In 1975, Richard O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” based off his stage musical “The Rocky Horror Show” saw its release in theaters. Though it went largely unfavored by critics, it soon garnered a cult following at midnight showings where fans would dress as the characters and shout back at the screen, a following that was not at all unwarranted.
Armed with an impressive cast–notably, Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Barry Bostwick as Brad Majors, Susan Sarandon as his fiance Janet Weiss, and featuring Meat Loaf as the rock and roll styled Eddie–Rocky Horror is a love letter to oddity and a send-up of classic B movies in both the horror and science fiction genres as it tells the tale of a newly engaged couple and their involvement with a mysterious doctor, his henchmen, and his greatest creation yet: Rocky.
As the narrator, a criminologist knowledgeable on the mysterious disappearance of the couple, tells us, Brad and Janet are the ideal couple from a picturesque little town who get engaged moments after the wedding of a mutual friend concludes. Traveling home and breaking down on the side of the road during a storm, they walk to a nearby castle in search of a phone. Instead of this, they meet the hunchbacked Riff Raff and his sister Magenta as well as the colorful Columbia who lead the Time Warp instead of offering any real help.
“I’m cold, I’m wet, and I’m just plain scared!” Janet admits, backing into an elevator and meeting the party’s eccentric host. This is Frank-N-Furter. Black fishnets and a corset, pearls around his neck, he is, in his own words, “a sweet transvestite.” Gleefully, he brings Janet and Brad, now divulged of their clothes, up to his lab where he unveils to the whole party the marvel that is Rocky. Imagine Frankenstein’s monster, but this time he’s a pure Adonis in a tight gold speedo. That’s Rocky, Frank’s beautiful companion with exactly half a brain.
Over the course of the night, Frank commits cold-blooded murder of Eddie, the delivery boy who’s partial brain is in Rocky’s head, seduces both Janet and Brad, and watches as Janet wins Rocky’s affections before he can. With the arrival of Doctor Scott, the high school science teacher who introduced Brad and Janet, everyone is joined over a very tense dinner where, after the true source of their meal is revealed, everyone scatters. Frank, sick of everyone ruining his attempts at hospitality, transforms them all into statues. “It’s not easy having a good time,” he explains as if clarifying everything he’s done, “even smiling makes my face ache.”
From here, in the last moments of the film, everything gets stranger. The statues are unfrozen to perform a burlesque number that culminates inside a swimming pool and, to follow this up, aliens that have been here the whole time make themselves known and announce their long-kept plans resulting in the destruction of the castle, several deaths, and a return to their home planet. All of this occurs at the echo of the message, “don’t dream it; be it.”
And that really just is the joy of Rocky Horror, it’s ruthless embracement of everything strange played so straightforward that it’s impossible to look away. Here is a film embracing the weird there already is and churning out more in return at every corner and opportunity for a result that is so magnificently strange in its own right. The film’s last song, Superheroes, sums it up well with its idea that meaning has been lost as “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is certainly not without such, but is easy to view as open-ended nonsense.
The best part is that encouragement because at its core this is a moral tragedy disguised as a campy musical comedy centered around the idea that the things we love and consume can just as easily despise and consume us in return. Whether those things be the “absolute pleasure” Frank insists his guests give themselves over to or the bland sensation of reality that Brad and Janet walk into the castle with and leave at the door, it’s a guarantee that such stagnation will lead to cosmic ruin. To embrace the unusual and curious is what this story is all about. Doing so within ourselves and outwardly as well is the way to prevent collapse, so it goes, though it should be hoped your collapse it less literal than the one this picture ends on.
All in all, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is such triumphant fun to view. The songs are catchy, the dialogue is quotable, the characters are obscenely memorable, the story is shamelessly unique. Though it has been over forty years since it’s release, it’s no harsh wonder as to the vastness of it’s staying power.
The Monadnock International Film Festival is hosting a “FUNdraiser” and screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in Peterborough Thursday, Oct.24, from 9 p.m. to midnight.