Help me understand the Rocky Horror Picture Show

[Anonymous]

I saw it in the 80s in a college town. What was so great was that there were some performative elements that were basically static (the toast). There were others that were developed communally and organically. So I can’t remember them anymore but there were things about Reaganomifs and stuff mocking the Greelc culture at the local university. It was just the ultimate counter culture party that anyone was invited to. I saw it again in the 90s someplace that did not show it regularly and it was a real drag because the audience didn’t have a real life to it.

[Anonymous]

As an aside, can we bring back Barry Bostwick? He is so great. Remember him on Spin City?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tim Curry in drag is so hot.

Susan Sarandon was super hot too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teenager in the 90s from a conservative religious family, it was incredibly fun. But at the time there was nothing like it—and it was my only real exposure to camp, drag culture, etc. It can’t possibly play the same outsized cultural role anymore, and it’s really a young person’s thing.

I was excited to go see it in 1987 at college because I had seen kids spontaneously dancing the Time Warp at a theater conference.

Not going to lie. I found the movie totally crappy and people throwing stuff and screaming stuff didn't make it more fun. It felt like a Boomer thing that was played out even back then.

Clearly it was an early "public acceptance" entertainment phenomenon for the LGBTQIA community. I get that. Due to my age though, my friends who were out at that time were not the types who favored camp, drag, etc.

So not my scene at all.

I did get a bit of a smile when Glee used some of the content.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the appeal of this movie.

You don't watch the movie. You watch the crowd.

[Anonymous]

Steps to understand RHPS:

1) jump to the left
2) then step to the right
3) put your hands on your hips
4) bring your knees in tight

[Anonymous]

Didn’t people also throw rice at the wedding?

[Anonymous]

I am super into camp and open minded, I swear, and had seen the movie itself several times. So I went to see it in the theater so I could experience the whole crowd phenomenon. I found it to be extremely dated and borderline offensive honestly. They force the “virgins” to do extremely uncomfortable sexual things in front of a jeering crowd - there were a couple of young women who looked like they were to cry. And then the whole time, people (mostly men) would yell things at the screen. Some of them were funny and all of them were well times but many of them were things that would have been funny 20 years ago and now we know better. I would have left if I had thought it was safe - we felt trapped.

[Anonymous]

DH and I watched this with DD when she was 11 or 12. Forgot how adult the content was! There’s basically an underwater orgy at the end. Needless to say, she didn’t enjoy it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the appeal of this movie.

+1 same. It’s incredibly stupid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the appeal of this movie.

+1 same. It’s incredibly stupid!

Agree. Same with Monty Python. Nowhere near as good as people claim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the appeal of this movie.

+1 same. It’s incredibly stupid!

Agree. Same with Monty Python. Nowhere near as good as people claim.

Hey now 😂 I’m an earlier poster and Monty Python diehard. But that aside, the movie itself is glorious if you like that sort of thing. The experience of seeing it in the theater was shockingly horrendous.

[Anonymous]

I went to see it a few times back in the 80s. I can't believe people are still doing this!

[Anonymous]

Its not understood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am super into camp and open minded, I swear, and had seen the movie itself several times. So I went to see it in the theater so I could experience the whole crowd phenomenon. I found it to be extremely dated and borderline offensive honestly. They force the “virgins” to do extremely uncomfortable sexual things in front of a jeering crowd - there were a couple of young women who looked like they were to cry. And then the whole time, people (mostly men) would yell things at the screen. Some of them were funny and all of them were well times but many of them were things that would have been funny 20 years ago and now we know better. I would have left if I had thought it was safe - we felt trapped.

Oh it's all incredibly offensive! Rocky being created to be a s** slave - but he's also basically a newborn baby. Eating Meatloaf. I mean there's nothing about this movie that isn't transgressive and wrong.

I've probably been to 30 screenings of RH in my life - most recently at a theater where they had performers acting it out as the movie was playing - and I've never seen anyone "forced" to do anything for hte crowd, though. I don't even know how you'd force someone to do anything.

It's just fun, though. As bad a movie as it is, as offensive as parts of it are, the experience of it is fun. If you don't find it fun, I'm not sure you can be talked into it.