SHOCK TREATMENT
The sequel nobody wanted, asked for, heard about...
Here it is, the sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the one nobody will admit to actually having seen. You just never hear anything about this one, except presumably on the rocky-horror newsgroup. I'm not a fan of RHPS, so it was with a shade of reluctance that I rented this at all. But it was one of the very few movies in the horror section I haven't seen (yes, they're making good on their promise to bring more up from the other store). So here I am.
Brad & Janet get new actors here, since Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick knew better by the time this one came around. This time 'round, it?s Cliff De Young and Jessica Harper who are roped into it. De Young isn't bad in a dual role, but Harper only seems half there, and the half that's there seems distinctly embarrassed. That might show that she knows what to be embarrassed by, but still, it leaves her quite unappealing, despite that sexy forehead of hers. Not only that, but her Janet is so, SO different from Sarandon's Janet that you'd scarcely know they were the same character. Not that I'm complaining. I didn't care for Sarandon's Janet either.
The plot here concerns Brad and Janet trapped in some TV show where they're trying to teach Brad how to be a better husband. Or something like that. Really, it was kind of hard for me to pay attention. I was babysitting my sister's dog, and it was all I could do just to keep him from attacking the rabbit. Poor Bun was safe in his cage, but scared shitless, and this dog (after two attempts to harass Bun, met with a sound thwack each time) just kept staring at him and shaking with pent-up canine rabbit-chasing instinct. This thing was SHAKING, I tells ya! So you can understand why my attention wouldn't be entirely on the movie.
The songs in RHPS were a mixed bag, but at least had their moments. Here, they're uniformly completely unmemorable. Oh, there's nothing as bad as Sarandon's "Touch Me" song, but at least I remember Sarandon's "Touch Me" song.
Normally, you'd expect the sequel for a successful film (after seven years, RHPS finally qualified as a success, I guess) to be a little more, uh, large-scale. But Shock Treatment is a more subdued little film; and it also plays it safe, a little too safe. Where the first was raunchy, this one's cutesy. Needless to say, fans of the original (the ones that even heard about this one at all) didn't receive it that well.
Just kind of bland; I wasn't a fan of RHPS, but I wouldn't call it bland.