Science Fiction Double Feature: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and Shock Treatment (1981) Reviews

50 years since The Rocky Horror Picture Show released in US cinemas, Sam reviews it and its forgotten sort-of sequel.

Sep 25, 2025

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Director: Jim Sharman

Screenwriters: Richard O’Brien, Jim Sharman

Starring: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, Little Nell Campbell, Jonathan Adams, Peter Hinwood, Meat Loaf, Charles Gray

by Sam Sewell-Peterson

“So, come up to the lab and see what’s on the slab. I see you shiver with antici... pation.”

The Rocky Horror Picture Show has some legs, and not just Tim Curry’s. The Jim Sharman/Richard O’Brien cult classic has been in continuous circulation on the big screen for 50 years and has continued to attract passionate new devotees every time it is screened (traditionally past midnight).

Newly engaged square couple Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) break down in a storm and take shelter in a nearby castle, where they get caught up in the dastardly machinations of provocative mad scientist Dr Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry) and his acolytes, who are in the mind to create a man, with blonde hair and a tan.

It may have confused critics and bemused audiences on its release, but the unapologetically queer, counter-cultural energy and clear affection for often-dismissed horror and sci-fi fare (chiefly movies from Universal, Hammer and RKO) have turned this into a genuine cult phenomenon.

The only thing more entertaining than attending a screening of this with full audience participation and copious alcohol is dressing up in a packed theatre to see the live stage version.

Rocky Horror has almost wall-to-wall Rock’n’Roll bangers, all written by Richard O’Brien and given real oomph by powerful singers like Curry and Patricia Quinn. “Science Fiction/Double Feature”, “Dammit Janet”. “The Time Warp”, “Sweet Transvestite”, “Hot Patootie - Bless My Soul”, “Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me”. All catchy, fun anthems packed with references to a range of disreputable genre cinema.

Charles Gray’s wry, drawling, self-aware narration (“I would like, if I may… to take you… on a strange journey…”) is the perfect counter-point to the cheap excess of most of the imagery here - it invites you to be in on the joke, to enjoy yourself. The ensemble all throw themselves fully into it, but the undeniable highlights are Curry’s Transexual Transylvanian force of nature and Sarandon’s soon-to-be emancipated wallflower, neither of which had the best time making the movie but didn’t let that ruin the party for the viewer.

It turns into absolute nonsense by its final act, and you really do have to surrender yourself to the tongue-in-cheek spirit of the thing to get anything out of it, but if you’re in the right frame of mind and with the right crowd, Rocky Horror remains a joyous - and for many, formative - experience after half a century.

Score: 8.5/10

Shock Treatment (1981)

Director: Jim Sharman

Screenwriters: Richard O’Brien, Jim Sharman, Brian Thomson

Starring: Jessica Harper, Cliff De Young, Richard O’Brien, Patricia Quinn, Little Nell Campbell, Charles Gray, Ruby Wax, Barry Humphries, Rik Mayall

“Brad doesn’t need to be trussed up like a turkey - there are drugs to keep him quiet!”

Six years later, Sharman and O’Brien released a belated pseudo-sequel, starring some of the original cast in new roles and continuing to musically mine disreputable B-movies. It didn’t make anything like the same impact as Rocky Horror (what could?), but Shock Treatment does still have a sizeable following.

Brad and Janet (Cliff De Young and Jessica Harper replacing Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) return to their hometown of Denton, Texas and become trapped in a nightmarish TV show under the control of demonic advertising mogul Farley Flavors (also De Young), in which Brad is forcefully institutionalised and Janet is transformed into the next big star.

After Curry and Sarandon declined to return, some tweaking of the original sequel concept - which would have resurrected Frank - was required. O’Brien, Quinn, Little Nell and Charles Gray reunite to play a new array of grotesque characters, and are bolstered by the likes of Barry Humpries, Ruby Wax and, amusingly for British comedy devotees, Rik Mayall.

The plot, such as it is, is loose to the point of making Rocky Horror look finely-drawn. Really it’s a strange, scattershot vibes movie, taking aim (on a surface level) at celebrity, advertising, the dumbing-down of media, and alternative medicines. It also manages to predict the vacuousness of reality TV a full two decades before it was popularised, which is quite something.

The performances (especially from Humphries as “blind” Austrian game show host Bert Schnick and O’Brien and Quinn as the nightmarish incestuous sibling “doctors” Cosmo and Nation McKinley) are appropriately broad and OTT to fit this very heightened, very weird reality of interconnected nonsensical TV shows. The soundtrack to this one is admittedly less stacked, though “Bitchin’ in the Kitchen”, “Little Black Dress”, and “Shock Treatment” are all earworms.

At the end of the day, Shock Treatment just doesn’t have as strong a central hook as its predecessor, and nor is it as easy to re-watch for the umpteenth time lacking as it does as many memorable images and one-liners as its predecessor. But it is still a camp cinema curiosity, looking to give you a good time and very much in the same spirit of liberation and flamboyance for the sake of it as Rocky Horror was.

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