The Super Network

What’s a Blog-a-thon? This blog-a-thon is a challenge, its participants have chose films the other has not seen to watch and review.
September Blog-a-thon criteria: Hidden 80’s Gems
Why A.J. Chose This Film For Marcey: “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” needs no introduction. Its songs and characters have long since become ingrained in cult cinema history. It’s a tough act to follow, but the filmmakers did a pretty good job with their “Rocky Horror” follow-up, “Shock Treatment.” It’s not as memorable of a film, but it still holds a lot of good in it that’s gone largely unnoticed by moviegoers. The songs are catchy, the performances are campy fun, and the commentary on society descending into mindless slaves hypnotized by TV is as savage as can be. “Shock Treatment” isn’t the film “Rocky Horror” was, but it’s still a great time that I hope Marcey has as well!”

Marcey’s Review: Well 3 out of 4 good films for this months blog-a-thon was pretty good, but sadly Shock Treatment just didn’t do it for me, sorry A.J.

The film was something I was actually rather curious about, being an ‘equal’ to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (the creators don’t see it as a sequel really). Now I like Rocky Horror, it’s a fun film with great songs and music and it is just so outrageous! I was aware there was a companion film but up until recently I had no idea it was actually Shock Treatment. I certainly was interested to see the film and if the magic of Rocky Horror was still there. For me, it really wasn’t and this felt like a very flat piece.

Now the idea behind this was great, it is a spoof of TV shows and it is ever so relevant today, considering how dominant ‘reality’ television has become. I just don’t think the film was executed very well, it is very quirky and over the top but I was lost from the very start. It was hard to actually get a grasp of what was going on, and when I did, I just didn’t care too much. It sadly wasn’t very interesting and most of the songs just felt tired and uninspired, some were actually very good and I did enjoy the middle section the most as I found that to be the strongest. I wasn’t really engaged with the film, or the characters despite some really great efforts from Jessica Harper (Suspiria) as Janet and Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna) as Bert Schnick.

I can see why people do like this film, musicals always have some sort of appeal (after all there are many a Grease 2 fan) but sadly it didn’t win me over. I found this to be such a mess, a mess that no one bothered to clean up. I do applaud the idea and the efforts to make this a very visually interesting film and trying to be outside of the box. Sometimes these things just don’t work, and for me it just didn’t. I had a hard time with the first and third acts of this film, and I can barely remember a lot of what I saw, it was forgettable.

I really wanted to like and enjoy this film, but in the end Shock Treatment really wasn’t for me. It was however an interesting experiment, and I am sure it will remain an obscure cult favourite among fans. It isn’t anything I can really recommend unless you are a Rocky Horror fan or a fan of those involved. At least I enjoyed Jessica Harper’s performance and Barry Humphries was really great, the costumes and sets were really wonderful so it wasn’t an out right failure. I am glad I got to see it; it was just a very trying experience.

Rating:

Head over to A.J’s website CINESLICE and read his Week 4 review of 1969.