Review of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) by Eric L — 30 Jul 2011

This is a bizarre, low-budget freakshow. This is not really even a movie...it's a social anomaly. When it came out in 1975, it was simply ignored as a B-rate WTF movie. Now, people say with some kind of pride the hundreds of times they have seen it. Wow, is that sad.

This movie is supposed to be a parody of B-movies, science fiction movies and horror movies that ran from the 40s into the 70s, primarily Frankenstein. This movie is so bad, it would have been forgotten, never to be spoken of again, had it not been for someone thinking...."Hey let's try and make it a midnight cult movie". So, having midnight showings of anincredibly bad movie takes advantage of the drunk factor. People show up to midnight movies drunk and when the movie fails, the uninhibitd drunks start adding their own dialogue. This is like early MST 3000.

I remember in the early-mid 80s when this movie was at its peak. It was being shown every weekend at the midnight movies in Erie,PA for years. People would watch it over and over again and go to the theatre in costumes and with props. One of the props was a newspaper, but if you took a copy of teh Erie Daily Times instead of the Plain Dealer (which was the paper featured in the movie) you risked being killed a lynch mob.

What happened is that the fans put on a better show than anyting that ever appeared on the screen. Even an audience script was written. The movie sucks so bad that the only way tomake it watchable is for the audience ot add dialogue as tough they are speaking to the characters in the film. So, there would be these regulars that would watch the movie every weekend and do their "own performance". Kindof funny when you think about it.....buying a ticket to go to your own performance.

Somehow the cult phenonmenon continues, but it is toned down now. There are stil some peole out there waiting for a Rocky Horror party so they can don their "Transylvanian Transsexual" costume once again.

This is not a movie you can watch on DVD because without the midnight sideshow of the audience, it is just dumb and forgettable. you know how some people have the TV on in the background when they do other things, like clean their house? That's what this movie is...it is background to the audience's live show.

However, I am not saying in any way that you should watch this "movie". It's bad no matter what, but if you want to see a cult phenomena in action, find a midnight showing of it someplace.

Normally, one can't set out to make something a cult classic....it either becomes one or it doesn't. I'm giving this a generous 20% simly becasue when this totally failed as a movie, a plan B to make it a cult classic worked. That strategy is what impresses me....the movie does not.