In the spring of 1982, I went to a midnight showing of Shock Treatment, which was widely advertised as "the sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show!"
Actually, I saw it five times, because in the days before video rentals, DVDs, and streaming services, once a movie left the theater, it was gone for good.
It starred Brad and Janet from the original movie, played by different actors (Cliff de Young, Jessica Harper): Barry Bostwick was unavailable, and Susan Sarandon wanted too much money.
Cliff DeYoung (top photo) had been the lead singer of the 1960s band Clear Light, and the star of Sunshine (1973), about a struggling musician with a dying wife. Ugh! But his signature song, "My Sweet Lady," charted at #14. He also appeared in Hair on Broadway, and went on to over 80 tv and movie appearances, including Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The X-Files, Get a Clue, and Diagnosis: Murder.
Jessica Harper had toured in Hair with Cliff, and starred in Phantom of the Paradise, Love and Death, and Suspira. She would go on to over 50 movie and tv roles, seven albums, and eleven children's books.
No other characters from Rocky Horror, no references to Rocky Horror, no sweet transvestites, no gay relationships, no references to gay people except for a racist/homophobic anecdote!
But once you get over your initial disappointment, Shock Treatment presents an interesting conceit: the world is a tv studio, and everyone a player (shades of Shakespeare). Everyone is under surveillance, everyone is acting in a show within a show within a show. There are no private moments; everyone is always being observed, commented on, controlled. Sort of like social media today.
And they're trapped. Like many stories with gay symbolism, there is no way out. This is the whole universe.
The story is a heterosexist fable: studio owner Farley Flavors is in love with Janet, so he hires Drs. Cosmo and Nations McKinley (Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, reprising their incestuous brother-sister romance from Rocky Horror). They institutionalize Brad as "an emotional cripple" in their psychiatric-hospital Faith Factory program. To make Janet forget about Brad, they groom her to star in her own show.
Jessica Harper has a much stronger voice than Susan Sarendon, the original Janet. Shock Treatment is worth watching just to hear her paeon to egotism, "The Me of Me"
Deep in the heart of me, I love every part of me
All I can see in me is danger and ecstasy
I'm willing to die for me.
One thing there couldn't be is any more me in me
No other characters from Rocky Horror, no references to Rocky Horror, no sweet transvestites, no gay relationships, no references to gay people except for a racist/homophobic anecdote!
But once you get over your initial disappointment, Shock Treatment presents an interesting conceit: the world is a tv studio, and everyone a player (shades of Shakespeare). Everyone is under surveillance, everyone is acting in a show within a show within a show. There are no private moments; everyone is always being observed, commented on, controlled. Sort of like social media today.
And they're trapped. Like many stories with gay symbolism, there is no way out. This is the whole universe.
The story is a heterosexist fable: studio owner Farley Flavors is in love with Janet, so he hires Drs. Cosmo and Nations McKinley (Richard O'Brien, Patricia Quinn, reprising their incestuous brother-sister romance from Rocky Horror). They institutionalize Brad as "an emotional cripple" in their psychiatric-hospital Faith Factory program. To make Janet forget about Brad, they groom her to star in her own show. Jessica Harper has a much stronger voice than Susan Sarendon, the original Janet. Shock Treatment is worth watching just to hear her paeon to egotism, "The Me of Me"
Deep in the heart of me, I love every part of me
All I can see in me is danger and ecstasy
I'm willing to die for me.
One thing there couldn't be is any more me in me
More after the break
Janet: I want some young blood, I want some young blood, and I'm going to get it somehow!
Brad: I'm looking for love....
Janet: I'm looking for trade!
The gay symbolism comes when the various couples prepare to bed down for the night. Cosmo and Nation begin an b*ndage game, with evocations of the danger of the "jump to the left" that comes with acknowledging one's gay desire.
Nation: What a joke.
Cosmo: What a joke!
Nation: You feel like choking, you play for broke.
Cosmo: Romance is not a children's game.
Nation: But you keep going back just the same.
Cosmo and Nation: With neurosis in profusion, and psychosis in your soul.
Eliminate confusion, and hide inside a brand new role.
Ralph: This could take us to a new town nowhere near here.
I've said "This could take us to a new town nowhere near here" many times over the years.
The key to escape is not power, not love, but as in Rocky Horror Picture Show, desire, a passion that vitalizes, sets priorities, and makes life clear.
Judge Oliver Wright (Charles Gray, the Narrator in Rocky Horror) and Betty Hapschatt, suspecting a nefarious purpose behind the studio, hide in the rafters all night to investigate without being observed. When they discover that Brad and Farley are twin brothers separated at birth, they break Brad out of the asylum, take him to confront Farley Flavors, and reunite him with Janet. Then the four find a way out and exit into glorious sunlight while singing about sex:
Some people do it for employment.
But we're going to do it anyhow, anyhow
No matter how the wind is blowing.
We just gotta keep going.
It's not far from Frank-n-Furter's "Don't Dream It, Be It."
Not a lot of beefcake, although Gary Shail, who played the lead singer of Oscar Drill and the Bits (Janet's opening act), was somewhat attractive. He also appeared in Quadrophenia (1979) and starred in Metal Mickey (1980-82).
Plus David John played a rather muscular fan waiting for "Frankie." He starred in Metal Mickey with Gary, and went on to a lot of roles in the Doctor Who universe.
Not as famous, but worth seeing once. More gay metaphor, fewer things you have to be gay to get, e.g. if you're gay, you know who Steve Reeves is. (Hell, when I was 12, they had a Hercules marathon on AMC, back when "classic" didn't mean less than ten years ago. I enjoyed it.)
ReplyDeleteAt the time gay audiences were upset because they backed away from open portrayals of LGBT people, in effect going "into the closet," although one of the songs talks about "coming out of the closet." But "Rocky Horror" was never meant to be a paeon to Gay Liberation. The same-sex activity was supposed to be shocking, not empowering, and Frank N. Furter was a villian.
DeleteI was one of those obsessed Rocky Horror fans that went every weekend and knew every line. I fell short of showing up in costume and reenacting the parts on stage. (A little too shy, maybe)? I remember when Shock Treatment came out. I'm surprised I didn't see it then, but it was probably the poor reviews that kept me away. I did finally see it on VHS, years later, rented from a video store (remember those)? It didn't make much of an impression because I dont remember it at all except that I didn't like it. Maybe I'll give it another shot.
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