Shock Corridor

Shock Corridor feels like dollar store Hitchcock, in the best and worst ways. On the plus side, it is as willing to push the envelope of the times as Hitch was. Shock Corridor tackles PTSD, disassociative identity disorder, mental health, and has elements of incest and sex work. In 1960, some of those subjects were taboo, and others were not treated with the gravity or sensitivity they are now. It’s quite fascinating. Another plus is that, while later Hitch did trade in pushing these boundaries, he did so with a deft artist’s hand. Shock Corridor is just a little sleazy, and it’s nice to see a movie in the era of the Hayes Code get up as close to the line as it can. Nothing about it will be shocking now, but in the context of the times, it’s downright scandalous. You gotta appreciate a movie that is seedy and wears it on its sleeve. The performances are the right level of OTT without being B-movie schlock. Unfortunately, what drags this movie down is pacing. Shock Corridor is so stuffed with filler, it might’ve been assembled at Build-A-Bear. There are sequences in this movie that are absolutely silly with how protracted they get; the burlesque “dance” (I’ve seen more grace in a drunken elephant) is a full performance for no reason other than … titillation, I suppose? Even though it’s as arousing as mowing the lawn. The scenes where the main character is trying to ingratiate himself with the inmates that witnessed the murder at the center of the movie drag on with interminable monologues, and are preposterously scripted, as the movie seems to think if a crazy person talks long enough, they’ll talk themselves into temporary lucidity. And then there’s the ending, and I don’t know what to think about it. On the one hand, it’s a nice Twilight Zone-style twist. On the other hand, it is delivered in such a way that feels like whiplash from the prior scene, and you’re left wondering if there’s a reel missing between the scenes. So … I don’t know about it. It has this down and dirty charm to it, and I love that it has both progressive and transgressive ideas in it, but the way the story unfolds shows that this is definitely an amateur imitating an auteur without any of the latter’s sensibilities. It could be a lot worse, but it also could be a lot better, so, right down the middle for me.