rad Majors and Janet Weiss are an innocent couple from Denton, Ohio, classic American sweethearts celebrating the wedding of some close friends. After the ceremony, Brad is inspired to propose marriage to Janet, and when she joyfully accepts, the two decide to visit Dr. Everett Von Scott, the college instructor who introduced them. Unfortunately, Brad's car breaks down on the way ... and in the middle of a pouring rainstorm, too.
The stranded pair flees to the nearest refuge—an ominous castle filled with an assortment of eccentric people. There's a party in full swing over at the Frankenstein place. Instead of being allowed to use the phone and wait for a tow truck in relative quiet, Brad and Janet are swept up in the
fun ... or they will be, just as soon as they take off their clothes.
The mystery of the castle only deepens when the couple meets the master of the castle, a cross-dressing mad scientist named Frank-N-Furter. The sweet transvestite has discovered the secret of life itself, and with the thunder and lightning raging outside—not to mention an audience of eager
onlookers—he is ready to unveil his latest creation. There is only one hitch. Eddie, a former member of Frank's retinue, is determined to stop the experiment before it begins.
In case this delicious premise isn't enough to send a moviegoer's fun lobes into overdrive, it should definitely be mentioned that The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical, too.
Give yourself over to celluloid pleasure
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is an SF movie that truly has it all. The cast, which includes playwright Richard O'Brien as Riff Raff (O'Brien wrote the play on which the film was based), never backs away from the often campy but always daring storyline. Tim Curry is hypnotic as Frank-N-Furter, moving from a sex-kittenish flirtation with the camera to red-eyed murder in two blinks of a false eyelash. The songs are crisp, laced with sexual innuendo and sung with a gusto that begs the audience to join in.
The sets and visuals are lavish, creating a milieu that is both a perfect springboard for the script's comic moments and yet appropriately disturbing.
The darkness that beats at the heart of all enduring comedy is in full view here. Undeniably, there is death and violence in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, but it isn't caused merely by the presence of something unnatural in the castle. Rather, it is human weakness—sexual jealousy and misplaced love—that causes the downfall of Frank-N-Furter. This is an hysterically funny movie, but its story is just as tragic as serious treatments of the Frankenstein story.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show successfully brings the implied sexuality of the movies it lampoons into the open. Without venturing into outright triple-X content, it nevertheless portrays sexual relationships between characters—straight, gay and always kinky—openly.
With so much to recommend it, it is little wonder that fans of the film have continued to seek out the Rocky experience for the past 27 years.
