The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 independent[6][7] musical comedy horror film produced by Lou Adler and Michael White, directed by Jim Sharman, and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. The screenplay was written by Sharman and actor Richard O'Brien, who is also a member of the cast. The film is based on the 1973 musical stage production The Rocky Horror Show, with music, book, and lyrics by O'Brien. The production is a tribute to the science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1960s. Along with O'Brien, the film stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick and is narrated by Charles Gray, with cast members from the original Royal Court Theatre, Roxy Theatre, and Belasco Theatre productions, including Nell Campbell and Patricia Quinn.
For other uses, see The Rocky Horror Picture Show (disambiguation).The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Richard O'Brien
- Jim Sharman
The Rocky Horror Show
by Richard O'Brien
- Richard Hartley
- Songs:
- Richard O'Brien
- 14 August 1975 (United Kingdom)
- 26 September 1975 (United States)
English
$1.4 million[4]
$170 million[5]
The story centres on a young engaged couple whose car breaks down in the rain near a castle, where they search for help. The castle is occupied by strangers in elaborate costumes celebrating. They discover the head of the house is Dr. Frank N. Furter, an apparently mad scientist, who creates a living muscle man named Rocky. Frank seduces the couple and it is finally revealed he is actually an alien transvestite from the planet Transsexual in the galaxy of Transylvania.
The film was shot in the United Kingdom at Bray Studios and on location at an old country estate named Oakley Court, best known for its earlier use by Hammer Film Productions. A number of props and set pieces were reused from the Hammer horror films. Although the film is both a parody of and tribute to many kitsch science fiction and horror films, costume designer Sue Blane conducted no research for her designs. Blane has claimed that her creations for the film directly affected the development of punk rock fashion trends, such as torn fishnet stockings and colourfully dyed hair.[8]
Initial reception was extremely negative, but it soon became a hit as a midnight movie, when audiences began participating with the film at the Waverly Theater in New York City in 1976. Audience members returned to the cinemas frequently and talked back to the screen and began dressing as the characters, spawning similar performance groups across the United States. At almost the same time, fans in costume began performing alongside the film. This "shadow cast" mimed the actions on screen above and behind them, while lip-synching their characters' lines.
Still in limited release in 2024, some 48 years after its premiere, it is the longest-running theatrical release in film history. In many cities, live amateur shadow-casts act out the film as it is being shown and heavily draw upon a tradition of audience participation.[9] The film is most often shown close to Halloween. Today, the film has a large international cult following and has been considered by many as one of the greatest musical films of all time. In 2005, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Plot[edit]
The film begins with a pair of floating disembodied lips welcoming the audience to a science fiction double feature ("Science Fiction/Double Feature"). Throughout the film, a criminologist from an unspecified point in the future narrates and provides commentary on the events.
In November 1974, following the wedding of their friends, a naïve young couple, Brad Majors and Janet Weiss, get engaged and decide to celebrate with their high school science teacher Dr. Scott, who taught the class where they first met ("Dammit Janet"). En route to Scott's house on a dark and rainy night, they get lost with a flat tire. Seeking a telephone to call for help, the couple walks to a nearby castle ("Over at the Frankenstein Place") where a party is being held. They are accepted in by the strangely dressed inhabitants, led by the butler Riff Raff, the maid Magenta, and a groupie named Columbia, who dance to "The Time Warp". Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite mad scientist, introduces himself and invites them to stay for the night ("Sweet Transvestite").
With the help of Riff Raff, Frank brings to life a tall, muscular, handsome blond man named Rocky ("The Sword of Damocles"). As Frank vows he can improve Rocky into an ideal man in a week ("I Can Make You a Man"), a head-bandaged motorcyclist named Eddie breaks out of a deep freeze ("Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul"). Frank kills Eddie with an ice axe, justifying it as a "mercy killing". Rocky and Frank depart for the bridal suite. ("I Can Make You a Man (Reprise)")
Brad and Janet are shown to separate bedrooms, where each is visited and seduced by Frank. Meanwhile, Riff Raff and Magenta torment Rocky, who flees the suite. Janet, having learned of Brad's dalliance with Frank, discovers Rocky cowering in his birth tank. While tending to his wounds, Janet seduces Rocky as Magenta and Columbia watch from their bedroom monitor ("Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me").
Dr. Scott, now a government investigator of UFOs, comes to the castle in search of his nephew Eddie, who sent him a letter implying part of his brain was removed by aliens. Everyone discovers Janet and Rocky together, enraging Frank. Magenta summons everyone to an uncomfortable dinner, which they soon realize has been prepared from Eddie's mutilated remains ("Eddie"). In the chaos, Janet runs screaming into Rocky's arms, provoking a jealous Frank to chase her through the halls to the lab, where he uses his Medusa Transducer to turn Dr. Scott, Brad, Janet, Rocky, and Columbia into nude statues ("Planet Schmanet Janet/Wise Up Janet Weiss"/"Planet Hotdog").
After dressing the statues in cabaret costumes, Frank "unfreezes" them and leads them in a live cabaret floor show, complete with an RKO tower and a swimming pool ("Rose Tint My World"/"Don't Dream It, Be It"/"Wild and Untamed Thing"). Riff Raff and Magenta interrupt, and announce that due to Frank's extravagance, they are declaring mutiny and returning to their home planet of Transsexual, Transylvania. Frank makes a desperate final plea ("I'm Going Home") but is ignored as Riff Raff kills both him and Columbia with a laser. An enraged Rocky climbs the tower with Frank's body, and, after several shots from the laser, plunges to his death. The castle lifts off into space; Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott are left crawling in the smog and dirt as the criminologist concludes that the human race is equivalent to insects crawling on the planet's surface: "lost in time, and lost in space... and meaning" ("Super Heroes").
Jeremy Newson and Hilary Labow play Brad and Janet's newlywed friends Ralph and Betty Hapschatt. The guests at both the Hapschatt wedding and Frank's convention consist of Perry Bedden, Christopher Biggins, Gaye Brown, Ishaq Bux, Stephen Calcutt, Hugh Cecil, Imogen Claire, Tony Cowan, Sadie Corré, Fran Fullenwider, Lindsay Ingram, Peggy Ledger, Annabel Leventon, Anthony Milner, Pamela Obermeyer, Tony Then, Kimi Wong, and Henry Woolf, as well as an uncredited Rufus Collins.
Reception[edit]
Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert noted that when first released, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was "ignored by pretty much everyone, including the future fanatics who would eventually count the hundreds of times they'd seen it". He considered it more a "long-running social phenomenon" than a movie, rating it 2.5 out of 4 stars and describing Curry as "the best thing in the movie, maybe because he seems to be having the most fun" but thinking the story would work better performed on stage for a live audience.[57] Bill Henkin noted that Variety thought that the "campy hijinks" of the film seemed labored, and also mentioned that the San Francisco Chronicle's John Wasserman, who had liked the stage play in London, found the film "lacking both charm and dramatic impact". Newsweek, in 1978, called the film "tasteless, plotless and pointless".[58]
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 80% based on 49 reviews, and an average grade of 6.9/10, with the critical consensus reading "The Rocky Horror Picture Show brings its quirky characters in tight, but it's the narrative thrust that really drives audiences insane and keeps 'em doing the time warp again".[59] A number of contemporary critics find it compelling and enjoyable because of its offbeat and bizarre qualities; the BBC summarised: "for those willing to experiment with something a little bit different, a little bit outré, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has a lot to offer."[60] The New York Times called it a "low-budget freak show/cult classic/cultural institution" with "catchy" songs.[61] Geoff Andrew, of Time Out, noted that the "string of hummable songs gives it momentum, Gray's admirably straight-faced narrator holds it together, and a run on black lingerie takes care of almost everything else", rating it 4 out of 5 stars.[62] On the other hand, Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader considered the wit to be "too weak to sustain a film" and thought that the "songs all sound the same".[63]
In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[64][65]
Sequel[edit]
O'Brien drafted a sequel titled Rocky Horror Shows His Heels in 1979. This script featured the return of all of the characters from the original film, and O'Brien wished to reunite the original production team. But Sharman did not wish to revisit the original concept so directly, nor did Tim Curry wish to reprise his role.
Instead, Sharman reunited with O'Brien to film Shock Treatment in 1981, a stand-alone feature with little continuity from the original film.[2] Initially conceived and scripted in 1980 as The Brad and Janet Show, the film repurposed several songs from the earlier Rocky Horror Shows His Heels project with lyrical adjustments, and depicting the characters' continuing adventures in the town of Denton. Production was forced to adjust amidst the Screen Actors Guild strike; eventually the entire film was shot on a single sound stage. Shock Treatment was poorly received by critics and audiences upon release (largely due to the absence of Curry, Sarandon, and Bostwick) but over time has built its own niche following.[93]
O'Brien revisited the notion for a direct RHPS sequel in 1991, writing Revenge of the Old Queen.[94] Producer Michael White had hoped to begin work on the production and described the script as being "in the same style as the other one. It has reflections of the past in it."[95] Revenge of the Old Queen commenced pre-production; however, after studio head Joe Roth was ousted from Fox in 1993, the project was shelved indefinitely. Although the script went unpublished, bootleg copies have leaked online, and a song from the original demo tape circulates among fans. The script remains the property of Fox, producer of the two prior films, and remains unlikely to be revived.[96]
Between 1999 and 2001, O'Brien was working on a third attempted sequel project with the working title Rocky Horror: The Second Coming,[97] intended as a stage production, with an option to adapt to film if met with success. This script integrated plot elements from Rocky Horror Shows His Heels paired with all-new songs. O'Brien completed a first draft of this script (which was read by Terry Jones[98]) but had difficulties finalizing anything beyond the first act, and development went dormant.
O'Brien produced Shock Treatment for the theatrical stage with a premiere at the King's Head Theatre in Islington, London in spring 2015.[99][100]