Difference between revisions of "Shock Treatment"

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Shock Treatment (1981)

Shock Treatment is a 1981 American musical-black comedy film and a follow-up to the film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The late ‘70s were filled with rumors of a Rocky Horror Picture Show sequel. There were a numer of false starts and scripts that surfaced, but The Rocky Horror Picture Show finally got its reprise in the form of Shock Treatment, which had several of the original actors, and the now married characters of Brad and Janet as central stars. It was written by Rickard O’Brien, directed by Jim Sharman and produced by Lou Adler, the same team that brought Rocky Horror to the screen in 1975.

Shock Treatment as filmed entirely on a sound stage in England as a Screen Actors Guild strike interfered with the plans to shoot on locations in the United States. The theme of the movie changed to accommodate shooting in one location, which gave O’Brien the idea to make the story revolve around a TV studio, with the working title of “The Brad and Janet Show.”

Most of the original cast of Rocky Horror was approached to be in Shock Treatment, though Barry Bostwick was involved in other projects at the time, and the producers could not come to terms with Susan Sarandon. Tim Curry also reportedly declined the dual role of Brad Majors and Farley Flavors. Richard O’Brien, Nell Campbell, Patricia Quinn and Charles Gray joined the cast in new roles, while the parts of Brad and Janet went to Cliff DeYoung (who was almost cast as Brad in Rocky Horror) and Jessica Harper (who had a cult following based on her role as Phoenix in Brian DePalma’s Phantom of the Paradise.) Jeremy Newsome, who played Ralph Hapschatt was the only actor to repeat a role from the original. Rounding out the cast is Australian actor Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna) in a stand-out performance as game show host Bert Schnick.

Although billed as "An Equal, Not a Sequel," most fans did not see it that way at the time. Opening on Halloween of 1981, Shock Treatment was released to mixed reaction. One strike against it was it was released as a midnight movie, in direct competition with The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was at its peak success. Although hard-core fans were willing to embrace the film, it initially fell short of expectations. Without the core characters of Rocky Horror, it didn’t have the same impact. It also felt as if it was created to be a cult film as opposed to becoming one organically. Casual fans ignored it, most hard-core fans kept going to see Rocky. Without a general release, most movie-goers never even heard about Shock Treatment.

Interestingly, the theme of Shock Treatment was quite a bit before its time, with a reality TV/Truman Show-esque quality. The bottom-line, was the music was good. A sub-cult of costumed performers eventually arose around it, with its own special screenings and enthusiastic inclusion at Rocky Horror conventions.