Jessica Harper Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I did not realize until I posted a Vintage Image of the Day for Shock Treatment that the "not a sequel" to The Rocky Horror Picture Show was one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Two days after I posted the photo, I bought the DVD and threw out my old VHS copy, so I can enjoy the highest resolution, most gorgeous images and sound possible when I indulge my secret love for the 1981 cult classic.

In my Vintage Image of the Day post, I called Shock Treatment the sequel to Rocky Horror. As others have noted, this isn't strictly true. However, some of the characters are the same. Remember Brad Majors and Janet Weiss? (Keep your audience-participation nicknames to yourself.) In Shock Treatment, the happy couple is now married, but something's wrong with their relationship, something they themselves can't quite express. The characters are played by different actors -- Cliff De Young and Jessica Harper take over the roles held by Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon in Rocky Horror. On the other hand, cast members from the first movie also appear in Shock Treatment, but as different characters.

Last week, it was Susan Sarandon's birthday so I posted an image of her as Janet Weiss in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And today, it's Jessica Harper's birthday, so it only seems right that I post a photo of the actress as Janet Weiss Majors in the 1981 sequel, Shock Treatment. Harper's early film career is marked by a number of cult favorites: she was one of the schoolgirls in the classic horror film Suspiria and starred in the midnight favorite Phantom of the Paradise. She also appeared in Woody Allen's Russian spoof Love and Death, Allen's Stardust Memories, and Steve Martin's first failed venture into drama, Pennies from Heaven. In recent years she's moved to occasional guest roles on TV shows.

Shock Treatment is a mighty strange little film, set almost entirely in a TV studio with a plot that revolves around television shows and stars. Although Brad and Janet are back, they're played by different actors (Cliff DeYoung and Harper). Actors from Rocky Horror are in the sequel, but they have different roles. In the above photo, you can see Nell Campbell (who played Columbia), Patricia Quinn (who played Magenta), and Richard O'Brien (who played Riff-Raff) all playing alleged medical professionals. The medical aide in the right-hand corner of the photo is Rik Mayall, whom I always remember from The Young Ones although he's had better roles since then. I could go on and on, but the DVD was finally released last month, so you might want to see Shock Treatment for yourself.

[Photo via Shock Treatment Daily, a LiveJournal community that regularly posts screenshots from the film.]