It’s loopy to suppose that 1975 was 50 years in the past, however now that we’re in the summertime of 2025, The Rocky Horror Image Present actually is 50 years previous.
August 15, 2025 marks its golden anniversary, however a reality much more stunning than the occasions of the movie is the sheer quantity of people that haven’t seen it. In fact, The Rocky Horror Image Present started as a sci-fi B-movie musical horror comedy, which could sound off-putting to musical haters. However its cultural legacy spans far past the very fact it’s a musical.
When Rocky Horror got here out in August 1975, opinions had been extraordinarily damaging. However as individuals embraced its campiness, a motion was constructed round Rocky Horror because of its midnight screenings. This led to it holding the report because the longest-running theatrical launch in historical past due to restricted version runs world wide. However if you happen to hate musicals, why would possibly you need to be a part of the Rocky Horror cultural phenomenon?
1. The Celebration
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Lots of the aforementioned restricted runs embrace shadowcasts, a solid of performers who costume up in costume and act out the movie alongside the projection. Audiences costume up and comply with traditions, resembling calls and responses or “counterpoint dialogue”, dance actions, the “virgin sacrifice,” and even throwing objects like rice and bathroom paper.
Simply image it: you and some associates costume up in fishnets and corsets, embracing your interior sexuality, darkness, and humor. You’ve gotten just a few drinks and head to the movie show, the place you’re welcomed as a Rocky Horror “virgin,” a pleasant little bit of hazing for somebody who’s by no means been to a Rocky Horror screening. It would sound scary, but it surely’s mainly a celebration like no different, the place everybody is inspired to be their truest self and is welcomed into the group. Even the “virgin sacrifice,” which can sound formidable to somebody who doesn’t like consideration, truly makes you are feeling a part of the motion. Whether or not it’s your a centesimal time or first time going to a screening, you are feeling such as you’re a part of one thing larger than your self, such as you’re a valued and beloved partygoer, not simply an viewers member.
2. The Horror
Many horror movie aficionados would in all probability deny loving a musical, however if you happen to’re leaving Rocky Horror out of your movie catalogue, you’re doing your self a critical disservice. Horror doesn’t simply embrace scary movies—comedy is a key element of a few of the greatest horror movies. Films like Scream, Cabin within the Woods, Younger Frankenstein, and extra depend on combining humor with concern to create a real visceral expertise.
The movie trade’s roots return to horror, harkening to Common Studios’ movies of the Thirties, resembling Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, and extra. Rocky Horror pays direct homage to those movies with its personal model of monsters, mad scientists, aliens, and different horrific parts. The inciting incident that leads Brad and Janet to the fort is drenched in horror imagery, whereas the trippy and barely disjointed storytelling makes us really feel like we’re in a fever dream. If horror is your jam, whether or not musically or not, Rocky Horror is each an homage and reinvention of the basic style.
3. Punk Tradition
Though Rocky Horror’s creator, Richard O’Brien, was straight impressed by the horror musical comedies of the sooner a long time, costume designer Sue Blane stated she didn’t truly conduct any analysis. That is, nevertheless, what provides Rocky Horror such a novel feel and appear with its personal sense of favor. In Rocky Horror: From Concept to Cult, Sue shared: “I wouldn’t dream of taking credit score for inventing punk! The Rocky Horror Present was positively an enormous a part of that build-up … I believe sure parts of punk—as an example, ripped fishnet tights and glitter, and the funny-coloured hair—quite a lot of these elements had been straight attributed to Rocky.”
As well as, the music isn’t essentially emblematic of basic musical theater. Songs like “The Time Warp” had been truly rather more in tune with common rock and punk sounds of the ‘70s. It truly made high music charts world wide, exhibiting the way it transcends the musical theater style. When you suppose musical theater is nearly tacky dance numbers and songs to point out off a performer’s vocal chops, Rocky Horror will certainly shock you. Punk comes from the concept anybody could make good and significant music or artwork with out formal coaching, usually resulting in new, unexplored seems and sounds that resonate with individuals on the fringes of society. Rocky Horror’s lean in the direction of this punk look and sound make it a must-see for anybody who revels in counterculture, even if you happen to hate musicals.
4. The Solid and Performances
Launched in 1975, you wouldn’t suppose the solid of Rocky Horror would nonetheless be related. Nonetheless, with a solid that includes Susan Sarandon, Tim Curry, and Barry Bostwick, Rocky Horror is much more enjoyable to observe. Now at 78 years previous, it’s enjoyable to see Susan as Janet in her heyday earlier than happening to win a number of awards, Oscars and Emmys included. Barry, whereas not as well-known as Susan, continues to be a Tony Award profitable actor who had roles on Regulation and Order: SVU, Scrubs, and extra. However Tim Curry is the true showstopper. When he took the function of the “candy transvestite from Transylvania,” he couldn’t have identified that his movie debut would spiral into an unmatched profession on Broadway, tv, and movie. And the way might we neglect Meat Loaf? Sure, the rock star, Meat Loaf, has a bit function (and a music) because the motorcycling supply boy. With such huge stars in a lower-budget movie, Rocky Horror turns into considerably of a time capsule.
5. Queerness, Sexuality, and Individuality
A lot of Rocky Horror’s cult following and legacy is due to the queer group’s love of the movie. Regardless that Frank-N-Furter feeds into the queer villain trope sprinkled with a little bit of transphobia, the movie’s dedication to camp and humor reveals that this interpretation is extra ironic than the rest. In actual fact, Brad and Janet’s journey is consultant of exploring and understanding one’s personal sexuality.
Because the characters develop into extra enmeshed within the fort, they strip off the boundaries and facades (and garments) put upon them by “regular” society. Not solely is that this consultant of queerness, but it surely additionally mirrors letting go of sexual repression. Within the Seventies, individuals had been rather more sexually repressed than at present, however even in 2025 with political leaders like Donald Trump, individuals are discouraged from expressing their true selves by sexuality and gender.
In actual fact, Rocky Horror may also be attributed as a community-builder for neurodivergent individuals. Merely anybody who has ever felt completely different or outcast by societal norms can discover solace within the cult basic. As we attempt to match into “acceptable” communities, Rocky Horror reminds us that there’s group within the ostracized and completely different. In a roundabout approach, Rocky Horror reveals a world by which you don’t need to be LGBTQ+ to be a part of the queer group. You probably have any curiosity in queer tradition, expression of individuality, or are searching for a way of belonging, Rocky Horror is the place to be.
When you can’t catch a theater exhibiting of The Rocky Horror Image Present in your space, you may nonetheless hire the cult basic on Amazon Video.
