In 1980, as a first-year college student in Toronto, I attended my first screening of the mother of all cult films, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. It was, as is the case with all the screenings of this movie in the early 80s, a midnight showing. Caught a bit unaware, I was not able to hear any of the dialogue throughout the movie as water, rice and toilet paper were being thrown at me. Almost the entire audience danced to the terrific “Time Warp”, and people were shouting what appeared to be smart funny comments at the screen. In addition, about half the audience (the movie theater was packed) were dressed up as characters in the movie. Adding to my pleasure was the fact that I was quite high at the time. It was not until I watched the movie on DVD a couple of years later that I understood the plot of the movie. I much prefer my movie theater experience to the home video one as it is the interactive experience inherent in all viewings of this film that makes the movie special.
“The Rocky Horror Picture show”, is the baby of Richard O’Brien, who wrote it as a stage play while being bored as an unemployed actor in London. The play was a huge, surprising hit on both sides of the Atlantic, which gave him the green light in converting it to a movie. O’Brien decided to use not only the same original stage director (Jim Sharman) to direct the movie version, but also most of the original theater cast were retained for the film. He wrote the movie as a campy musical homage to those old B grade sci-fi and horror films he loved as a kid. Since this was in the peak period of the great glitter period of the British music scene, his play was full of the sexual ambiguity that marked the period.
On its initial release, the movie bombed badly, while having had the good fortune of existing during the period of the midnight movie boom, which was widely popular with the young counterculture generation at the time. In addition, the sexual freedom theme of the movie attracted the LGBT crowd who were big fans of the midnight movie scene. O’Brien not only wrote the screenplay, but he also wrote all the musical pieces and had a major role in the film. It was at one of those midnight screenings that had large amounts of people return for repeated viewings. During these viewings, people started to react verbally to the movie’s characters, eventually developing an interactive script that was more or less used throughout North American screenings and even some European ones. Shadow casts were developed, resulting in actual performances occurring alongside the screening. Watching “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, was an event and party where like-minded people came to celebrate.
As far as the plot goes, the story follows how the young conservative engaged couple Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (the always delightful Susan Sarandon) have their car breakdown next to a castle, that they enter in search of a telephone. In the castle there are strange-looking people dancing and celebrating. The hunchback, Igor-like Rif Raf (O’Brien himself), lets them inside. Once in the celebration starts with the terrific song, “The Time Warp”, which was a major hit at the time due to the film’s revival. The master of the castle is Frank-N-Furter (A terrifically campy Tim Curry), and his introduction with a black leather S & M outfit and net stockings is one of Hollywood’s great intros. He is a transvestite and his intro song and dance, “Sweet Transvestite”, is the best part of the movie. Also, based on his name, one can assume that he is also interested in creating life from the dead, except this time his creation is a hunky blond male, who also catches the interest of Janet. During the overnight stay at the castle, Frank-N-Furter opens the sexual awareness of the young couple. There is a very good reason as to why this movie was celebrated by the LGBT community.
The direction and choreography of the movie are not very special, and most of the acting is purposefully campy and exaggerated. As is the dialogue. The only two actors who really pull it off are Curry, who is fantastic, and Sarandon, who did not know how to give a bad performance throughout her long career (of which this film was the beginning).
What is truly special about the movie, however, other than some of the music, is the art direction, costumes, and makeup. Sharman and O’Brien filmed the movie in London, using old Hammer horror castle props for their location shoot, and the campiness of those semi-serious films comes out in this movie. In addition, the costumes, hairstyles and makeup, which were a combination of Glitter rock fashion, classic horror and 50s sci-fi, were so extreme and watchable that, in addition to being used by the shadow cast at the viewings, were a major influence on the punk rock scene and look that would explode in England a year after this movie came out. If we believe that a great movie can influence modern style, then credit needs to be given to Rocky Horror, for its great influence on the lives of those who grew up in the late 70s and early 80s. Colored hair and zany hairdos would never have happened if not for this movie. I am certain that Johnny Lyndon and Sid Vicious were fans of this movie.
Musically, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, starts off with a bang as its best songs happen at the start and end after the introduction of Frank-N-Furter. When just watching this film as a movie, I truly enjoyed the campy humor alongside great songs. In the second half, however, the songs start to fizzle, seem repetitive and similar to a Broadway musical. Still, “Science Fiction Movie”, “Time Warp”, and “Sweet Transvestite” are not only great songs but sung to some nice set pieces that are a lot of fun.
While “The Rock Horror Picture Show” is not really that great of a cinematic experience on its own, as it is filmed pretty much as a stage play, it is meant to be appreciated in a theater at midnight as part of an interactive experience and watching it that way is great fun akin to going to an amazing party.
1001 Movies before you die 