You're not looking at the king of anything- you're looking at an ace!

zmaturin

I had heard a lot of bad things about this "sequel" to "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", and I can see how people expecting a return to the sexual hi-jinx of that classic would be disappointed. I found this to be great in a completely different way. Save for a few RHPS character and location names, this is pretty much unrelated to that flick. This stands on it's own as an excellent musical-comedy with great songs and characters.

"Shock Treatment" takes place entirely in the television station of DTV, a local TV station that probes into the lives of its town's citizens. Brad and Janet (who act differently and are played by different actors than in RHPS) discuss their marital strife and appear on "Marriage Maze". Brad is found to be in need of help, so he's shipped off to "Dentonvale", the channel's bizarre medical show, while Janet is groomed to be the new star of "Denton Dossier", a show that tells people how great Denton is. Meanwhile, nefarious fast food mogul Farley Flavors is conspiring to take over the town and Janet with his latest show, "Farley Flavor's Faith Factory".

Jessica Campbell (who has worked with Dario Argento AND Woody Allen) is superb as Janet, and Cliff De Young plays Brad and Farley so excellently it's hard to tell it's the same actor (he even has a duet with himself!). The rest of the cast is populated with British comedians (Ruby Wax, Barry Humphries, and "The Young Ones"' Rik Mayal, who should have had a bigger part) and RHPS vets including Patricia Quinn, Little Nell, Charles Grey (also a former Blofeld!), and composer Richard O'Brian.

O'Brian's songs are fantastic and some exceed the quality of tunes in the better known "Rocky Horror". Clever lyrics and catchy tunes abound in classics like "Bitchin' in the Kitchen", "Little Black Dress", and the haunting "Lullaby". The choreography is great too, like the brief mirror-dance that accompanies "Look What I Did To My Id".

"Shock Treatmet" gets T-E-N, that's ten out of ten!

score /10

zmaturin 13 November 2000

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0189177/