and it generally ruins the movie for them.And that's a shame - because once you get under the surface of this movie, it's really quite ahead of its time. How many movies from the 70's and 80's can you think of that "prophesied" the coming of reality TV as a widely-accepted form of entertainment nearly two decades beforehand? And how likely do you think it would be that a married couple today might be willing to turn to video-administered pop psychology, a studio audience, and some very fake celebrities to try to find the answers to save their troubled marriages? "Shock Treatment" hits very close to home - maybe a little TOO close. I don't think too many people will argue that we live in some seriously dark times, and this movie takes that theme and runs with it.The only major sore spot I had with the film was that I thought the plot thread between Brad and Farley Flavors was a little forced and contrived - but given that Richard O'Brien had to drastically re-write the script because Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick, and Susan Sarandon chose not to take part, he did the best he could with the crew he did have, and I think it could have been much worse. No studio writer today could have written themselves out of such a corner, that's for sure. Plus, it's great fun to see Barrie Humphries hamming it up as Bert Schnick (quite the silly change from his stint as Dame Edna Everage), and a subtle cameo of Rik Mayall before "The Young Ones".And oddly enough, I find the music for "Shock Treatment" to be far more enjoyable and catchy than the tunes from RHPS. I know, I know, how can anyone NOT love "Time Warp", "Sweet Transvestite", etc.? Well, it's not that I hate them...I've just heard them only about a million times apiece, and even with the audience participation, they get stale after awhile. But there's something infectious about the tunes here; every time I hear or read yet another story about some stupid celebrity marriage that's going down the tubes, I get the urge to hum "Bitchin' in the Kitchen". When I think about my small hometown, I start singing "Denton" under my breath. Hearing Brad and Farley verbally slug it out in "Duel Duet" is both sad and hilarious, and though it's very short, I think that Jessica Harper, as Janet, singing "In My Own Way" is one of the most bittersweet situational songs I've ever heard, as she questions her decisions about Brad and their marriage, and vows to try to see things through to the end. If you ever saw "Phantom of the Paradise", you'll be familiar with Jessica's singing voice - the gal can belt out a tune.There are thousands of RHPS fans out there that will avoid this movie like the plague because they think it will taint everything about the original that they hold so dear to their hearts. And that's fine. They are two very, very different films, and "Shock Treatment" is not meant to be a late-night audience participation kind of gig.But if you can see this one with an open mind, I really encourage you to give it a viewing. It's definitely more fun than the individual sum of its parts.

If you want to know what it is pure television you have to watch that sequel of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was done for television and constantly remindS you of the fact.The whole action takes place in the Denton TV studio. It is the story of a television show that changes sponsors. The new sponsor has to diabolize the older sponsor and to push forward a new icon for the new sponsor that creates at first a link with the older one. Hence they diabolize the older sponsor as some kind of emotional misfit and use his wife as the new icon. They will even reveal in the end that the new sponsor is in fact the twin brother of the older one. And there we have a basic simple primitive if not even simplistic theme that goes back to the oldest layers of prehistory, the conflict between two brothers, what's more twin brothers. Better than Abel and Cain. And this wife of the older sponsor will bring sight to the blind anchor man of the show. Isn't that divine and angelic and beautiful? Then it uses language as some kind of mesmerizing fascinating hypnotizing whip to make you get in line with the game. The rhyming patterns are so simple that they seem to be like the drums of some voodoo dance with a lot of Hollywood sauce on top and a simplistic comic flavour underneath. You are the pronged cattle taken up and tied up in that caravan, carnival, canned mental emptiness. And the main catch letter to your ears and eyes is F. F mind you like in the most famous four letter word in English, and yet it is five Fs in one motto. Farley Flavors' Fabulous Fast Foods that becomes in the mouth of some TV announcer: "First and Foremost, Farley Flavors' Fabulous Fast Foods Feed and Fortify Families For a Fabulous Future." From five to thirteen, from the devil to the witch, from the pentacle to the worst omen possible on earth. Be repetitive and you will always reach the bottom of hell and the dire straits or purgatory. But don't expect to find heaven in commercial repetitiveness.But the point is that this show, this film, this TV film, this film about TV and this film at the local TV station does not in the least try to make you think. It is here only to whirl you around into a maelstrom out of which you cannot escape. And don't believe there are good ones and bad ones. There are only old ones and new ones and new ones are neither better nor worse than old ones. They have only one aim which is to make you be a robotic un-thinker, a mechanized non-thinker, a motorized anti-thinker.That's the kind of rapport TV wants to establish with its audience: all-sensorial, hypnotic, non-mental acceptance of the show as good or the same all-sensorial, hypnotic, non-mental rejection of the show as bad. You like or don't like but you sure don't have to think about it. It is all at the level of your kinetic and kinesthetic, kinesiological primary response at the essentially physiological level of your being, what they justly call the "id" in the show, with Freud's picture somewhere lost in that mess.The only link with the Rocky Horror Picture Show is in fact in the flimsy vision of Grant Wood's painting known as American Gothic. But that is a cliché, nothing else, not even a wink.And be sure this TV film will not take any side between the losers of old and the winners of today. They will eventually all go their own ways but with the same convertible and one girl will be replaced by another one in the "First and Foremost, Farley Flavors' Fabulous Fast Foods Feed and Fortify families For a Fabulous Future" advertising venture, and the new one will even be better since she is a gorgeous, sumptuous, splendiferous, glorious and definitely opulent blonde. Television does not require the audience to think but only to feel good and relaxed.Some may say it is a pastiche of a TV show or even of a TV comic thriller. But it is such a good pastiche that we do believe it is the real stuff. It is a perfect imitation of a TV show and as such it is a perfect pastiche, but that does not give it any mental reflective distance. It is meant to carry your adhesion or your rejection but not to make you think in any way. You like or you dislike but to agree or disagree is not even a question.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

The Rocky Horror Picture Show was a great satirical horror spoof musical, and you probably wouldn't think there was a follow up, but there was, from returning director Jim Sharman. Basically this one, set six years after the previous film events, spoofs the world of television, specifically game shows crossed with early reality TV. Returning and in the audience for this show on a giant TV station called "Dentonvale", hosted by the eccentric Bert Schnick (Barry Humphries, best known as Dame Edna Everage), are now married Janet (Jessica Harper) and Brad Majors (Cliff De Young). They are currently in a rocky patch with their marriage, and the show offers a chance for them to restore their feelings for each other, which Janet is more than happy to do, while Brad is imprisoned. As time goes by it seems that Bert, along with the McKinleys as right hands, Nation (Patricia Quinn) and Cosmo (Richard O'Brien, also writing), are offering more than just the romance re-ignition, but a star career for Janet. She is entranced by her new life of stardom with the help of the megalomaniac TV crew, and has pretty much forgotten all about Brad, that is until we find out the other big name in the show Farley Flavors (also De Young) is the twin brother of Brad. After some looking behind the scenes by concerned Judge Oliver Wright (Diamonds Are Forver's Charles Gray) and Betty Hapschatt (Ruby Wax) things are settled in the end, I can't remember or be bothered to find out how, but it is. Also starring Nell Campbell as Nurse Ansalong, Rik Mayall as 'Rest Home' Ricky and singer and frequent guest judge in The X Factor Sinitta Renay as Frankie. One or two of the songs are a little catchy, the lyrics certainly do alright, and the colourful sets and costumes look okay, but all this doesn't make the film any better. The acting is terribly cheesy, the story is stupid, the music doesn't always fit, and you just know deep down that the first film is better, this is easily the most forgettable sequel I've ever seen, a silly musical satire. Pretty poor!

I've seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show live and on TV, but I was never a fan. My husband, a big RHPS fan, found a Shock Treatment DVD (the 25th Anniversary edition) in the video store bargain bin. He convinced me to watch it. I wasn't expecting to like it, but I did.First of all, Shock Treatment is NOT a RHPS sequel. Some of the actors and characters are the same, but the storyline is completely different. RHPS was a satire about cheap, Z-grade horror films. Shock Treatment is a satire about fame and celebrity. Brad and Janet Majors are now married and unhappy. They go on a TV show hoping to save their marriage, and end up trapped. Fame turns from nectar to poison, and nothing is quite what it seems.The musical sequences are the best part, especially "Denton USA," Lullaby", "Looking for Trade," and "Look What I Did to my Id." Aside from being infectiously good, they let the viewer trace Janet's journey from concerned wife to celebrity and back. The movie is remarkably clean; the only real titillation is in "Lullaby." Shock Treatment was ahead of its time. Reality TV didn't exist in 1981. Now, anyone can become a celebrity by exposing their personal lives to the small screen. In 1981, Kate and Jon Gosselin would have been 2 people with a lot of kids, not celebrities.If you're expecting a sequel to RHPS, you will be disappointed. If you're puzzled by Reality TV "stars", you're a fan of rock musicals, or you go in with an open mind, you could find yourself loving Shock Treatment.