The movie version grabbed the stage version’s director, Jim Sharman, who wrote the screenplay with O’Brien. The filmmakers also brought in several performers from various incarnations of the musical, including the original Dr. Frank-N-Furter (a Scientist), Tim Curry, Patricia Quinn as Magenta (a Domestic), and Little Nell as Columbia (a Groupie). O’Brien also reprised his role as Riff-Raff (a Handyman). The Broadway production brought in future “Bat Out of Hell” singer Meat Loaf as Eddie (ex-Delivery Boy).
Before taking the cinematic project on, producer Lou Adler predicted the movie would make money, especially with the college crowd. I wonder if his faith was shaken a bit when the low initial box office numbers were reported. Twentieth Century-Fox, the studio that released “Rocky Horror,” had a similar box office issue the year before with another sci-fi musical that would soon become a cult classic, Brian De Palma’s “Phantom of the Paradise.”
I always thought those two movies deserved their own, um, science fiction double feature. So, imagine my surprise when I recently learned that Fox had the same idea back in 1975. The pairing did not yield box office success, not even with the stoner college bros. It wasn’t until the Waverly Theater in NYC started their midnight screenings that “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” found its tribe — and its tribe found each other.
Fast-forward to 2025, and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is still bringing in viewers at midnight screenings across the country. You can catch it this Friday, 50 years to the day it opened, at the Somerville Theater. The Coolidge is running it on Saturday. I plan on seeing it at the Quad here in Manhattan this weekend. My screening’s too late for this article. Perhaps I’ll do a short follow-up notebook on the experience.
My first experience with “Rocky Horror” was the trailer, which I distinctly recall seeing at the State Theater in my hometown of Jersey City. I was 5, and my aunt had taken us to see something kid-friendly. The smartasses at the State ran this trailer, with its men in fishnets and makeup, and its salacious, blood-red lipstick lips cooing about just how awesomely freaky this movie was going to be.
I was as confused as my religious aunt was outraged. I remember this because my childhood catnip was anything that upset those pious adults. From the day I was born, I was trouble!
Five years later, I saw Alan Parker’s dark high school musical, “Fame,” which contains a scene where a character named Doris joins the shadow cast at the Waverly Theater. Three years after that, I went to the Waverly with some high school buddies to see what all those midnights hath wrought. Since I was a “Rocky Horror virgin,” you know what happened to me.
My last theatrical experience was nearly 30 years ago. On a dare, I dressed up as one of the characters. The only character I could be in my current body is Eddie, but at 27, I was in great physical shape. Back then, I did “press-ups and sit-ups, the snatch, clean and jerk,” to quote Dr. Frankie. I won’t tell you who I dressed up as, but that shouldn’t stop you from telling us your “Rocky Horror” moviegoing stories in the comments below.
Here’s the moment where I pull off the tablecloth and you realize that you’ve been eating meatloaf for dinner. I don’t think “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is a good movie. I tell you this because, if you dig back far enough, you might find a two-star review of the film written by Odie (an ex-Programmer). I can’t find it, but I’m sure somebody will.
You folks rend your garments when you see two stars on my reviews, but as I explained to you when I first got this gig at the Globe three years ago, two stars usually means “not a good movie, but if it was on cable at 2 a.m. and I was drunk, I’d watch the hell out of it.” This movie just pushes the viewing time back two hours.
Don’t get me wrong. I admire the film’s staying power and remain astonished that something that honored sexual fluidity and outright kinkiness could even get made in 1975 — and by a major studio! And hot patootie, bless my soul, Tim Curry is magnificent in his movie debut. What a daring and fearless performance he gave as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, and the man can sing. Plus, some of those songs are classics in their own right. (My favorite has to be Susan Sarandon’s “Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a Touch Me.”)
But this movie does not hold together. I’ve always found the last 20 minutes of it a bit of a slog and a downer, despite Curry’s heartrending rendition of “I’m Going Home.”
I found that this material worked better on stage when I saw the 2000 Circle in the Square revival on Broadway. Dick Cavett played the Criminologist, and Tom Hewitt’s Dr. Frank-N-Furter earned a Tony nomination to go with the musical’s best revival Tony nomination. My adolescent crush, Joan Jett, played Columbia, which is why I went.
No matter. The “Rocky Horror” movie folks in front of the camera went on to fame. Sarandon has an Oscar and Barry Bostwick will always have the TV series “Spin City” and the movie “Megaforce.” Tim Curry will always be Tim Curry.
The folks behind the camera didn’t do too shabbily, either. Cinematographer Peter Suschitzky became David Cronenberg’s go-to director of photography. He also shot Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks.” Editor Graeme Clifford cut the David Bowie sci-fi classic “The Man Who Fell to Earth” before directing Jessica Lange to an Oscar nod in 1982’s “Frances.” (He also edited “Don’t Look Now” two years before “Rocky Horror.”)
Regardless of how I feel about its overall quality as a film, I completely understand and respect the effect “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” has had on my beloved LGBTQ+ community over those 50 years. There’s something beautiful and powerful about a movie — good or not — that brings people together in a shared solidarity of who they are, that makes a person feel seen.
That’s the true brilliance of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Fifty years from now, it will be still be playing, and its newest viewers will still be finding their tribe.
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe’s film critic.