Shock Treatment (1981)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

While I am a big fan of the original "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", then it is sort of odd that it has taken me so long to actually getting around to watching "Shock Treatment".This sequel to the immensely popular "Rocky Horror Picture Show" is much less known. and it wasn't before 2017 that I actually had the chance to watch it. So was it worth the wait?Hardly so! The story is nowhere near in comparison to the predecessor. And it was really odd to see Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Charles Gray and Nell Campbell return to the movie but in different roles than in "Rocky Horror Picture Show". That just didn't really work for me. The roles of Brad and Janet were now played by someone else entirely, which just was a slap to the face.It should be said that the cast was good, and I was surprised to see Rik Mayall here.There were a few good songs here and there, but they are not classics like the tunes from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"."Shock Treatment" was adequate enough if you haven't seen "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", but since most of us have, then "Shock Treatment" turned out to be a mediocre experience.

I put off watching this for a very long time and now I'm kicking myself for it. While not a Rocky Horror Picture Show sequel, this film does feature several characters from the film portrayed by different actors and several Rocky Horror Picture Show actors portraying new characters. Somehow, Brad and Janet become the stars of a bizarre TV network and wackiness ensues. The new Brad & Janet are terrible singers but it's a decent movie. Little Nell looks amazing in this, that's all I could think about while I watched this.Well,that and....Hey that's Rik Mayall!!! It's sad to think Rik is dead now and Nell looks dead. If you like Rocky Horror Picture Show,you have to see this.If you don't like RHPS,you must avoid this.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of my favorite movies. Every time I watch it, I get a sense of enjoyment that many other movies don't really have. So, once I heard there was a sequel, I looked into it. I got a copy of the DVD, and watched Shock Treatment. I don't know if I wasn't in the mood for it or something, but I didn't like it all that much. Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, and Charles Gray all return from Rocky Horror, but they all take on new roles. They were the only characters who I thought were well-crafted. I hated every other person in the movie. Cliff DeYoung, who played Brad and Farley Flavors, was really disappointing. Barry Bostwick is the one and only Brad Majors (asshole) to me. Jessica Harper, who takes on the role of Janet, really doesn't do justice to Susan Sarandon. Sarandon's portrayal was so girlie and Harper plays her like a man. Jessica Harper's singing was awful, as well. Every time she sang I wanted to ram my head against the wall repeatedly. Barry Humphries plays Bert Schnick, and he was just unbearable. Lastly, Ruby Wax plays Betty Hapschatt, and again, another cringe-worthy performance. The only people who I thought were really any good were the returning cast members. The songs, while inferior to Rocky Horror, were still good. With Richard O. at the helm, you can't go wrong with the songs. The storyline wasn't that great. It seemed all over the place and I had a hard time following it the entire time. It was a really big letdown. I don't know if my opinion will change when I watch it again, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Shock Treatment (1981): Richard O'Brien, Cliff De Young, Jessica Harper, Patricia Quinn, Charles Grey, Nelle Campbell, Rik Mayall, Barry Humphries, Darlene Johnson, Manning Redwood, Jeremy Newson, Betsy Brantley, Perry Bedden, Christopher Malcolm, Ray Charleson, Imgone Claire, Eugene Lipinski, Barry Dennen....Original Music by Richard O'Brien, Richard Harley...Director Jim Sharman.Shock Treatment, released in 1981, was the follow-up to the far more popular and successful musical "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" of 1975. Richard O'Brien, the lyricist and Richard Harley the composer, teamed up once again to make this lesser sequel for the new MTV generation of the 1980's. Despite using the same characters of Brad and Janet, and some of the same actors from Rocky Horror, namely Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nelle "Little Nelle" Campbell and Charles Grey (who was the narrator in Rocky Horror), there is still no real semblance to Rocky Horror Picture Show and it's a completely different animal. Gone is the vulgarity of the original, the in-your-face raunchy humor, the camp and the overall fun spirit of Rocky Horror. Also, the plot in this sequel is painfully thin compared to the science fiction/horror parody of the first and it turns out to be simply a boring musical satire about empty glamour of the 80's, the consumerism and materialism of pop culture. Why the creative genius of the Rocky Horror Picture Show should want to make a "thinking man's comedy" is beyond me. If you're like me, you only watched this because it's got the Rocky Horror Picture Show team working on a new musical but it's no Rocky Horror Picture Show. Ultimately, it's too long, boring and the songs aren't even as good. But here's the plot for those curious enough to see this train wreck of a film: Brad and Janet, fresh from their adventures with the ghouls from the Rocky Horror Picture Show (Frank'N'Furter is dead, Riff Raff and Magenta and the rest return to Transsexual Transylvania), return to their beloved and wholesome American small town of Denton. But they soon discover that even this Rockefeller painting of a town is not what it used to be. The whole town has been invaded by the phenomenon of Television and everyone is part of the audience or performers of a hugely popular game show. The whole thing is eerily like what today we call reality television. The "real lives" of certain people are seen as either glamorous or deplorable. In the case of Brad and Janet, Janet decides to liberate herself from her formerly submissive "housewife" role of Brad's woman and turns into a glamorous TV soap star, with the ad and flattery of creepy, agenda-driven producers. The industry mogul is himself Brad Majors' own long lost brother who intends to crush his brother whom he is jealous of and win the heart of Janet Weiss. Brad is sent to a mental asylum where he undergoes the eponymous "shock treatment" by its managers played by Richard O'Brien and Patricia Quinn, who are NOT Riff Raff and Magenta but entirely new characters. In the end, even Janet realizes she's been brainwashed and turned into a product rather than a whole person and she, Brad, her best friend Betty and Betty's new boyfriend (Charles Grey) decide to leave the crazy TV-infected town.The songs are creatively written, no doubt, and only a few are actually good including "Denton USA" and "Shock Treatment" but this time around the songs are too "intellectual" and satirical. They contain none of the nonsense and campy humor of Rocky Horror Picture Show and therefore are forgettable songs. Everyone knows the songs from Rocky Horror Picture Show and their respective scenes/plot point/ from the movie but with Shock Treatment, the whole thing is like some weird and crazy MTV video spoof. Nevertheless, it contains fine cinematography, and often it does seem to fit into MTV individualized videos. But the story itself is too dull and meaningless. At least with RHPS there was an obvious satire of science fiction and horror mixed with 1970's decadence. Shock Treatment manages to put you in a state of shock, straps you into a chair and gives you high dosage of insane music, color, 80's fashion and pop culture. It's really very sad that this was the last we saw or heard of the Rocy Horror team.