The Rocky Horror Picture Show |
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) is a comedy horror musical film directed by Jim Sharman from a screenplay by Sharman and Richard O'Brien, who also composed the songs. The film was based on O'Brien's long-running stage
production The Rocky Horror Show.
The film stars Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry. Nell Campbell, Patricia Quinn, Peter Hinwood, Jonathan Adams, Charles Gray and O'Brien are featured
in supporting roles, and rock singer Meat Loaf makes a brief appearance.
Warning: Plot details
follow.
The story begins with a straitlaced couple, Brad Majors (Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Sarandon) pledging their engagement
immediately after serving as attendants at their friends' wedding. At this point a narrator (Gray) appears to provide some
exposition of the plot, as he will do throughout the film. The action returns to the young couple: while on their way to pay a
visit to their academic mentor, Dr. Everett von Scott (Adams), they have a flat tire and stop at a remote castle in the woods to use the telephone. In the castle, Dr.
Frank N. Furter (Curry), a gender-bending scientist from the planet
Transexual in the galaxy of Transylvania, is giving a party to celebrate the creation of Rocky Horror (Hinwood), a new strongman playmate. However, the Doctor's former companion, Eddie (Meat Loaf), is
forgotten, but not gone, and furthermore the other inhabitants of the castle (Campbell, Quinn, O'Brien) have their own plans for
both the Doctor and his creation...
Taken at face value, the film could be considered as ground-breaking for its frank (albeit comical) depiction of subjects such
as transvestism, homosexuality, and cannibalism. In addition, the scripting and design displays the writers' knowledge of the
history of cinema even beyond the horror and science fiction film genres; for example, there are references to films as diverse as What's Up, Doc?,
Rope, and Triumph of the Will.
Cult following
Nonetheless, the film is primarily known for the cult following which
developed as the film began playing at midnight, first at the Waverly Theater in New York City.
People began shouting responses to the characters' statements on the screen (including
abuse of the characters or actors, vulgar sex jokes, puns, or pop culture references). Casts of fans dress up as the characters
and act out the movie in front of the screen. Other audience participation includes dancing the Time Warp, throwing toast, water, toilet paper, and rice at
the appropriate points in the movie (many theaters forbid throwing things that are difficult to clean up, such as confetti or buttered toast). What were originally ad lib responses from the
audience are now, in some locales, as tightly scripted as any screenplay, with audience members who provide "incorrect" responses
angrily shouted down just as if they were being disruptive in a normal movie. However, this is certainly not true of every
location, and new audience responses are regularly added to the canon in many communities (for example the introduction of
references to Timmy, a character from
South Park who first appeared in 2000).
Although the Waverly Theater is currently closed for renovations, one theater in in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and another in Portland, Oregon have played the movie weekly since 1978. A cinema in Munich, Germany has been playing the movie every single night since
about 1990. Some 'arthouse' cinemas will have a tradition of regularly playing the film on a particular date, such as Halloween.
A "sequel" of sorts (Brad and Janet are the central characters, but played by different actors, and O'Brien, Quinn, Campbell
and Gray are featured, but play different characters) to the film, called Shock Treatment, was made, but
despite its appeal to cult audiences and campy nature, it has not caught on as much as the original.
There have been audience participation albums recorded and scripts published. However, it is generally felt that, while there
are good lines in those, it is preferable to use those responses and lines which have grown organically from the local culture.
For example, the audience members in Salt Lake City have utilized
frequent references to the Mormon church and the Brigham Young University.
External links
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