Written by Jim Sharman And Richard O'Brien And Brian Thomson
Directed by Jim Sharman
Farley: "You've lost your heart!"
Brad: "You lost your cause."
Farley: "You lost your baby when you lost your balls/You lost your mind when you lost your grip, so say bye-bye!"
Ah, a sequel to a classic cult movie. A sequel that also didn't receive anywhere the level of love that said cult classic movie had. Also a first time watch for me and an interesting one to boot.
Going from where it left off of sorts, you've got a married Janet (Jessica Harper) and Brad (Cliff DeYoung) and their marriage happened to be in a very tricky place. Brad's depressed and Janet seemed to be at her wits end with him.
On top of that, the town of Denton has been taken over by fast food magnate Farley Flavors and a game show resulted in giving Brad the very type of medical treatment he didn't want but everyone else seemed to think was appropriate for him. Brad's not much of a character with agency in this movie and a certain extent, neither was Janet.
With Brad being bound and gagged and constantly sedated, Janey found herself being groomed as Miss Mental Health by Farley Flavours magnate, Farley (Cliff DeYoung). The latter revealed to be Brad's envious half brother, who wanted to mess with Brad's life and take over the town and he certainly had enough helpers in that regard.
Notably there was the doctor duo Cosmo (Richard O'Brien) and Nation McKinley (Patricia Quinn), blind tv host Burt Schnick (Barry Humphries), Judge Oliver Wright (Charles Gray), Nurse Ansalong (Little Nell) to name a few. Even Janet's parents Harry (Manning Redwood) and Emily (Darlene Johnson) seemed to be going along with Farley's big scheme until they weren't.
I do think this movie had it's moments and I do like the half twin brother reveal with DeYoung playing both parts well. Saying that this movie did a lot to make me root against Brad and Janet and it's got a very rushed conclusion.
- There's appearances from the likes of Ruby Wax and Sinitta while some original cast members were recast in new roles. The movie's even become a stage production.
- There were other ideas for a sequel including Brad and Dr Scott being lovers and Janet being pregnant with Frank's baby.
- Standout music: A good few choices with Thank God I'm A Man, Lullaby, Little Black Dress, Breaking Out and Duel Duel being the standout.
- Chronology: A few years since the events of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Shock Treatment might have been a massive box office and while it doesn't quite have the charm of it's predecessor, it's not totally a terrible movie either. I liked a lot of the musical numbers, the reality TV satire was a bit ahead of it's time and that's it really.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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