Shock Treatment (1981) came from the minds of the creators of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), namely director Jim Sharman and writer/actor Richard O’Brien. Rather than a sequel or a prequel, they called it an “equal” to RHPS. I consider it to be an alternate universe Janet and Brad who, rather than finding themselves doing the Time Warp in a castle and discovering their sexual freedom, are wrapped up in a capitalistic scheme under the guise of promoting mental health. They’re also played by different actors, with Jessica Harper as Janet, and Cliff De Young as Brad.

If you have no clue what Shock Treatment is, don’t feel too badly. I only found out about it thanks to a friend telling me about it several years ago; it certainly isn’t as well known as RHPS. It’s also difficult to summarize succinctly for those who don’t know it, but I’ll do my best. Janet and Brad are picked to be on a show meant to mend failing marriages, but it’s a guise to sequester Brad away from Janet under the pretense that he’s mentally unwell, and to mold her into the perfect mascot for a new business endeavor for the mysterious fast-food tycoon who runs everything.

Now what, I’m sure you’re asking, does this have to do with Christmas, or the holidays in general?

Rather than being set at the time of year in question, to me it has the spiritual feeling of it. Especially this year. The “town” of Denton consists of live audience members on a film set, watching as members of their community are brought into the very “reality” shows they’re watching. Consumerism is rampant; they are literally confined to these quarters solely to watch programs endlessly, aside from when they sleep in the stands at night. Nothing matters outside of profit, and people are only desired for what they can do to secure further finances.

Not too much unlike the current climate of facing a pandemic, while still being expected to work and risk illness, because how else is one supposed to survive?

There’s also being trapped and forced to deal with racist and homophobic parents behind closed doors, even while Denton insists that it’s welcoming to all. As well as people who know you on a surface level only, and yet feel entitled to your life choices suiting their standards, a la long-distance family members. The conflation of reality and faux “reality” made to entertain and earn a profit to the point you can’t pull one apart from the other (hello political climate). Just a hint of fascism and white supremacy thrown in there too.

Sounding a little more familiar, albeit rather cynical, for this time of the year? Don’t worry, there’s a... basically happy ending.

Let’s break it down by song!

Denton, U.S.A

This is the Mecca of America,
The Bethlehem of the West
This is the birthplace of the virtuous
The home of happiness
Leisurewise, we're sure you will adapt
Enjoy your stay, have a happy holiday

This song is all about glorifying Denton to the point of giving it a cheery anthem to encourage one’s desire to be a part of it. They boast about every aspect of the town, from the beauty of the women, to its “tolerance of the ethnic races.” Literally right off the bat, this is where it goes to. Patriotism is a big part of it too, repeatedly mentioning it’s in the USA, and also mentioning it’s full of “civic pride and civic duty.”

Not unlike our government, or a good chunk of it, trying to desperately enforce a “by your bootstraps” attitude. No, they won’t get rid of rent or any bills while so many people are out of work due to a literal deadly pandemic that has killed an unfathomable amount of people. No, they won’t give us “handouts” or more stimulus checks. Just get out there! Don’t let it scare you! This non-sentient virus which could care less how afraid you are of it, just get on to work and make that money anyway so you don’t wind up on the street. But also spend that money in stores! Don’t forget those Christmas gifts! Who cares if you’re properly distanced or wearing a mask, the employees barely tick the list of being people, so what does it matter to you if they get sick? That you could be causing someone to lose a loved one that they can’t even say goodbye to for the holidays? Entitlement at its best. The powers above letting those below duke it out for blame and what the cause is, all while they benefit and don’t lift a finger to help.

Yay, capitalism!

Bitchin’ in the Kitchen

Dear knife drawer
Now won't you help me to face life more
Oh, trashcan
Don't you put the dirt on me
Oh percolator, why are we always sooner or later
Bitchin' in the kitchen or crying in the bedroom all night

This is the anthem for having to decide whether you’re going to get into that fight with your racist ass grandma, or hold it in and wind up crying about it later when all that pent up emotion eventually seeps out. The holidays for a lot of people tend to mean being with family, extended or non. In these quarantine times you’re either already stuck with them waiting it out, or now getting guilted into trying to video chat with them instead. The latter is perhaps a blessing, in that it’s less time around them, but god knows those needling conversations that have you weighing “causing a spat” or “choking it down” will crop up anyway. And if you have been quarantining with someone all this time, be it family or a partner or otherwise, things are bound to get bristly sheerly from getting run down. The holidays are a rough and stressful time normally, this year? Yikes.

Thank God I’m A Man

And men should be the misters
And the masters of their sisters
A man should be the reason
For a heart to break

This toxic masculinity anthem comes from Janet’s dad as he stomps along, pushing a lawnmower despite there being no grass to cut. It’s all in the name of loudly asserting his cis hetero status after finding out that the son of a co-worker was discovered having an orgy with Mexican men in the back of a bakery. The preceding scene is doused in the sensation of visiting your parents for a holiday or event of any kind, with Janet coming to talk to her parents about Brad. Her mom fusses over her appearance and has guilted her into wearing a bright pink shirt which appropriates Asian culture, paralleled by this news about the co-worker's son. Janet’s mom hisses, once the dad has angrily left, that Janet shouldn’t have mentioned the part about them being Mexican, as her dad hates them. Right in the beginning of the opening song, Denton is purported to be "tolerant” at least of non-white people, but clearly, it’s a different story behind closed doors. Except they’re not really even closed, because it’s all being broadcast on television.

At first it almost seems as if her dad is angrier about the fact the men were Mexican, than the fact they were men at all. Rest assured, however, he spits out a homophobic slur that rhymes with “maggots,” which he says queer people are. Even though this co-worker's son has absolutely nothing to do with him, his sexuality, his gender identity, or ANYTHING at all, Janet’s dad is immediately threatened by the mere existence of such a man to the point he has to list off all these rules about what makes someone one. It’s the most uncomfortable song in the film, as it should be, and also unfortunately relatable to a lot of young people whose parents are less than accepting.

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
One thing there couldn't be
Is any more me in me

Both this song, and the previous Little Black Dress, play into the change we see Janet go through as the film progresses. Much like Jessica Harper’s character Phoenix in Phantom of the Paradise (1974), she has succumbed to the allure of fame. The once virtuous and demure Janet is now running amok in a slinky black dress, singing about loving herself. But god forbid a woman get TOO much power in both her own self-confidence, as well as the adoration of the crowd. The two “doctors” that are supposedly in charge of Brad’s care put a stop to it by drugging her.

Rather than doing anything to treat Brad, they have spent their time crafting Janet into the ideal spokesmodel for the big boss Mr. Flavors’ schemes. This also means they’re the ones to yank her back down into their control when she starts ignoring their voices for her own.

As much as this part of the film seems to be trying to show that Janet has now become shallow, full of herself, and unlikable, I instead look at it as being akin to having extended family members who think they know what’s best for you more than you do. They “know” you on the basis of being family, but do they really know you? They have a concept of the surface part of who you are, and it better not exceed what they’re comfortable with. They want you to be successful, but not too proud. Dress nicely, but not too flaunting. Their interest lies more with image, than it does with substance. Be happy, but only to the extent that they find that happiness acceptable.

This may not be true with all families of course, but there’s a reason there’s so many holiday films that revolve around someone faking some aspect of themselves, from a job to a significant other, to put forward to their family that everything is great for them, and no there’s nothing at all to worry about. There’s a lack of being comfortable with vulnerability there, because although in theory family should be accepting of you... that’s not always the case.

And thus, poor Janet is being yanked around every which way. She’s told to perform and show off for Brad’s sake, then told she’s going too far. She’s supposed to be popular enough to sell Mr. Flavors’ big new thing, but not overshadow him. Be sexy and bold, but everyone loves that girl next door quality. It’s no wonder she loses herself for a while. That’s not to say she’s not, in fact, self-centered at times. It’s worth noting that she specifically is rude to a band made up of teenagers, and also most of the Black people in the film. But, that in itself is also indicative of white women who gain any sort of power.

Shock Treatment

You're blinded by romance, you're blinded by science
You're condition is critically grave
But don't expect mercy from such an alliance
Suspicion of traditions so new wave

The title song is great, but also is where we start to pull on some threads concerning both mistreatment of the mentally ill, as well as eugenics-oriented concepts. All of Flavors’ top people running things are vaguely European, and specifically one of the hosts, Bert Schnick, is Austrian and supposedly blind. However, he simply uses this disability as part of his caricature, as we see him try to check Janet out while she’s showering before he’s miraculously ”cured” of his blindness by shock treatment. There is a sense that they’re trying to purify people, mentally and otherwise. Bert even has hand motions toward the audience that teeter on a Hitler-esque salute, as well as him having a dark, bitter moment where he suggests punishment involving the Danube River, which runs between Austria and Germany. Flavors himself at one point says they’re striving for “hygienic” people, but the emphasis he puts on the word seems to suggest it’s about more than cleanliness.

These vague undercurrents of fascism can even easily be seen as the American crowd accepting former fascists into their society and normalizing it, which unfortunately is incredibly relevant for these current times.

Along with this, there’s commercializing mental health, and capitalism pushing for a so called “return to sanity,” which of course directly contradicts itself. It’s a corporation playing along that they care about mental health, making the motions and spouting the rhetoric, and yet in practice it does nothing but harm. Brad is left drugged up and gagged in a straitjacket in a cage, Janet is also drugged and manipulated, and all of Denton’s residents are groomed to believe that Flavors knows what’s best for them and cares for their wellbeing. The reality is that all that matters to him is the money they can bring in.

Especially around this time of the year, there’s a lot of posturing from corporations that they care about families and their employees, and yet even this year Black Friday still happened, regardless of safety. People’s mental health on the whole is known to be in awful state thanks to the pandemic, and the isolation. And yet, you see people telling their place of work that they’ve lost a loved one, and receiving nothing but the expectation they keep working as usual. No mental health days, no understanding that nobody is operating at their best right now, just keep dragging yourself along for the good of the business and the money that comes with it.

Duel Duet

We lost our home
Our family
You've lost compassion
Now you're losing me

This song takes place after the reveal that Flavors is, in fact, Brad’s twin brother. They were separated, and while Brad grew up in a decent family, Flavors had nothing. Thus, all of this has been for revenge, with Flavors wanting to ruin Brad’s life and take Janet from him on live TV.

This song can be seen as the struggle that many of us find ourselves in against family members who simply cannot change their ways. We try to explain to them, to teach them, to walk them back from the cultish abyss of believing that a pandemic isn’t real, that the election was rigged, that police are a force of good rather than simply there to protect rich white people and nobody else (something else that also appears in this film), but they just won’t hear you. Sometimes, instead of screaming at a brick wall, you just have to let go. You may have them call you “a weeper and a whiner” or “a spiteful, hateful, asinine creature,” but you don’t let that stop you from doing what you need to. It will hurt, but your values and your safety are worth more. In some cases, it’s easier said than done to cut someone out, and not because you’re trapped in a TV studio with them calling all the shots. Just remember, in that case, that you’re not alone. You are seen, and you are heard.

Anyhow, Anyhow

We're going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We're going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We're going to do it
No matter how the wind is blowing

We're going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We're going to do it anyhow, anyhow
We're going to do it
We just gotta keep going

Some people do it for each other
Some people do it for their lover
Some people do it for improvement
Some people do it for the movement
Some people do it for enjoyment
Some people do it for employment

I know this has all been a pretty rough look at the holidays, but I told you there’s a happy ending! Mostly!

Janet snaps out of her trance when Brad confronts his twin brother, and thus resolves to go with him rather than be Miss Mental Health for Flavors. She, along with another duo who were pushed out of the programing and had been sleuthing out the truth of what Flavors was doing, as well as the aforementioned band of teens all manage to steal a prize car and escape the studio. All while singing a song that’s pro-sex workers!

The reason it’s mostly a happy ending is that Flavors still gets what he wants when it comes to capital gain, and it’s revealed his big “sanity” plan is to put all of Denton’s live audience in straitjackets and lock them up to be a part of the “Faith Factory” program. All while they loudly and happily reprise Denton U.S.A., and are perfectly delighted to be there as cash cows for him.

Unfortunately, though, that’s just the truth of it. You can’t always get people to wake up from the unreality they’ve consumed endlessly through media they’ve been convinced is the real truth of the world, the fabricated and scripted ”reality” that they’ve come to accept. Sometimes your parents have even consumed the rhetoric Kool-Aid, with your mom lamenting what a disappointment you are, and your dad feverishly pretending you no longer exist or matter compared to this all-important program he’s been indoctrinated into.

Sometimes the real family, and holiday you celebrate, is the cobbled together one that you make for yourself. It’s with the people who are resisting, and who escape the thrall into the mist of unknown territory. Whatever it is, you’ll have each other to keep going, and do it anyhow.

You can check out all of Shock Treatment on YouTube here.