When we’re talking cult movies, it doesn’t get much more cultish than this. Almost to a literal level, as we’ll get to. For half a century now the Rocky Horror Picture show has dominated late night screenings, seen spinoffs and stage productions, and even bred its own holy scripture of audience participation. At a glance it’s not hard to see why—you have young sexy Tim Curry already reaching his olympian heights of hamminess (and that’s saying something), with catchy songs and demented production to go with it—but for those not initiated into the cult, how does this one actually hold up?
Firstly, if your main thing is strong narratives…well this one isn’t really for you. It’s all about the vibes here essentially—those ranging from homages to the old B-movies and horror flicks of yesteryear, like Universal’s Frankenstein to Plan 9 from Outer Space, to of course the theme of uncovering sexuality and all that comes with it. This was made in that era when LGBT presentation was coming into the limelight, and while it’s dated of course in a few aspects, you can see it as an expression of such things now breaking free.
Secondly, if camp isn’t your thing…this one really, really, really isn’t for you! To put it this way, early on we’re introduced to an unbelievably sequin-esque dance number that even has Charles Grey joining in to jump to the left (and take a jump to the right)…and then, only after all of this has finished, does Tim Curry enter the scene in garterbelts to deliver the movie’s signature song. And it absolutely, utterly, does not relent from there!
Well, to give more context, our story starts off about two engaged young people (Susan Sarandon and Barry Botswick) running afoul of a flat in a storm and entering an odd castle to try and use the phone. They never get to that phone, nor does one ever appear I think. Instead, they get sucked into the demented antics of Curry as a doctor who ends up creating Frankenstein-style his own, erm, boy-toy I guess in the form of Rocky Horror himself (Peter Hinwood), and things swerve around from there from musical number to musical number. It’s that kind of film.
Now, what we do have here is the secret to success for fifty years, and that’s the utterly unabashed energy the film has. The film didn’t give a damn then, and it still doesn’t now. Sure, there some representation and terminology that’s dated, but it doesn’t hugely matter—it’s that combination of mania and cheese that give rise to whole ranks of theatregoers who basically add their own unified running commentary to the film that’s more than codified now. It’s…probably worth watching the film by yourself first just to avoid your eardrums attacked, but at the same time, there’s not much to compare to people being pulled together by something that’s just so damn keen to have fun with itself.
And that’s the key to it all, and why the cult of Rocky Horror still finds new adherents to this day. There’s still not a whole lot like it, and for something more fun for spooky season, well, you won’t find much more iconic crowdpleasers than this!
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