Forget everything you know about newlyweds Brad and Janet Majors and the events involving a drag queen from space for the time being. There will be no aliens or references to classic science fiction, b movie, and horror films. No Barry and no Susan. What we have now is a different couple to play the pair in the new decade. This time the role of Brad Majors goes to Cliff De Young, an actor from films like The Hunger and even a Stephen King miniseries. Janet Weiss, Or should I say Janet Majors now, is to be played by Jessica Harper, known primarily for her main role in Dario Argento?M)s Suspiria. But there are a few familiar faces out there to put a smile on our faces. Though familiar, they hold different identities then what we knew them as before. Our tub of warm waters of sins of the flesh will now be drained clean and refilled by misunderstood reality and game show satire. The music is usually hit-and-miss in the tune department but tends to make up for it in lyrics. This movie is quite different from its predecessor, which caused the movie to be... well... not as much beloved by the Rocky Horror fans. For its time, no one could quite understand the satire, seeing as back then there were few game shows and reality Television. The movie is definitely a cult classic, but never quite managed to stack up to Rocky Horror. You could say being the sequel to Rocky Horror is both a blessing and a curse. Without Rocky, this movie would probably not catch as many fans's interest, yet with it, people, even today consider this quite a terrible sequel for the franchise. Although terrible in it's way, it is quite entertaining and difficult not to love at times. You have to watch it numerous times to truly understand what goes on behind the scenes of DTV. Like sushi in the 80s, they both plead for a second chance and eventually gain it by some. The idea of the film's satire may be a brilliant one but sadly it leaves most viewers "Bitchin' in the kitchen" in the end.Overall Best Songs: "Duel Duet", "Lullaby", "Shock Treatment", Great lyrics: "Look What I Did To My Id", "Looking For Trade"

If you want to know what it is pure television you have to watch that sequel of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was done for television and constantly remindS you of the fact.The whole action takes place in the Denton TV studio. It is the story of a television show that changes sponsors. The new sponsor has to diabolize the older sponsor and to push forward a new icon for the new sponsor that creates at first a link with the older one. Hence they diabolize the older sponsor as some kind of emotional misfit and use his wife as the new icon. They will even reveal in the end that the new sponsor is in fact the twin brother of the older one. And there we have a basic simple primitive if not even simplistic theme that goes back to the oldest layers of prehistory, the conflict between two brothers, what's more twin brothers. Better than Abel and Cain. And this wife of the older sponsor will bring sight to the blind anchor man of the show. Isn't that divine and angelic and beautiful? Then it uses language as some kind of mesmerizing fascinating hypnotizing whip to make you get in line with the game. The rhyming patterns are so simple that they seem to be like the drums of some voodoo dance with a lot of Hollywood sauce on top and a simplistic comic flavour underneath. You are the pronged cattle taken up and tied up in that caravan, carnival, canned mental emptiness. And the main catch letter to your ears and eyes is F. F mind you like in the most famous four letter word in English, and yet it is five Fs in one motto. Farley Flavors' Fabulous Fast Foods that becomes in the mouth of some TV announcer: "First and Foremost, Farley Flavors' Fabulous Fast Foods Feed and Fortify Families For a Fabulous Future." From five to thirteen, from the devil to the witch, from the pentacle to the worst omen possible on earth. Be repetitive and you will always reach the bottom of hell and the dire straits or purgatory. But don't expect to find heaven in commercial repetitiveness.But the point is that this show, this film, this TV film, this film about TV and this film at the local TV station does not in the least try to make you think. It is here only to whirl you around into a maelstrom out of which you cannot escape. And don't believe there are good ones and bad ones. There are only old ones and new ones and new ones are neither better nor worse than old ones. They have only one aim which is to make you be a robotic un-thinker, a mechanized non-thinker, a motorized anti-thinker.That's the kind of rapport TV wants to establish with its audience: all-sensorial, hypnotic, non-mental acceptance of the show as good or the same all-sensorial, hypnotic, non-mental rejection of the show as bad. You like or don't like but you sure don't have to think about it. It is all at the level of your kinetic and kinesthetic, kinesiological primary response at the essentially physiological level of your being, what they justly call the "id" in the show, with Freud's picture somewhere lost in that mess.The only link with the Rocky Horror Picture Show is in fact in the flimsy vision of Grant Wood's painting known as American Gothic. But that is a cliché, nothing else, not even a wink.And be sure this TV film will not take any side between the losers of old and the winners of today. They will eventually all go their own ways but with the same convertible and one girl will be replaced by another one in the "First and Foremost, Farley Flavors' Fabulous Fast Foods Feed and Fortify families For a Fabulous Future" advertising venture, and the new one will even be better since she is a gorgeous, sumptuous, splendiferous, glorious and definitely opulent blonde. Television does not require the audience to think but only to feel good and relaxed.Some may say it is a pastiche of a TV show or even of a TV comic thriller. But it is such a good pastiche that we do believe it is the real stuff. It is a perfect imitation of a TV show and as such it is a perfect pastiche, but that does not give it any mental reflective distance. It is meant to carry your adhesion or your rejection but not to make you think in any way. You like or you dislike but to agree or disagree is not even a question.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is one of my favorite movies. Every time I watch it, I get a sense of enjoyment that many other movies don't really have. So, once I heard there was a sequel, I looked into it. I got a copy of the DVD, and watched Shock Treatment. I don't know if I wasn't in the mood for it or something, but I didn't like it all that much. Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, and Charles Gray all return from Rocky Horror, but they all take on new roles. They were the only characters who I thought were well-crafted. I hated every other person in the movie. Cliff DeYoung, who played Brad and Farley Flavors, was really disappointing. Barry Bostwick is the one and only Brad Majors (asshole) to me. Jessica Harper, who takes on the role of Janet, really doesn't do justice to Susan Sarandon. Sarandon's portrayal was so girlie and Harper plays her like a man. Jessica Harper's singing was awful, as well. Every time she sang I wanted to ram my head against the wall repeatedly. Barry Humphries plays Bert Schnick, and he was just unbearable. Lastly, Ruby Wax plays Betty Hapschatt, and again, another cringe-worthy performance. The only people who I thought were really any good were the returning cast members. The songs, while inferior to Rocky Horror, were still good. With Richard O. at the helm, you can't go wrong with the songs. The storyline wasn't that great. It seemed all over the place and I had a hard time following it the entire time. It was a really big letdown. I don't know if my opinion will change when I watch it again, but we'll just have to wait and see.

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.