The Rocky Horror Picture Show

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) is a cult classic - a transvestite-sci-fi-horror-rock-opera parody and the undisputed king of midnight movies. Other filmmakers have tried to emulate its success, such as Warner Bros. with Little Shop of Horrors, but with only partial success. A run of catchy tunes gives the film momentum, while Charles Gray’s remarkably straight-faced narration holds the freaky lingerie-and-facepaint clad shambles together.

With a screen play written by Jim Sharman and Richard O’Brien (yes, he of The Crystal Maze) the film is based on the British musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show, and it is in the theatre that the whole caboodle really belongs, with the performers and audience joining in a collective send-up. The film remains very much a staged play, and loses much of its giddy appeal when translated to the confines of one’s living room, mainly because the audience - normally participants as well as spectators -  has disappeared. Bearing all that in mind, what better excuse to invite your mates round for a fishnet-clad horror fest, courtesy of the enigmatic Dr. Frank N. Furter?

Fresh-faced Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) and Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) are the newly engaged all-American couple who find themselves with a flat tire on a lonely road one dark and stormy night. Seeking refuge, the two of them topple through a time warp and into a sinister Gothic mansion where the annual Transylvanian Convention is taking place. The mansion is presided over by camper-than-thou Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry), the self-proclaimed “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania”. Surrounded by a hoard of misfit servants including the hunchback butler Riff-Raff, played by Richard O’Brien himself, and his wide-eyed sister Magenta (Patricia Quinn), the mad doctor leads the crowd upstairs to reveal his latest creation, the handsome and muscled Rocky Horror (Peter Hinwood). As night draws in, our young lovers are shown to separate bedrooms, but far from getting a good night’s sleep, both are seduced by a wild array of bizarre, cross-dressing, gender-bending rock and rollers.

Tim Curry, who also starred in the original stage version of Rocky Horror, steals the show with his outrageous apparel and rambunctious sense of fun. The music, choreography and accoutrements are shamelessly hedonistic – a fiercely independent antidote to more wholesome contemporary musical offerings such as Jesus Christ Superstar. If the film has one serious flaw, it is that it fails to keep its momentum from beginning to end. Whilst the uproarious pace never flags, the gags become tired and flat as they are repeated throughout the film, and the atmosphere of the second half is more frenetic than it is out-and-out funny. Nonetheless, the cast and crew give it their best shot, and the film provides a fantastic excuse for unbridled mayhem.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 12:43 pm and is filed under DVD Rental. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.