Perfect cast and a good story

It is a performances centric movie

Absolutely brilliant

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This film is about a private investigator who investigates the death of a young man who hired him to find someone shortly before the death.I just watched "Third Man Out", so there is an inevitable comparison between the two. The mystery part is toned down compared to "Third Man Out", replaced with emotional elements about gay conversion. This makes the film melancholic and even saddening. To balance it off, there are more steamy scenes than "Third Man Out" to make "Shock to the System" more commercially appealing.The mystery part of the plot is hurt by the fact that all the leads point to a single suspect. If there were more suspects, then the mystery would have been more thrilling and engaging. Nevertheless, "Shock to the System" is an interesting mystery film with a emotional commentary on societal attitudes towards homosexuality. I find "Shock to the System" entertaining to watch.

Donald Strachey (Chad Allen) meets Paul Hale (Jared Keeso) on a dark street just before a truck tries to run him down, and when the client ends up dead Strachey gets more than interested especially since the man has given him a five-thousand dollar retainer. He visits the man's mother Phyllis Hale (Morgan Fairchild) and discovers that her son was a poster child for a clinic specializing in "conversion therapy", turning gay men into straight men through consultation and a host of other mysterious means. Strachey goes undercover as a client at the clinic, led by a smooth-talking Dr. Trevor Cornell (Michael Woods) who conducts group sessions touting self-examination designed to empower gay men into thinking and living their lives in straight ways. Strachey himself has a damaged psyche and recalls with angst his time spent in the Army and a companion as they lived a secret life. When Strachey's husband Tim Callahan (Sebastian Spence) offers some information about one of the clinic's wealthy clients and another body turns up dead things get really twisted. When Strachey discovers a DVD with a potentially damaging documentary that Paul Hale was creating he suspects Dr. Cornell but after a shoot out and the discovery of the real murderer the truth about the clinic and some of the clients comes out in a thrilling ending.

"Trevor Cornell is one of the most successful reparative therapy providers in New York," says Timmy Callahan. "I wonder what his idea of 'successful' is," says Donald Strachey, a private eye. "Dressing badly," says Callahan, "decorating your home with duck decoys, breaking out in a rash whenever Barbra Streisand sings." To explain: Reparative therapy means conversion from being gay or lesbian into happy, contented heteroes. Timmy Callahan (Sebastian Spence) is a political type in Albany, New York. Donald Strachey (Chad Allen) is not only a capable and tough private eye in Albany, he and Timmy are married. "At least," as Strachey says, "as close as two men can get to it...more important, I'm in love with him." Those who find a gay agenda under every leaf, revolver and bloody baseball bat may not like this movie. On the other hand, those with a fondness for well-constructed mysteries that feature politics, victimization, murder, martinis and phenalzine should enjoy the story, the style of Donald Strachey and the puzzle. Bet you don't guess the murderer. It's worth pointing out that you don't need to be a collie to enjoy "Lassie" or a guy with a gut to enjoy John Wayne. And you don't need to be gay to enjoy Shock to the System. The movie has it's faults...it was made for cable with awkward acting in some of the secondary roles and it has that clean, careful look of most made-for-TV films. But the mystery is satisfyingly complicated, with a nice number of red herrings. Chad Allen makes a believable, interesting private eye. And his happy home life with Timmy would probably be the envy of many married couples, gay or straight. Paul Hale, a frightened 20-year-old man, wants Strachey to help him. But before he can tell Strachey what he wants, he is found dead. At first it's thought Hale died of a stroke, but when a lethal mixture of alcohol and barbiturates is found in Hale's system, Strachey decides to find out what was going on. And that takes him undercover to the Phoenix Foundation, a successful institution led by Dr. Trevor Cornell and his wife, where gays and lesbians, Dr. Cornell says, can find their true path to heterosexuality. It turns out that Hale was going to be a poster boy for the Foundation when Cornell announced a major push to go nation-wide with his cures. Not only does Strachey find himself taking part in group therapy and flashing back to his own earlier life, he gets threatened, beaten up, chased and shot. Almost as frightening, he encounter's Hale's wealthy, well-groomed and surgically-enhanced mother. "My son was not gay!" she says. "He was...confused." Strachey eventually solves the crime. Justice, formal and informal, is dealt out. Donald Strachey is the gay private eye in eight mysteries written by Richard Stevenson, beginning with Death Trick in 1981. They are first-rate reads with clever, involved and sometimes violent plots. In other words, they aren't gay mysteries...they're mysteries that happen to feature a gay private eye. Two of the books have been made into cable movies; this one was shown in 2006 and Third Man Out was shown in 2005. The books are well worth reading if you like mysteries. This movie is no classic, but it makes it's "gay agenda" points low-key enough that they don't interfere with the story. And although there is a bit of beef cake that shows up from time to time, one or two friendly smooches and a quick flash of frontal nudity, the movie has none of the leering smarminess that seems built-in to many of the boy-girl Hollywood films nowadays.

This is a well-plotted, superbly cast follow up to the first Donald Strachey film, "Third Man Out." I personally found the subject matter—-sexual "healing" for gays—-more engrossing than the "outing" theme of the first film. Once again, Chad Allen is fascinating as the macho gay detective. And his back story—-he's an ex-soldier who was drummed out of the service for being gay—-more ably serves the screenplay this time around. The regulars all seem more comfortable in their roles, and it's nice to see Nelson Wong returning as Donald's secretary. Morgan Fairchild appears in a rather thankless cameo, and, although Sebastian Spence is a little less ditsy as Donald's lawyer boyfriend (Nora to Allen's Nick), Timmy, Allen's banter with Daryl Shuttleworth, as Detective Bub Bailey, and the other guys at the precinct is more fun. It's a first-class production, with director Ron Oliver making all the right moves, and Allen's acting is nothing short of brilliant: he does Emmy-caliber work in a surprisingly literate script.