"Shock Corridor is set in a mental hospital. Johnny Barratt, a reporter, attempts to investigate the mysterious murder of one of the inmates, by pretending he is mentally disturbed, and entering the asylum as a patient.
‘I think that it would be wrong to see the mental hospital simply as a reflection of some of the major social problems which haunt America-Communism, racism, the atom bomb. Fuller goes deeper by showing how the conscious side of America in its drives, its values and ideals is complemented by an "irrational" side which belongs intimately to these conscious attitudes-just as in Johnny he shows the deeply irrational side in the motivation of his ultra-rational, cynical (war-) heroes.' (Thomas Elsaesser)" --Edinburgh Film Festival
The documentary-like material in Barratt's "nightmare sequence" was photographed by Fuller himself.