Thoughts on This Film

Shock is a suspense thriller in which a young woman awaiting her husband’s return from World War II witnesses a murder out a hotel window. She goes into deep shock and a doctor is called in who turns out to be none other than the murderer and quickly commits her to be treated in his facility.

Although he was having an affair with his nurse and killed his wife in a sudden moment of rage, the doctor, expertly played by Vincent Price, is not entirely unsympathetic. He is shown to have a conscience and to struggle with it, unlike the nurse, who is increasingly revealed as evil and willing to stop at nothing to achieve her ends.

Trigger warning, well, there is a lot of smoking and some drinking in this film. If you are squeamish about needles and injections and messing with a helpless patient physically and mentally it will make you uncomfortable so if you don’t like being uncomfortable you may want to skip this one but heck a lot of Vincent Price films are uncomfortable, some extremely so. His voice as he works on this poor young woman is hypnotic. I found it very interesting and fast-moving and of course Vincent Price is always great. This was said to be his first starring role but I’m not sure as he had major roles in earlier films. Kids of ten and up might watch in company of a parent or guardian.