The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Last night I partook in a ritual that has been done for almost forty years: attending a midnight show of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The film itself isn't that good, but it has established a niche in a category almost to its self: the interactive movie.

The film, based on the stage musical by Richard O'Brien, was released in 1975 to almost total disinterest. Somehow, over the ensuing months, it turned into a cult classic. Audiences, perhaps bored by what was going on on screen, began shouting back to the film. People started coming in costume. "Cast" members acted out the film in front of the screen. Props were used to punctuate moments in the film.

This started in New York City, but soon spread to all over the country, making the film one of the most successful of its kind. I attended the show in New Jersey somewhere in the late '70s, but went with a group last night, including some who had never been before. It was fascinating, and somewhat heartening, to see young people who weren't even a gleam in their parents' eyes when the film was first released have continued the tradition, coming in costume and shouting at the screen.

The film itself is a valentine to the sci-fi and horror B-movies of the '50s that O'Brien loved. It has a bland couple, Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) having car trouble on a rainy night. They come by a castle looking to use a phone. They are let in by Riff Raff (O'Brien), who is a kind of Igor figure, and see that a party of weird people is going on. Later they meet the master, Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry), a scientist who just happens to be a transsexual. He has created a beautifully muscled man, Rocky of the title.

The rest of the film's plot doesn't really hold together: Curry sleeps with both Bostwick and Sarandon, which might have been shocking forty years ago but seems tame now, and Sarandon takes solace in the arms of Rocky. Other characters pop up, such as Eddie (Meat Loaf), and the whole thing is narrated by a distinguished British criminologist (Charles Gray).

The film's plot doesn't really matter. What does matter is the colorful characters and their bizarre costumes, and the songs, most of which are pretty good. I think everyone knows "Time Warp," which amusingly has the stuffy Gray showing how the steps work. I love the opening theme, "Science Fiction/Double Feature," sung by O'Brien but the screen in a tight close up of a pair of female lips swathed in crimson.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been released on home video, and I've watched the DVD, but it really doesn't work without a raucous audience. Over the years the interaction has been codified--Brad is called an asshole, Janet a slut. When Brad says, "Great Scott!" patrons throw toilet paper into the air. I never envied the clean-up crew after a showing, but some things have given way over the years. At the screening last night, there was no food products allowed. This means that in the early wedding scene we couldn't throw rice, and late in the film, when Furter calls for a toast, singed slices of bread were not hurled in the air.

As I've only seen this film twice in a theater, I'm hardly an expert. Some have seen it hundreds and hundreds of times, and have created a community. The Vegas screening was held by a group called Frankie's Favorite Obsession, a group of twentysomethings that probably like offbeat films, graphic novels, and Dungeons and Dragons and know every line of the film. I don't know want to be one of them, but it makes me glad that they're out there.