Shock Treatment

I loved Rocky Horror. I thought it was a great film and proves to be one of my favorite musicals. So when I found out that there was a sequel, I searched it out... with much difficulty. Apparently the film was a huge flop and therefore is extremely rare. (funny, when you think about Rocky Horror, which was originally a huge flop as well, but was re-released after finding cult status).

I have just watched Shock Treatment twice in a row and I'm proud to say I love it just as much as Rocky Horror. But be warned, Shock Treatment has completely different subject matter (which means no revealing cross-dressing, references to old horror films and no Tim Curry), but some familiar characters and some very familiar actors appear in a film that looks at the brain-washing nature of television.

It wasn't the sequel I expected, but after seeing it twice, I realize it is the perfect sequel to a perfect film like Rocky Horror.

But the emotion I was filled most with after watching this film wasn't happiness, it was frustration. I was frustrated that this film is shunned by many, that it never has been released onto DVD and most probably never will be. It was depressing to know that probably the only way I am ever going to view this great film is on a terrible quality full screen VHS cassette.

I'm hoping that this will find higher status eventually and is released onto a far more watchable medium. This film proves a satirical look at television, specifically in the eighties, but in doing so creates a prophetic masterpiece long before its time.

Shock Treatment is an extremely strange movie, the plot is all over the place, the songs are weird and the confusion factor for the viewer is high. But Shock Treatment is a good movie. Forget everything about RHPS, there are no singing tranvestites or Meat Loaf getting hacked to bits with an axe, Shock Treatment is very different. It is a funny satire about how television has become an obsession. It's also about Brad and Janet Majors, who become contestants on a show called Marriage Maze and Brad is committed into a mental asylum, placed convieniently inside the TV studio. It's funny to see most of the cast return for a great big musical full of memorable songs. But a warning to the gay community, one song contains the lyrics.."Faggots are maggots-thank god I'm a man!"

Australian Classification

PG

No consumer advice but it really doesn't need any. There's nothing that troubling.

A decent movie, and nowhere near as bad as everyone makes out. Whereas Rocky Horror is weird in it's transvestite/alien way, this is actually better for a mainstream audience - it may be weird, but in a surreal/escapist way. Nice to see Ruby Wax in a lead role - she actually has a pretty big part as Betty, And the Rocky Horror actors - Richard O' Brien, Pat Quinn, Charles Gray and Nell Campbell are all great too (although it would have been nice to see a bit more of Nell) Keep a look out too for a pre-'Young Ones' Rik Mayall, playing Nell's love interest, interestingly enough. My advice is, if you can find a copy, get it - it's well worth investing in, whatever people may say.

As people have said, this film got a horribly bad rap, and made very little money. The reason, as people have also said, is that it was expected to be in the same vein as RHPS, which it simply was not. Sure, it had Richard O'Brien's trademark musical style and whimsy, but it wasn't the campy kitsch people were expecting. It was, in fact, an intellectual movie with a serious message, a brilliant satire of life in the late 20th century. O'Brien takes jabs at the hallmarks of the decline of modern Western civilisation; conformity, machismo, brainwashing, and the absurdity of the "American Dream".

The plot can be a little hard to discern on the first viewing, but, as with many great intellectual films, more nuances of what O'Brien is trying to say are picked up with each subsequent viewing. The film is certainly surreal, to say the least; and I would suspect psychedelics were somehow involved in the writing of the script. Denton, the picaresque happy U.S. everytown, is actually just a television studio; and all the residents are characters on television shows or are in the audience. Enter Brad and Janet, who, after experiencing the "horrors" of RHPS, are having marital difficulties. This works perfectly into the plan of a mysterious fast food magnate, who intends to steal Janet away from her husband and use her to promote his business. He conspires to have Brad locked up in the local mental hospital/soap opera, while promoting Janet as a new bombshell sensation, and taking the whole town under his thumb.

In short, if you're looking for more of RHPS, you will be sorely disappointed. But if you want a thought-provoking yet whimsical, tongue-in-cheek attack on all that is mind-numbing and soul crushing in our modern world, definately check this film out. Jonathan Swift would be proud.

This movie does match and surpass "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in many ways. You can tell that Richard O'Brien and the film's producers had a bigger budget to work with. The songs are a match to the original (same song writer, same style...). Visually, a little too heavy on the reds, but this WAS 1981, after all. This movie will be enjoyed by those who will get the Rocky Horror references that are scattered throughout. Too bad Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon weren't there to provide a little more continuity to their characters. Jessica Harper does a great job though, she appeared in several off-beat movies in the 70s ("Phantom Of The Paradise" and "Suspiria" spring to mind) so playing in a Richard O'Brien movie was not too much of a stretch for her it seems. This sequel was, to me, a lot sexier than RHPS. The original seemed to center on campiness and shock value, it's here as well, but there is a lot more eye-candy in this sequel.

I'm still waiting for a Richard O'Brien / John Waters musical collaboration. Imagine the possibilities!