Shock Corridor

Samuel Fuller's Shock Corridor (1963) is a film that is inextricably tied to melodrama and excess, but rather than submit to these impulses or let them be a hindrance Fuller utilizes them to their full potential, allowing the vitality of the performances and the scenes to elucidate his themes of narcissism, sanity, and internalized guilt. The film acts as a parable warning one against letting dreams of success mire you in conditions of psychological horror.

The film concerns reporter Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck), who goes undercover into a mental institution in order to discover who killed an inmate. By exposing himself to the horrors of the mental institution, he desires to use the story as a springboard for his own personal success to win a Pulitzer, rather than understanding the murder he's investigating as a tragedy unto itself. His own lack of true concern for his brothers surrounding him leads to his inevitable collapse, so that by the time he reveals the killer, the ward within the institution merely believes him to be another person in the asylum. Fuller thus implicates his protagonist in a vision of pride and pathology that slowly consumes him.

Likewise, Cathy (Constance Towers), Johnny's girlfriend, is implicated for disregarding his health in favor of holding onto a relationship that is already tearing apart because of the burdens of Johnny's dream that he places on her. Though we quickly discern her intelligence, she herself doesn't realize how right she is, and so she ignores her integrity so that she may stay close to Johnny, never realizing until it's too late how this act contributes to his madness.

Some of the most effective scenes, such as those with Brent, as African-American who adopts the persona of a self-righteous KKK member, retain their power and potency, in that the racism and belligerence around them have become so deeply entrenched that these individuals have thus internalized it. Meanwhile the riot scenes, though 180 degrees different, have the same odd poeticism of Bela Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies, creating a fascinating glimpse into the nuclear, racist, and communistic fears that were rampant in the 1960s.

This is a film that intelligently and audaciously criticizes those issues that were contemporary to its day, and it's a film that remains vital today. Powerful stuff, and well worth the campiness that exudes from every shot.

Shock Corridor: 10/10