Shock Treatment (1981)

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  March 2, 2012

  366weirdmovies

  A young married couple end up in a city that's actually a giant running television network in this confusing sorta-sequel to THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW; Janet is groomed as a celebrity while Brad becomes a mental patient in a hospital show. It misfires on the comedy and music... read more cylinders; sets and costumes are entertaining, though. Imagine a version of RHPS without Tim Curry; not a terribly appetizing prospect, is it?

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  June 28, 2011

  mumby1988

  The only thing more foolish than remaking a cult film is making a sequel to one. This idea becomes worse still when that cult film happens to be The Rocky Horror Picture Show: no matter how many of the original cast return, it wouldn't be humanly possible for lightning to strike ... read moretwice. For all its initial promise and moments of hilarity, Shock Treatment is a failure both as a sequel and in its own right.
  
  Shock Treatment could be called the middle instalment of an unfinished Rocky Horror trilogy. The unproduced third instalment, Revenge of the Old Queen, would have been set on the planet of Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania, with Frank N. Furter's mother (the Old Queen of the title) seeking revenge on Richard O'Brien's Riff Raff. While Brad Majors has become a Las Vegas go-go dancer and died from falling off a trapeze, Janet has become a mother through her night of passion with Frank in the first film, and brings their new-born child to this strange and twisted planet.
  
  Neither Shock Treatment nor Revenge of the Old Queen are direct sequels, retaining much of the same cast but playing different roles. Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn are still playing brother and sister, with Riff Raff and Magenta becoming Doctors Cosmo and Nation McKinley. Nell Campbell trades in Columbia for Nurse Ansalong, and Charles Gray's Criminologist becomes Judge Oliver Wright. They are joined by Barry Humphries, playing a Dr. Strangelove knock-off called Bert Schnick, and a pre-Young Ones Rik Mayall as 'Rest Home' Ricky. And in classic B-movie fashion, the main characters from the first film are played by different actors, with Cliff De Young taking over as Brad and Janet being played by Suspiria star Jessica Harper.
  
  Shock Treatment does attempt to tackle a number of interesting ideas surrounding the nature of television, using musical conventions to raise serious questions in a light-hearted way. To some extent it is about how advertising has come to dominate television and influence its content at the expense of serious programming. This is shown in Charles Gray's first scene, in which almost every word of his 'interview' is talked over by promo people and his disinterested host, played by Ruby Wax.
  
  The look of Shock Treatment is deliberately tacky and plastic. Everything within the TV station looks like an advert, with fake pinball smiles, garish 1950s colours and women who all resemble either air hostesses or fashion models. One song is set in a gallery of all the clichés of the American dream - the white picket fence, the perfectly sheared hedge and the man with his lawnmower. And there is the association of fast food consumption with being sane, which resembles a non-ironic mix of Monty Python's Appeal for Sanity with the New Seekers adverts for Coke.
  
  There is also an undercurrent in Shock Treatment about reality television. The population of Denton have given up their lives to become the permanent studio audience of this 24-hour TV station. Their entire existence is based around watching the lives of others, observing and obsessing over every last detail of relationships. The nature of the TV programmes such as Dentonvale reflect this voyeuristic desire; characters are committed to the asylum so that people can watch them go to pieces, all for the sake of entertainment.
  
  Sadly, all these interesting ideas end up getting lost as the film moves on. For all the subversive intelligence of O'Brien's ideas, his script and songs cannot convey them in a way which is meaningful, coherent or narratively sound. The result is a total mess which resembles channel surfing through a mixture of MTV and late-night game shows.
  
  The first and biggest problem with Shock Treatment is its story. In the case of Rocky Horror, the plot was assembled from different bits of B-movies and pushed forward by the songs: the familiarity of the references always gave you some idea of where it was going, or at least that it was going somewhere. Shock Treatment doesn't have those traditions to fall back on, and its existing plot is far too thin to stand on its own.
  
  Because the central story is so simple (Brad and Janet fall out, split and get back together), the film has to keep chucking different things into the mix to appear more sophisticated, until staying on top of it becomes as difficult as herding cats. There are too many characters on whom to focus, with both Rik Mayall and Nell Campbell being largely superfluous, and the rest are barely developed beyond suggestions of odd sexual preferences. In any case, the idea of real people being caught up in a lethal TV game show was handled better in The Running Man six years later.
  
  A related problem is that there is no strong central performance. In Rocky Horror, Tim Curry stole every scene that he was in, so that even if what was going on made no sense at all, there was a magnetism in the finished product which kept you interested. There is no such tent-pole in Shock Treatment: Cliff De Young is no Tim Curry, and he doesn't get enough screen time in either of his roles to build himself up. There is also no narrator who can come in to steer the ship: Charles Gray is shoved into the background and becomes a subplot with little bearing on events until the trite final revelation surrounding Brad and Farley.
  
  When The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 came out, Kim Newman wrote that it seemed to have been directed by someone who not only didn't make the first film, but who never actually saw it. And for all the good work that Jim Sharman did on Rocky Horror, there is a similar feeling with this film. Despite its deliberately tacky edges and madcap colour schemes, there is precious little of Rocky Horror's distinctive style remaining here. In fact, with all its 1980s fashion and emphasis on glamour, it begins to feel like a series of videos for The Human League or Michael Jackson.
  
  Then there are the musical numbers to worry about. The cast sing well enough, especially Jessica Harper in her musical debut. And there are one or two tracks which pass muster: the title track is catchy and 'Bitchin' In The Kitchen' is quite witty in combining marital frustration with household appliances. But the rest are just plain forgettable, with none of the syllable-stretching wit of O'Brien's earlier work. 'Little Black Dress' feels like an off-cut from Grease (and not in a good way), while 'Thank God I'm A Man' finds O'Brien ripping off Frank N. Furter's song from the first film.
  
  Worst of all, Shock Treatment is really quite dull. The cast clearly had a ball making it, but next to none of that fun rubs off on the people watching it. The story is too incoherent, the characters too uninvolvingly madcap, and after a while the deliberately plastic conversations between the presenters and audience becomes repetitive and tiresome. Even the prospect of Charles Gray singing and dancing - one of the highlights of the first film - isn't enough to rouse us: the sight of it just makes us wish that such an entertaining actor hadn't been so obviously wasted.
  
  Shock Treatment is a deeply disappointing misfire from Sharman and O'Brien. It was never going to match Rocky Horror on any level, and the creators deserve some credit for wanting to make something that could stand on its own and have something to say. But in the end all their efforts are in vain, with all that was magical and distinctive about Rocky Horror being mostly absent this time around. You won't need treatment after watching it, but to quote Rocky himself, it's a pretty big downer.

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• 
  
  January 10, 2011

  ajv2688

  This movie was just a bad idea, the Rocky Horror Picture Show did not need a sequel, it stood alone. Of course, it's not a horrible movie, it has some funny scenes, but it's no where near as good as the original.

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• 
  
  March 22, 2008

  sononothing

  A movie from the creators of the Rocky Horror Picture Show that was flushed down the toilet in 1980 and forgotten by people outside the RHPS community. The amazing thing is that this film was 20 years ahead of its time when you compare its premise to what television has become in... read more the last decade.

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• 
  
  August 25, 2007

  webalina

  Supposedly a sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but without Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O'Brien or -- GOD FORBID --Tim Curry, what's the point?

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  July 14, 2007

  YosemiteSamFan

  Great musical numbers! The story was too smart for most people - I didn't understand what it was all about. I figured it was a satire about reality television and media commercialism. I just didn't understand what the heck was going on. Nice set design though.
  
  Favorite Songs: ... read moreDenton USA & Look What I Did to my Id

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  June 14, 2008

  SunilJawahir

  This movie just plain blows.

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• 
  
  May 12, 2012

  youeeediot2000

  I thought it was a great movie! Phenomenal music. I liked the story. I can't stand how people think it's classified as a sequel to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's a whole different story to the lost, but brilliant idea , brad and janet franchise

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• 
  
  October 28, 2011

  BenRogers84

  Not as great or catchy as Rocky Horror but its still a decent weird muscial. Alot of the songs here are hit and miss and the original Brad and Janet are sorely missed. I think Cliff De Young and Jessica Harper played the parts of Brad and Janet too awkward and weird for their ow... read moren good. The original performances by Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick just came naturally and it wasn't forced at all.
  Cliff De Young is alright but kinda rubbed me the wrong way as Brad, but I'm in love with Jessica Harper and think shes beautiful in the most quirky awkward way. Her voice does get alittle too much at times but she can actually sing. I prefer her performance in the other weird musical "Phantom Of The Paradise" much better. Nell Campbell,Patricia Quinn,Charles Gray and Richard O'Brien make a return as different characters but were just annoying for the most part. You can tell nobody really had their heart in any of the performances, and just got through it the best they could.
  I also think if the songs had more time to be worked on, this would have been much better. Also the location of the single studio with different sets wore out its welcome rather quick. Not entirely the filmmakers fault because of a strike that was going on at the time, so they had to work with what was available for their sets.
  Not saying this is really good or even something I'd watch again tomorrow but its still worth a watch every once in awhile. If you like weird out there musicals then I'd say watch this and you'll like it just fine. If you're going to compare this note for note with Rocky Horror....just don't bother because you aren't going to like this at all.

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• 
  
  May 2, 2011

  jewls73

  This movie was absolutely HORRIBLE! I can't for the life of me understand why anyone thought this was a good idea. How could the creators have such a hit with Rocky Horror Picture Show and such a miss with this junk??

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• Cliff De Young as Brad Majors/Farley Flavors
• Richard O'Brien as Cosmo McKinley
• Patricia Quinn as Nation McKinley
• Charles Gray as Judge Oliver Wright
• Ruby Wax as Betty Hapschatt
• Nell Campbell as Nurse Ansalong
• Rik Mayall as "Rest Home" Ricky
• Barry Humphries as Bert Schnick
• Darlene Johnson as Emily Weiss

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