The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

director: Jim Sharman
starring: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Richard O’Brien
country: England
genre: musical horror comedy

the plot:

On a dark and stormy night, a stranded couple find themselves at a castle where strange happenings are conducted by Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a sweet transvestite from transexual, Transylvania.

why the cult:

It’s got singing, dancing, and men in fishnets, with some of it in the movie theater itself. It’s the first movie people think of when hearing the term “cult film”. Dismissed by critics and audiences during it’s initial release, it eventually found a following as small groups of loyal fans turned screenings into an interactive experience and the film grew into a global phenomenon. Full of catchy songs and a star-making performance by Tim Curry, it’s a weird, sleazy, and transgressive product of it’s time that is now owned and distributed by Disney.

other viewing suggestions:

  • Director Sharman and writer O’Brien created a semi-sequel with Shock Treatment (1981), but it failed to connect with fans, although it has a minor cult following.
  • Phantom of the Paradise (1974) by Brian De Palma is a rock musical of the same vintage. It too was ignored by critics and the public at the time, but grew into a sizable, though not-as-big, rival cult.
  • The Apple (1980), Can’t Stop the Music (1980), and Xanadu (1980), are all odd-ball campy musical box-office bombs that could use audience participation to make them watchable.
  • Fame (1980) features a sequence at a Rocky Horror screening.
  • Tommy Wiseau’s The Room (2003) is the first film post-Rocky Horror to ignite audiences to turn screenings into happenings. Since then, Showgirls (1995) has started to create a similar reaction.
  • The Sound of Music (1965), the tonal opposite to Rocky Horror, has recently had successful studio-sanctioned “sing-a-long” screenings.
  • There have be performances of “The Dunwich Horror Picture Show” involving a screening of The Dunwich Horror (1970) with live musicians, performers and audience interaction.
  • The basic set-up of the film is the “old dark house” scenario, best represented by James Whale’s The Old Dark House (1932).
  • The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Flash Gordon (1936), The Invisible Man (1933), King Kong (1933), It Came from Outer Space (1953), Doctor X (1932), Forbidden Planet (1956), Tarantula (1955), The Day of the Triffids (1962), Curse of the Demon (1957), and When Worlds Collide (1951) are films reference in the opening number, “Science Fiction/Double Feature”.

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