Shock Treatment: 25th Anniversary Edition

Part of the problem is that the action never leaves the TV studio. Budget
limitations and an actors' strike confined the movie to a single elaborate set,
so O'Brien and Sharman recast it as an outsized satire of media saturation, but
their blurring of the line between offscreen "reality" and TV performance is
more confused than meaningful. Denton's inhabitants form a vapidly enthusiastic
audience that cheers whatever the studio presents them with. When Brad (now
played by Cliff De Young) and Janet (Jessica Harper)
arrive, they're whisked onstage to address their ailing marriage on a
relationship-themed game show, but De Young's reluctance gets him dragged off
to a cage and a straitjacket on a hospital show run by conniving, incestuous
siblings (O'Brien and Patricia Quinn, in roles fairly similar to their Rocky
Horror bit parts). Meanwhile, the
producers set out to remake Janet as a shallow pop idol. Shock Treatment's problems begin with this disjointed, vaguely
metaphorical plot, but it suffers more from the many, many unmemorable songs,
which slam the film to a standstill so the cast can cavort around, flashing
their legs and smirking as though they're being much naughtier. Rocky Horror at least had the lure of forbidden sex and a
pro-transgression stance; the squeaky-clean Shock Treatment instead pays some sloppy lip service to misbehavior without
ever figuring out what that means. The film looks great, with vivid colors and
sharp, snappy staging, but its 92 minutes drag by interminably. Tim Curry in
fishnets might have helped, but a coherent storyline would have been far better.

Key features: Talking-head featurettes,
trailers, and a commentary track by two Shock Treatment fan-club presidents.