The Rocky Horror Picture Show might be one of the most famous cult classics of all time. The movie was panned by critics and largely ignored upon its initial release, but slowly gathered a fanbase due to midnight showings with interactive shows. It became the first major movie to do this and essentially paved the way for other interactive-type midnight showings like The Room (a modern contender for the worst movie of all time). The Rocky Horror Picture Show is delightfully campy and queer and since it celebrates B-movies before it, it may as well be THE B-movie. Let's give it up today for The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Richard O'Brien was a struggling London actor when he spent a winter writing the original script for Rocky Horror. He was a lover of B-movies and science fiction and he infused glam rock which was a new arrival to his life at the time. In fact, Richard credits glam rock for allowing him to find and express himself more fully. He collaborated with a friend, Jim Sharman, who directed the original show at a black-box theater and they changed the name from They Came From Denton High to The Rocky Horror Show. Fun fact: the original script was only 40 minutes long and some things like "The Time Warp" were added just to add some time.
The live show slowly increased in popularity, moving up to bigger theaters in England. They then landed in America with shows in Los Angeles before coming to New York City. Then came the film which employed much of the original Broadway cast. They hired two American actors, Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon, to play Brad and Janet. They filmed in Windsor, England, at a major called The Oakley Court. You can now stay there because it has, of course, been turned into a luxury hotel. It's not even the only cult classic to have been filmed there. Murder By Death and The Brides of Dracula were both filmed at the imposing estate.
BTW, if you have never seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show - what are you doing with your life? Are you okay? You might be a little confused, so let me quickly give you a rundown of the plot. Brad and Janet are a newly engaged couple whose car breaks down. They wander in the dark for a phone when they see the Frank-N-Furter Mansion. A party is in full effect when they arrive as they learn that the cross-dressing Dr. Frank-N-Furter is going to unveil his latest creation: a man! Frank is accompanied by his butler Riff Raff, Riff Raff's sister Magenta, and a groupie named Columbia. He has built the perfect man, Rocky, and all of these...people?...have gathered to witness the great unveiling. It does not go as planned when Eddie, Frank's former lover and Columbia's new partner, enters. He donated part of his brain to Rocky and was frozen by Frank, but he comes out on a motorcycle like a bat-out-of-hell. How fitting that it is played by Meatloaf. Yes, that Meatloaf! Frank kills Eddie and then goes off to bed with Rocky, but he also winds up seducing both Brad and Janet separately.
THEN Janet walks off on her own, feeling ashamed about what she did with Frank. That's where she finds Rocky, scared because Riff Raff is tormenting him. Those two find solace in one another and bang...which Frank and Brad inevitably find out about. Tensions are then super high - with Frank wanting to capture everyone and use them for his cabaret show. The show is interrupted by Riff Raff and Magenta who reveal that they are actually aliens from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy Transylvania (Oooooh! So it's not Dracula Country???) and they are going back to their home planet. The entire mansion takes off into the sky, leaving Brad and Janet (and Dr. Scott whom I didn't get to, but he's there, too) to crawl around in the rubble and sing miserably about what just happened to them.
Peter Hinwood was also hired for the film to play the one and only Rocky. He was an underwear model with no acting experience before taking on the titular role. Unfortunately, the underwear model did not have many talents beyond looking pretty which he did do very well. His lines were almost entirely cut and someone dubbed his singing voice. At least he looked like the perfect specimen of a man!
The movie is meant to poke fun of and celebrate B-movies of yore, with references to famous science fiction and horror films all over the place. Makeup was done by Pierre La Roche who had previously styled David Bowie and Sue Blane worked on the now-iconic costumes. Not only does the film celebrate campy old movies, but it clearly shines a bright light on sexual and gender fluidity. Take the opening song "Science Fiction Double Feature", for example. A pair of woman's lips (belonging to Patricia Quinn who plays Magenta) sing while Richard O'Brien's singing voice is dubbed in. The gag is not only iconic, but it ushers the audience into this world of glamour and androgyny immediately, while the lyrics pay homage to science fiction films.
Movies were starting to make profits at midnight with films like Pink Flamingos and even old campy classics like Reefer Madness getting nationwide showings. The studio worked on a distribution deal to wisely do the same thing for Rocky Horror. It debuted in theaters in NYC on April Fool's Day in 1976 and a month late was shown as the "secret" film at the very first Seattle International Film Festival. Waverly Theater in New York City first began the midnight showings shortly after that and it grew from there. People started shouting at the screen and then those shouted lines repeated again and again until they practically became a script alongside the movie. By the end of the 1970s, this little film was a late-night darling and audiences were flocking to the theater in costumes again and again. It has actually never officially been pulled from theaters since its release which means that The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the longest theatrical release in movie theater history because it has spent nearly four decades in movie theaters around the world.
People have studied Rocky Horror from a variety of angles, from the community and ritual, it provides to the messages of sexual liberation, bisexuality, and androgyny that the movie sends. Even newcomers to the shows are called "virgins" which mimics Brad and Janet's initiation into queerdom by Frank. Frank is one of the most recognizable and quoted characters in movie history. Even the rest of the characters wind up dressing like Frank at the end of the film.
One more thing - did you know that there is a sequel? Originally O'Brien wrote a script in 1979 called Rocky Horror Shows His Heels, but Curry did not want to reprise the role and director Jim Sharman did not want to revisit it either. Instead, Sharman and O'Brien came together in 1981 to film the unofficial sequel called Shock Treatment (the original title for that was The Brad and Janet Show). This film takes place in the fictional town of Denton and focuses on the goings-on of a TV station there. It feels a little bit like a twisted VHS if I'm being honest about my own critical opinion. The movie was not well-received by critics or fans - probably because most of the original cast was not involved. It also lacks a lot of the fun, freeing sexuality that the first film had which is part of what makes that movie so powerful to so many. There was word of another film in this universe called Revenge of the Old Queen that was never made, but the script does exist online.
The movie remains an absolute classic and there is no doubt that when people get back into the movie theaters, this film will continue to be shown. Have yourself some fun with one of the scenes here:
