Shock Treatment (1981)

Following on from Suzanne's thoughts about The Truman Show, the 1981 film 'Shock Treatment', a quasi-sequal to the Rocky Horror Show also tackles the subject of reality TV, interestingly serving as a warning against it before the boom in that genre of television even began.

It shows how one member of the public is corrupted by the fame of appearing on a reality TV show thanks to false praise and documents the increase in her egoism as she starts to believe in her own hype. It also shows how the entire audience, viewing public and familiy and freidns of another contestant (the first's husband) is branded insane showing how 'reality' of reality TV is often false or misleading, but readily accepted by those who view. In further submersion into the genre, the audience, effectively an entire village stays in the TV studio at all times, sleeping in their audience seats.

It is a very interesting film though not very well known, and certainly very strange coming from the mind of Richard O'Brian, but it deals with some great material regarding reality TV and may be worth looking at I feel. I have it on DVD if anyone would like to borrow it.

Rich