I think its fair to say that Rocky Horror Picture Show has become more of a phenomenon than just being a simple film. Even to this day, the film version of the Rocky Horror Show has a very large and very publicly proud international cult following that spawned from the story’s style, visuals, and music. Fans would happily dress in gender-bending costumes, lines and songs were easily quoted, its even home to its own cinema experience; becoming a ‘midnight movie’ where audiences participate with the film by talking back to the film, singing along with the songs and interacting with it as much as a 4D movie experience. Its easy to say that it is one of the most beloved musical film property ever to be put to cinema, but how does the actual movie itself fair out? Recently newlywed couple Brad and Janet (played by Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) get stuck out in the rain with a flat tire and find themselves to a mysterious mansion where a huge party seems to be going on. The host of the party and owner of the mansion, a transvestite named Dr Frank-N-Furter (played famously by Tim Curry) reveals that he plans to construct the perfect man figure by tapping into ‘’the secret of life itself’’, creating his own boy-toy, Rocky (played by Peter Hinwood). Stuck in a literal madhouse, the young couple both find themselves terrified and slightly attracted to the devilish doctor and this lust begins to tear them both apart, resulting in them questioning whether or not whatever they are experience is even real. Starting off as a musical by Richard O’Brien in 1973, though it was panned by critics, Rocky Horror Picture Show never feels like its trying to be subtle about its message, visuals or motifs and instead has fun with how crazy and overwhelming the entire experience can be. Overall, this leaves a lot of cinematic elements not working as strongly, but arguably still works for fans who just want to get up and do the Time Warp.

The film was very heavily inspired by classic science fiction and B horror movies, with visuals, concepts, and dialogue feeling like a homage to several famous movies within that genre. The creator said he wanted to combine elements of the ”unintentional humor of B horror movies, portentous dialogue of schlock-horror, Steve Reeves muscle films, and fifties style rock and roll”. That mixed with the very apparent theme of transvestism, it leaves the film with an incredibly distinct identity while also having a ton of familiar ideas and allusions to movies like Dracula, The Haunting, and especially Frankenstein. The entire movie is nothing short of a roller coaster ride; its hard to guess the next thing that’s going to happen and its fair to say that most people would not expect the film’s second act to turn out like it does. It has a sporadic nature and overly extreme visual style that feels akin to an 80s style music video and portrays an equal amount of passion. Weirdly enough what works for the stage show is what ultimately doesn’t work for this movie, however. The initial concept for the movie is surprisingly brilliant; being able to be both a satire, a parody, and an original story all at the same time with a distinct visual style, musical numbers and enough creative ideas that work for both comedy and horror, the story for this property could be fantastic as a gothic horror comedy, but its not suited for a film, its suited for a musical experience. The premise of two naïve lovers becoming seduced by a confronting ambiguous figure like the Doctor feels something straight out of a gothic novel, and with enough tweaking around the pacing, it could be a really engaging experience that both mocks and incorporates a lot of the pre-listed themes. However, the movie is more focused on being an off-the-walls random experience instead of an actual movie. This throws out all of its good will and leaves the last act dragging on for way too long; the first section of the film is set up pretty well, but with randomness comes a sense of predictability if it goes on too long and that’s exactly what happens.

All the characters are clear staples for the kind of movie genre that the entire product is basing itself off of; the two leads are typical B-movie characters, Frank-N-Furter is a clear reference to Frankenstein (even creating his own monster) and all the remaining people all dress and act so over-the-top, they could fit into any old-fashion sci-fi movie. This tone that the characters have been placed into allows the acting to be a bit more over-the-top than usual and leads to a few more memorable performances; the leads are fine, the extras are appropriately crazy and the sporadic music cameos have a lot of fun energy. The main star of the movie is obviously Tim Curry as the mad doctor and he feels completely comfortable in that get-up, mainly because he’s become associated with the character plenty of times due to playing him in the original premier of the musical. His attitude and prissy upper-class nature just feel remarkably ‘’feminine’’ and it is a complete ball to watch from beginning to end. It is again quite tragic as his character could easily work as not only a parody of Frankenstein, but also a legitimately good gothic villain who manipulates and tricks both genders in order to get sexual favors from both, while being the devil in either’s ear to tear them away from the other. Even after discovering his true identity and what his real motivation is, e could have been an legitimately great interesting villain, but he instead works as a largely entertaining joke character.

The music for the movie has a lot of spice and energy to its melodies and lyrics. While all the numbers aren’t the most impressive (the last third doesn’t really have anything worth remembering), the first two thirds has a lot of pretty solid music that not only has very catchy beats and rhythms that never feel designated to one specific style, but the lack of story actually benefits the product in this instances as it lets the music just be fun for fun sakes, which works great for getting people up and active. The movie’s dedication to mirror the style and feel of a Hammer Horror movie is so detailed and shows clear love. The entire area feels appropriately gothic in nature yet matched with the extreme energy and bright color palette that the film is incredibly proud of, it somehow works wonderfully by being a complete opposite to the original intent. Much like good satire, it needs to understand the elements of the specific genre in order to properly do the opposite, resulting in the film’s overly flamboyant, yet intricately designed sets and costumes. The make-up for all the characters is so glittery and artistic that it calls back to traditionally extravagant singers like Mick Jagger and David Bowie (mainly because the make-up artist for the film was Pierre La Roche, a previous worker for both). Every costume for the movie is detailed with such a perfect amount of kitschiness and campiness that it stands out, yet still holds routes to several classic Hammer movies and sci-fi movies which provides a nice blend.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is about as much of a cluster of a experience as it should be and its still incredibly hard to figure out exactly what to do with it. For an actual movie, it feels like removing the physical nature of having the stage right in front of you really takes away from the overall experience, as the show clearly wants to involve the audience as much as possible, which is why it got itself its own interactive cinema viewing. If people were to watch it without getting super into it, the cracks for this ‘movie’ would be a little bit more noticeable and the potential would be a bit more wasted. These themes and ideas could be fantastic as a classic gothic story with a mixture of several old-fashioned genres and being both a horror and comedy at the same time, but instead the experience came front and centre, which left the movie feeling pretty plot-less, the characters pretty shallow, and the third act going on for way too long. Its ironic that this movie falls into such an alien area that its hard to determine who and how to like this movie. If you can get into this style of movie and enjoy dressing up and participating along with the movie, it will be exactly what you’re looking for, but if you see this as anything more than a property that requires no thinking and only reactive unrestrained energy, it won’t be exactly what you looking for. Still, even if the movie is impossible to pin down, Time Warp is still pretty fun.