Review of Shock Treatment (1981) by Rex B — 05 Jun 2007

Originally intended as a sequel to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", this film is much more bizarre, and to me is much more interesting.

Whereas "Rocky Horror" was a standard musical-play-to-musical-film, Shock Treatment is entirely its own creation, and could only exist as a film. In this film everyone lives inside the television studio including stars, staff, executives, even the audience. Brad and Janet Majors are contestants on a game show, and when the prize ends up being Brad trucked off to the local soap opera mental hospital all notions of reality are thrown out the window. People talk to the doctors and nurses both as if they are indeed actors, but also as if they were actual doctors and nurses. A comment about how all we care about now is celebrity and television? A comment that our lives are full of enough drama without television? Possibly both. On top of all these levels of confusion and insanity the actors speak to each other in riddles and cryptic one-liners giving the feeling none of the characters are actually speaking to each other, just speaking.

I love this movie.