Shock Treatment (1981)

Janet and Brad become contestants on a game show... but wind up as captives instead.

Director:

Jim Sharman

Writers:

Richard O'Brien (screenplay), Jim Sharman (screenplay)

Stars:

Jessica Harper, Cliff De Young, Richard O'Brien

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jessica Harper	...	Janet Majors
Cliff De Young	...	Brad Majors / Farley Flavors
Richard O'Brien	...	Dr. Cosmo McKinley
Patricia Quinn	...	Dr. Nation McKinley
Charles Gray	...	Judge Oliver Wright
Ruby Wax	...	Betty Hapschatt
Nell Campbell	...	Nurse Ansalong
Rik Mayall	...	'Rest Home' Ricky
Barry Humphries	...	Bert Schnick
Darlene Johnson	...	Emily Weiss
Manning Redwood	...	Harry Weiss
Wendy Raebeck	...	Macy Struthers
Jeremy Newson	...	Ralph Hapschatt
Betsy Brantley	...	Neely Pritt
Perry Bedden	...	Neely's Camera Crew

Storyline

Following on from "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", this musical is set several years later in Brad and Janet Majors' hometown - which has become a giant TV station; residents are either participants or viewers. They are married now, but their romance has fallen on the rocks. Ostensibly to fix their marriage, Brad is imprisoned on the program "Dentonvale" (the local mental hospital) while Janet is conscripted to become a new star. As Janet is entranced by the high life, she forgets Brad. Who is trying to woo her away?

---

Plot Keywords:

tv station | incest | convertible | lingerie | surrealism | 

---

Taglines:

It's Not A Sequel... It's Not A Prequel... It's An Equal

---

Genres:

Comedy | Musical

---

Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 October 1981 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

The Brad and Janet Show

Filming Locations:

Lee International Studios, Wembley, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min 88 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This movie was an even bigger financial flop at the box-office than the original first run of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

---

Goofs

During "Denton, U.S.A." an extra in the second row doesn't lean to his right on cue, blocking half the row from leaning. A moment later, the extra on his right starts to lean left when she shouldn't, then stops herself.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: [voice-over] Once upon a time, there lived a real fast guy. His life was fast. His friends were fast. Heh - even his food was fast. But he was still not satisfied. He wanted to share his fast philosophy with someone else, a beautiful girl. Trouble was, she was in the arms of... another man.

---

Connections

References The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

---

Soundtracks

"Bitchin' In The Kitchen"
Written by Richard Hartley & Richard O'Brien
Performed by Cliff De Young & Jessica Harper

User Reviews

woefully underrated

As people have said, this film got a horribly bad rap, and made very little money. The reason, as people have also said, is that it was expected to be in the same vein as RHPS, which it simply was not. Sure, it had Richard O'Brien's trademark musical style and whimsy, but it wasn't the campy kitsch people were expecting. It was, in fact, an intellectual movie with a serious message, a brilliant satire of life in the late 20th century. O'Brien takes jabs at the hallmarks of the decline of modern Western civilisation; conformity, machismo, brainwashing, and the absurdity of the "American Dream".

The plot can be a little hard to discern on the first viewing, but, as with many great intellectual films, more nuances of what O'Brien is trying to say are picked up with each subsequent viewing. The film is certainly surreal, to say the least; and I would suspect psychedelics were somehow involved in the writing of the script. Denton, the picaresque happy U.S. everytown, is actually just a television studio; and all the residents are characters on television shows or are in the audience. Enter Brad and Janet, who, after experiencing the "horrors" of RHPS, are having marital difficulties. This works perfectly into the plan of a mysterious fast food magnate, who intends to steal Janet away from her husband and use her to promote his business. He conspires to have Brad locked up in the local mental hospital/soap opera, while promoting Janet as a new bombshell sensation, and taking the whole town under his thumb.

In short, if you're looking for more of RHPS, you will be sorely disappointed. But if you want a thought-provoking yet whimsical, tongue-in-cheek attack on all that is mind-numbing and soul crushing in our modern world, definately check this film out. Jonathan Swift would be proud.