Why does ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ still resonate 50 years on?

The conflicting, conflicted story is messy, lacking the moral clarity popular today and with neither a hero nor villain or antihero. But as audience responses evolve over time, “Rocky Horror” remains a living document rather than a static piece of art. New York (tca/dpa) – “God said: ‘Let there be lips!’” So the audience shouts as Patricia Quinn’s disembodied, stop-sign-red mouth appears on the big screen, the luscious sneer crooning the opening number of cult film/movie musical “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” First-timers to a “Rocky Horror” midnight screening, which occur regularly at many places in the Pacific Northwest and around the world, would be forgiven for thinking they’d stumbled into an actual cult. Loyalty pledge: check. Special outfits: check. Initiation rites and unison chanting: check and check. Luckily this cult’s primary tenets are about having fun and being yourself, which undercuts the idea of a bad cult in a major way. These popular screenings often feature a shadow cast (more on that later) and both new and veteran attendees filled with rambunctious enthusiasm. How has this 1975 film retained such relevance and resonance for five decades? “Even today you see younger people who maybe aren't able to be their full or true selves at home or in school,” said Aaron Colter , co-owner of Portland’s Clinton Street Theater , which has hosted “Rocky Horror” screenings weekly since April 1978 . “(‘Rocky’) brings outsiders together, shows them community and opens them up to new experiences. That's why we keep it going.” Time warp Richard O’Brien and Jim Sharman’s stage musical “The Rocky Horror Show” opened in London in 1973, and a film adaptation — rechristened “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” — came out in 1975. Tim Curry reprised his stage role as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a “sweet transvestite” from the planet Transylvania, a mad scientist who wears fishnets and a corset under his lab coat and dedicates his lab to building the perfect man. Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon star as Brad and Janet, a naive young engaged couple who stumble on Frank-N-Furter’s creepy manse when their car breaks down in a rainstorm. The film, a campy tribute to rock musicals and the sci-fi and horror B-movies of the 1950s, opened with a thud (as did the stage production’s transfer to Broadway , also in 1975). That all changed when the producers started late-night screenings at the Waverly Theater in New York City’s Greenwich Village . Audience members began showing up dressed as the characters and talking back to the screen, and these callbacks, many of which cannot be printed in this paper, became a kind of secondary script over the years. Soon fans in costume, including a meaningful presence from the LGBTQ+ community, were miming and lip-syncing characters’ lines in front of the film, and the concept of the shadow cast was born. “Don't dream it, be it!” What happens when you attend a shadow cast screening of “Rocky Horror?” Let’s start with what will not happen. You will not just sit quietly and watch the movie. You may not even be able to hear the movie, but that’s hardly the point. Audience participation is encouraged (but optional) and props are plentiful (and often available for purchase). Expect toilet paper flying, newspapers rustling and handfuls of rice raining down. Expect to get on your feet and do “The Time Warp,” a spaced-out sort of line dance, with dance instructions in the lyrics. A shadow cast isn’t a shadow cast without virgin games, said Rin McLaughlin , the stage manager and a performer with Vicarious Theatre Company . The long-running Seattle -based shadow cast performs the first Saturday of every month at the Regal Meridian movie theater in downtown Seattle . These initiation rites, good-natured onstage hazing rituals for first-time attendees, are limited only by a shadow cast’s imagination. (Newcomers under 18, McLaughlin clarified, will recite the Rocky Pledge, a parody of the Pledge of Allegiance that promises dedication to decadence and self-expression.) “We want people to feel as welcome as possible from the very beginning,” said McLaughlin, who first attended Vicarious performances as a middle schooler in the early 2000s and then joined the group as a high schooler. Longstanding relationships with “Rocky Horror” seem to be the rule rather than the exception. Joshua Wood , founder and director of Riff Raff’s Street Rats, a shadow cast troupe that performs all over the Northwest and calls the Tracyton Movie House in Bremerton its home, first saw a “Rocky Horror” shadow cast as a tween in Tacoma , and a lifelong connection was born. For some 15 years, Wood worked with the Blue Mouseketeers at the 100-year-old Blue Mouse Theatre in Tacoma , which still hosts “Rocky” screenings every second and fourth Saturday of the month. He formed Riff Raff’s Street Rats after moving out of Tacoma , and intentionally made it a nonauditioned company. “The beautiful thing about ‘Rocky Horror’ is that there aren't really any barriers to getting involved,” Wood said. More than half of Riff Raff’s shows in recent years, as well as its ongoing monthly shows at West Seattle’s Admiral Theater , raise money for nonprofits or charities. A plaque in the company office, Wood said, reads: Using what we love to make the world a better place. One night after a show in Portland , Wood said, a young man in tears threw his arms around him. He told Wood that he was gay, something he couldn’t tell his strict religious family. “That night shifted my meaning as to why I do this,” Wood said. As might be expected from a film released in 1975, there’s some, shall we say, questionable content in “Rocky Horror,” like some language and sexual trickery that would not pass inspection from a 2025 cultural perspective. The conflicting, conflicted story retains all of its 1970s messiness — Frank-N-Furter, in particular, lacks the moral clarity popular today, and is neither a hero nor a villain or antihero, while also being a genderqueer pioneer. But because audience responses can evolve over time, “Rocky Horror” can remain a living document rather than a static piece of art, in a way that most films can’t. “Just asking questions like, ‘Is this still a fair portrayal of queer people?’ is really healthy,” said Ethereal Rosenblum, a Vicarious performer and the company’s PR manager, who is currently writing their master of fine arts thesis on the horror genre (including “Rocky Horror”) and its impact on the trans community. “There's a lot of open dialogue now,” they said. “If people have a hard boundary about something, we listen, and there are certain jokes that we know not to make.” For example, McLaughlin added, there’s the character of Dr. Scott , who is a wheelchair user in the film. If a company doesn’t have a wheelchair user in the cast, McLaughlin said, they allow that character to be ambulatory, to positive response from their fans from the disability community. That malleability, which applies offstage as much as on, is what keeps “Rocky Horror” alive. As an audience member, your experience is entirely up to you. You want to scream at the screen? Go for it. Prefer to just soak it all in? Also fine! All you have to do is come as you are, whoever that is today, and you’re part of a worldwide community that has been gathering to celebrate self-expression for 50 years. As the show demands, in its lyrics: “Don't dream it, be it!” The following information is not intended for publication dpa tca arw

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