Plot
This low-budget freak show/cult classic/cultural institution concerns the misadventures of Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) inside a strange mansion that they come across on a rainy night. After the wholesome pair profess their love through an opening song, their car breaks down in the woods, and they seek refuge in a towering castle nearby. Greeting them at the door is a ghoulish butler named Riff Raff (Richard O'Brien), who introduces them to a bacchanalian collection of partygoers dressed in outfits from some sort of interplanetary thrift shop. The host of this gathering is a transvestite clad in lingerie, Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry), a mad scientist who claims to be from another planet. With assistants Columbia (Nell Campbell) and Magenta (Patricia Quinn) looking on, Frank unveils his latest creation -- a figure wrapped in gauze and submerged in a tank full of liquid. With the addition of colored dyes and some assistance from the weather, Frank brings to life a blonde young beefcake wearing nothing but skimpy shorts, who launches into song in his first minute of life. Just when Brad and Janet think things couldn't get any stranger, a biker (Meat Loaf) bursts onto the scene to reclaim Columbia, his ex-girlfriend. When Frank kills the biker, it's clear that Brad and Janet will be guests for the night, and that they may be next on Frank's list -- whether for murder or carnal delights is uncertain. And just what is that mystery meat they're eating for dinner, anyway? In addition to playing Riff Raff, O'Brien wrote the catchy songs, with John Barry and Richard Hartley composing the score. ~ Derek Armstrong, RoviReview
The shining textbook example of a film so bad it's good, writer/director Jim Sharman's The Rocky Horror Picture Show owns an absolutely unique place in film history, loosely considered the longest-running film of all time. This bawdy and cut-rate Frankenstein story became the definition of "cult classic" when theaters worldwide began offering midnight screenings (a tradition that continues today), attracting legions of decked-out fans to shout lines and throw rice at the screen, often while live performers acted out the plot. The film was quickly enveloped in kitsch, and since has become a well-known phenomenon frequently re-created on-stage, partly on the strength of such gonzo (and overtly sexual) musical numbers as "The Time Warp" and "Sweet Transvestite." The sets and production values are head-shakingly crude, the plot is an absurd haunted house fantasy about transsexual aliens, the writing is so clunky that fans created a supplemental dialogue of sarcastic retorts, and the performances constitute the highest possible camp. But that's what makes it all a dizzy and subversive treat: a melange of poor decisions that equal one outrageous unit of bad cinema. In his first screen role, Tim Curry leads the way and sets a new standard for overacting as the flamboyant mad scientist Frank-N-Furter, with a cast of freakishly dressed bit players filling out the halls of his demented castle, among them singer Meat Loaf. Those unfamiliar with the movie may be surprised to see Susan Sarandon and (to a lesser extent) Barry Bostwick as the impossibly square and terminally heterosexual WASP couple who stumble upon the madness after their car breaks down. Neither a boon nor a specific hindrance to any of the careers involved, The Rocky Horror Picture Show exists as a solitary achievement in unintentional wretchedness, which has earned it slavish devotion and cinematic immortality. ~ Derek Armstrong, RoviCast
- Tim Curry - Dr. Frank-N-Furter
- Susan Sarandon - Janet Weiss
- Barry Bostwick - Brad Majors
- Richard O'Brien - Riff Raff
- Jonathan Adams - Dr. Everett V. Scott
Credit
Terry Ackland-Snow - Art Director, John Goldstone - Associate Producer, Daivd Toguri - Choreography, Sue Blane - Costume Designer, Richard Pointing - Costume Designer, Gillian Dods - Costume Designer, Mike Gowans - First Assistant Director, Jim Sharman - Director, Graeme Clifford - Editor, Lou Adler - Executive Producer, Richard Hartley - Musical Direction/Supervision, Richard O'Brien - Songwriter, Brian Thomson - Production Designer, Peter Suschitzky - Cinematographer, Michael White - Producer, Wally Veevers - Special Effects, Jim Sharman - Screenwriter, Richard O'Brien - Screenwriter, Richard O'Brien - Play Author| The Rockville Slayer (2004 Film), The Rockstar Interviews: '80s New Wave (2009 Film) | |
| The Rocky Road (1910 Film), The Rodgers and Hart Story (1998 Film) |
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