Kattiera Nana
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.
Laikals
The greatest movie ever made..!
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Myron Clemons
A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.
radmanart
The filmmakers intended to shoot on location in Denton, Texas, but production screeched to a halt in 1980 when the Screen Actors Guild went on strike.Just knowing this movie is made after the town of Denton Texas makes this worth while. Denton, Denton, Texas is the next county over from my county;, Collin County. When we first moved here to McKinney in 1994 we traveled allot around Texas and we went to Denton every once and a while. It had a strange attraction to it, and the people seamed overly friendly and put offish at the same time. Weird in other words, but in a good way.My wife was thinking about going to college there back in 1994. We hung out there for a while and checked out the college. It seemed to invite you to like Denton at the same time push you away. I can not believe how much Shock Treatment reminds me of the movie True Stories. I wonder if some of the same people were involved in the making of both movies? I wonder if True Stories was modeled after Shock Treatment? True Stories is 100 times a better finer quality movie though. The sound quality in
True Stories is the best I have ever heard in a great rock and roll based movie.
popcorninhell
"Shock Treatment" was recommended to me by a friend from work who has an odd fetish with "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," this films supposed prequel. Admittedly I'm not a fan. The songs were catchy enough but the story was bizarre and just plodded along at a lackadaisical pace. At least imitators like "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986) had clear cut stories that weren't just an exercise in corset wearing awkwardness. In fairness, I watched it by myself my sophomore year of college so maybe I wasn't able to latch on to its zeitgeist like many of my friends did. Maybe before I judge it definitively I should go to one of those midnight screenings where people lip-synch, throw things at the screen and tape rubber dildos on willing participants.But "Shock Treatment" can't be subjected to such...treatment. Aside from the actor playing Brad looking like Ben Folds, there is nothing that makes the couple stand out like Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick did. The main villain (also played by Cliff De Young) is blander than a bowl of oatmeal and the songs are right up there with him. It takes a special kind of apathy to start a song singing to a blender and other kitchen appliances. Additionally, you can tell the movie is trying oh so hard to make fun of consumer culture, but it misses its mark entirely like a four-year-old's first archery lesson.And as for the plot, I literally had to look the film up on Wikipedia to try to give a concise plot summary and I just watched it! Essentially its about the town of Denton which has been engulfed by a large television studio. Brad and Janet (Cliff De Young & Jessica Harper) supposedly the same characters from "Rocky Horror", are forced to endure a cavalcade of bizarre musical numbers while trying to keep their troubled marriage from falling apart. This of course involves him being committed and her becoming a network star. Because nothing says "I love you" like a straight jacket and glitter.If anything positive came out of this experience, "Shock Treatment" got me thinking about some of the other underrated musicals I have seen eons ago. Ones that actually make sense and are marginally entertaining like "Everyone Says I Love You" (1996), "The Brave Little Toaster" (1987) and "Man of La Mancha" (1972). Go watch those and leave "Shock Treatment" where it should be; in the gutter.http://theyservepopcorninhell.blogspot.com/
Gameguyadv
While not as popular, or recognized as, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Shock Treatment gives us another look into music genius Richard O'Brien's outlook on life. This time in reality television. Denton is just an allusion to the iron grip that the media holds on everyone's life. Heck, it was like O'Brien had a vision during the actor's strike to rewrite The Brad and Janet Show as Shock Treatment to warn us all about the media and its control on our lives. Someone tell me that the Farley Flavors Fabulous Fast Food logo is not the Nazi Swastika. But still, while not as popular as Rocky, ST still had its crowning moments. The villainous wardrobe change, the ride into the err sunset, and the everyone in town ending up in straight jackets for blindly following Mussolini I mean farley are all there. Despite lack of character development and confusing back story, Shock Treatment will please everyone, and their English teacher.
Seamus2829
This was THE film that us Rocky Horror fanatics drooled about when we first heard that it was announced by Richard O'Brien, as far back as 1979. When we heard that it finally got made...well, suffice it to say, the prospects of a RHPS sequel had us doing back flips (me, included). Shock Treatment, released in 1981 was that dream come true (or so we had hoped). When it finally reached theaters (with as spotty distribution as Rocky had in 1975),we flocked to our local cinema,in eager anticipation. What we got was a somewhat shallow attempt to reproduce the same cult film that Rocky was. Problem was (and still is) one cannot make a cult film. Cult movies become cult movies, due to their quirky nature (the cheap budgets help,too). Shock Treatment, originally announced as 'The Brad And Janet Show' is a perfect example of a good idea gone bad. The plot concerns Brad & Janet Majors (yes, they're now married),who becomes hapless contestants on a game show, with it's own agenda. What follows is a forced attempt to recapture the same spirit that Rocky had. Brad & Janet are both played by other actors(as the originals opted not to appear in the sequel),although most of the cast from RHPS appear in this film (Richard O'Brien & Pat Quinn play another weird brother & sister act,and Little Nell plays a nurse, plus others from Rocky also are featured). Some of the songs in the film are nice, but doesn't have the verve that the originals have. In short,if you feel you absolutely need to see this, a one time will do fine.