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The "blind spot" feature from your sponsor seems interesting. Over time, observant people could notice where their favorite new outlet's bread is buttered. On a different topic... it'll probably get deleted soon, but I think it's funny that the first sub-comment above is from a scambot who's pretending to be Polyphonic, trying to convince Polyphonic that he won a contest that Polyphonic had just held... It's just a big funny fail by the scambot. (To confused readers - if a sus looking comment/channel tries to get you to go to telagram or watsap to claim a prize, or for any reason really, it's not really the content creator - it's an impersonation scam that's common on youtube).
Little fun fact: A cinema in the city I come from (Munich, Germany) shows this movie every week since it's german release, which makes it the longest run of the Rocky Horror Picture Show worldwide
I think fundamentally what’s kept rocky horror so in the public consciousness for so long is just how deeply fundamentally strange it is. Two generic depictions of 50’s suburbia get stuck in a haunted castle run by an alien drag queen who’s in the process of building a man to have sex with. He ends up having sex with both suburbanites, they all have an orgy in the pool, oh in the meantime meatloaf is murdered and served for dinner. You pitch this movie in 2023 and someone would think you’re having a stroke. It seems almost insane this was made, exists for almost 50 years, and somehow works given the songs and the performances.
What's wrong with meatloaf for dinner?😢😂 You're not wrong about the impossibility of something like this being made today. Kinda like blazing saddles, and a few other movies I could name from the era. Hell, look at the reboot/live version/whatever the hell they tried on fox a few years ago. Even with the original material, it was just a pale commercialized imitation. Without overanalyzing it, I think it just scratched an itch that a lot of people didn't even know they had, and maybe gave people of all different types of "weirdness " a common ground.
The 1970s was a Golden Age of experimental film and storytelling, inspired by the '60s New Wave happening in Europe (and Rocky Horror's writers and creative talent came out of this period in Europe). But before this could happen, "old" Hollywood had to burn down, which is why I am happy that this current iteration of the Hollywood system is burning down (good riddance). What NEW wave of talent and visual storytelling will rise from its ashes? I'm excited for what's next.
I've asked a few friends of mine who are trans, including my own girlfriend, if they thought Rocky Horror was transphobic, and the answer has always been a resounding "What the hell are you talking about?" One of them even answered by saying that Rocky Horror was what made her realize she WAS trans. The consensus seems to be that the only part of it that's outdated are the words transvestite and transexual, the overall message of "Don't dream it, be it" is too sincere and the rest of the movie too tongue-in-cheek to be any kind of offended. It's also not a "mean" movie by any stretch of the imagination, so even the politically incorrect language comes off as well-meaning at worst. If anything, Rocky Horror is as much a safe space for blue jokes as it is for queerness and self-expression (I mean, who loves blue jokes more than queer people??). It's one of those things you go to knowing, even hoping, that you'll be offended by something, albeit in a "I really wish I wasn't laughing at this" kind of way There's this unspoken agreement among the attendees exactly where the line is drawn between delightfully offensive jokes and hateful rhetoric, and as long as it's the former, anything goes. That, in itself, is liberating.
Just chiming in as a genderchaotic person myself: I think this is one of those cases where it's important to note the difference between a piece of media being enjoyed and celebrated by queer folks knowing both the highlights and missteps and embracing it regardless, versus a cis/straight audience holding it up as *their* pillar of queer representation. From my personal experience, a lot of the queer appreciation for Rocky Horror comes from a deeper understanding of its messages as filtered through our own lived experience as queer people in modern society. Whereas there is a tendency (not saying this is always the case) that cis/straight fans of the movie never go past the surface level queerness of the movie (partially because they literally can't without that lived experience), which can then veer into harmful stereotyping and misguided beliefs.
There was nothing like Rocky Horror at the time. It was a huge escape for queer people and it served as validation for sexual liberation and free expression. You can get away with wearing lingerie in public at a Rocky Horror show. It's dated, but it stands firmly as a product of its' time and I still see it as a gateway into queer cinema and one of the best goddamn live shows ever.
As a straight liberal man, I love it for the humor and the raucous atmosphere. It's a fantastic celebration of the freedom to be yourself. The audience participation is what makes it a true work of immersive art.
OH HEY!!! thats my shadow cast you used at 11:48 ^_^. I would just love to say as a trans person in a Rocky Horror cast I couldn't have asked for a more welcoming and accepting environment to accept and grow into my trans self. Thanks so much for the wonderful essay ^_^
When I first saw this movie, I was still questioning myself on my sexuality and feelings I had torwards one of my best friends (who had also confessed their feelings for me as well). One day, I went over to their house to show them the movie. We had a fun time watching it and in a moment, we shared our first kiss with each other and soon after started officially dating. As of now, we've still been together for 10 years, and that particular moment we had together while watching the film still holds a very special place in my heart. ❤💋
It's important to recognize that rocky horror isn't great just because of the social commentary. It has great characters. Great musical numbers. It's an actually good movie/show that also happens to have an important message
Amen!!! I’m not interested in the audience participation, I just love the movie - so clever, so funny, so we’ll cast, great music, stellar spoof. LOVE IT!
Taking my spouse to their first ever Horror Picture Show tonight. My first was in high school drama club in the rural south, where the few 'freaks' like me could revel in being freaks. The drama teacher was a real one, just putting on the vhs and saying "we keep this secret to ourselves." Having gone on my own gender journey, glam rock has been a bedrock of confidence, from Rocky to Bowie. And even if some of the ideas of the movie are outdated, Rocky Horror Picture Show isn't about the movie, it's about the experience. The experience of dressing in drag, screaming at the top of your lungs, and being surrounded by strangers that are just as strange as you and finding family in that.
I brought my partner for the first time last year and I think it was one of the first places where they truly felt like they could be themselves. Being there with them during that experience was so special
My brother showed me this when I was like 6 and I loved it. All the sexual stuff went over my head. Then he got it for me when I was 12 for Christmas. And at 12, I was like, "Omg, I used to sing these songs at Grandma's."
Growing up my dad would often wistfully recount a time when he and a friend had just seen urban cowboy or something and they threatened to beat up an entire theater of costumed rocky horror fans for looking "queer" i always felt ashamed of him for how excited he sounded at the prospect of assaulting "queers" at the movies. I love this movie and i'm pretty sure he does too but he like many straights seem to be completly oblivious to anything past time warp.
Me? I am neurodivergent. A limp thanks to Cerebral Palsy and sensory processing issues. I can miss cues that others take for granted. I am cis male and never had a doubt. I will never have that deep in the soul "it just works" understanding that someone trans has about his or her gender. But I deeply understand getting bullied for something inborn that I cannot control. I figure do what is right for you, be good to others, and it's all cool. Like "Rocky Horror" says "Don't dream it, be it."
I grew up in a very conservative religious community, but even by middle school knew that I was an atheist. At the same, I understood the cost of saying so for me and for my family’s small town business. So I said nothing other than what I knew others expected. So like you said, I don’t claim to understand being LGBTQ, but I do understand being in the closet and the fear of revealing your true self even to your family.
I'm old enough that I saw 'The Rocky Horror Show' when it was still a stage play in London. Seeing Tim Curry prance down the middle of the theater, singing 'Sweet Transvestite' was truly a highlight in my life. :)
I just did my first shadow cast yesterday as Eddie, and my god, I've never enjoyed anything more than that. I was wearing a ridiculous costume, and my sax was made of duct-taped beer cans and it was beautiful
That sounds amazing. When my cast came back and rebranded from the ground up (basically) my brother managed to find an old sax so we have a real one but I love the idea of wild props. Congrats on your first show! ❤
As a trans woman, this film blew my mind when I was young, I wouldn't come out for another decade, but the part that made me cry then, and still makes me cry today, is the start of Rose Tint My World "whatever happened to Faye Ray, that delicate satin wrapped frame, as I clung to her thigh, I started to cry, as I wanted to be dressed just the same" and also "don't dream it, be it" I've seen tattooed on several trans friends, if it's a problematic fave, there's definitely some of us who make an exception for it, Colombia was the first time I saw a woman and thought "I want to be like her"
My university put on The Rocky Horror Show while I was studying there. Signed up as an usher for the midnight show, and honestly the energy was like nothing else I've felt. The love and support and unsaid interaction between the cast and callbacks was magical. Even we got to dress up as ushers, as long as we stuck to black and weren't in full out drag! It was a beautiful synergy, and one I'll never forget. It just proves that the only way "get" something is to just go for it and experience it with an open heart. E: I noticed in one of the images you used, it was talking about the removal of a pride flag in Canada, in Alberta. The production above was put on in Lethbridge, a smaller city smack in the middle of the Alberta Bible Belt. At the very least, love and acceptance won out that time.
The shot of River Oaks Theater from 9:05 to 9:10 hit me in the feels. It was Houston's art house theater that died during Covid. I watched Rocky there way too many times during my late teens and early twenties.
I have been to a few rocky horror cinema showings over the years, but personally I adore the live shows they do every Halloween! There’s a brilliant one here in Dublin, the cast is amazing and when people interact with the cast, they respond in such hilarious and witty ways. It’s like a panto for adults and I love it.
When the movie first came out, we asked a friend of ours who worked at the theater what he thought of it. He said it was pretty strange and he didn't think it would last long. I was a senior in high school and a friend of mine had an original cast recording of The Rocky Horror Show, but I never heard it, A year later, we hosted a cast party at our house where someone brought the soundtrack album for The Rocky Horror Picture Show. "What? You're a virgin to the movie?!" (You haven't yet seen the movie?) We pretty well saw it all that night as they put on the album and everyone acted out all the parts, filling in bits that weren't included in the soundtrack. What a show! We all made a plan to go to the theater at the local shopping center where they showed The Rocky Horror Picture Show late every Saturday night. It was said to be one of the longest regular runs of it as a midnight show in the country when they finally stopped doing it several years later. We dutifully brought our copies of the Cleveland Plain Dealer (had to be the Plain Dealer), our squirt guns (for the rain), playing cards, hot dogs, and I forget what all else, to throw toward the screen at the appropriate time. We went back several times over the next couple of years. A couple of years later they made announcements to ask us not to do that and we were not to be shouting "Blank, blank Chuck!" (the guy making the announcement said "blank blank" but we just laughed and did it anyway). By that time people started coming in costume.
The Rialto in South Pasadena is where me and all my friends lost our Rocky Horror midnight cherries. It was a revival movie house and they showed Rocky Horror every Saturday at midnight. It was one of my favorite places during my high school years (79-83). Two bucks to get in, some of the best money I've ever spent. Thanks for the memory blast.
As a Cis-het woman, I also need the safe haven of Rocky Horror to be sexual, theatrical, nonconformist, and even iconoclastic, without fear for my safety. Rocky may very well be out of sync with modern standards, but I think that we will always need that safe space to be rude, raw, loud, and openly sexual so we can rebel against suffocating social standards; because even when we agree with those standards, they still can stifle your spirit and crush your heart and soul.
100% support the community and battle this episode really focuses in on, but equally I really wish there was more time taken to appreciate the amazing classic rock soundtrack and O'Brien's stellar lyricism, Metaloaf's performance, etc. We could have had both, ya know?
This came out less than 24 hours after my friends and I watched Rocky Horror at Florida State University's on campus theater, just 1.2 miles from the state capitol. Its a vaunted FSU tradition, and now I think there's something special about doing it right under DeSantis' nose. It was my first experience, and I went in almost completely blind to the shadow cast, their audience interaction preshow, and the callouts throughout the film. I think I get it now, though.
I was there on Thursday!!! It was my first time seeing rocky horror, and I nearly cried when the host was talking about how much of a sacred space rocky horror is, especially with what is going on politically in florida.
I saw this film live twice. Once in the original theater in NYC in the early 2000s. That showing was disappointing. 25 years into weekly showings, you just couldn't rely on a good audience on some random Saturday and the audience MAKES the show. I also saw it at the art dorm in my college. Now THEY knew how to put on a show.
Best showing I saw was at Oberlin College before there was a world wide web... but everyone knew what to do. I've seen it in regular theaters, and since the callbacks became easy to look up online... but the audience wasn't as on point, or as energetic.
THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO POLYPHONIC! I know you typically do music/music industry related videos, and Rocky Horror absolutely deserves to be here, being a horror MUSICal!
I'm one of those people who had a "queer sexual awakening." I remember the first time I saw it, as midnight movie of course, and that was back in the mid-70s. I purchased a streaming copy and have the soundtrack on vinyl and Amazon music. Rocky Horror was a seminal event-by every definition.
It’s the combination of the book/songs of Richard O’Brien and Tim Curry’s electric, over the top performance. (The supporting cast is also excellent, top to bottom.) The audience call-backs and participation were later developments that put you “in” the movie. Personally, I don’t care for the shadow cast. The grand theme-“Don’t dream it . . . be it”-remains an inspiration to this day.
Rocky Horror is so marked in my mind that the mere mention of Rocky's creation with the description "a man with blonde hair and a tan" is automatically followed by "and he's good for relieving my tension" in my head.
The day I decided, "You know what, fuck this job I don't get paid enough for this." when I was working at a movie theater the best behaved groups we had all day were the showings of Rocky Horror Picture Show and some of them somehow were able to sneak in water guns
I've worked at a single screen theater that has a fantastic live cast for Rocky Horror for six years now, and post-lockdown screening pause, we have sold out every show since. It's a joy to be apart of!
Saw Rocky Horror with a shadow cast when I was 14. A female friend put makeup on me. Then, 25 years later, I did it again in gold hot pants, and again dressed as Rocky this year. Its so much fun, even for a straight dude. Everyone would feel so much better if they leaned into their own weirdness.
Great video, per the usual. Thanks! I was just researching the history of shadow-casts, as I just saw Over the Garden Wall with one. Now I'm gonna spend a whole year thinking of witty (age-appropriate) things to shout for next years showing.
I’ve been to the NuArt theater in Santa Monica multiple times to see RHPS at the midnight Halloween showing. Such a great time and I can’t say enough about it. I’m happy to see you chose to make a video about it because it needs more awareness to newer potential viewers. Even if it’s becoming problematic to what’s becoming normative within LGTBQ+ culture and terminology, I think it’s still a must-see. We can’t erase the history just because it’s dated. Respect your elders and embrace the freedom it afforded us. Even if the creators themselves are struggling to keep with the times, we need to remember it’s message that we should embrace all within and make room for all beliefs. Such a great experience and thanks again for the video
Sins O the Flesh saved my life. Doing security for them, Magic for folks in line, and assisting with preshow gave me a place to be myself when I couldn’t do it at home. Nice to see the NuArt in the comments.
The three movies that helped me realize and come to terms with my queer sexuality were: Cabaret, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Rocky Horror. Without those movies I might not be here today.
part of what makes RHPS so important to me personally was that it helped me find my "people" so to speak as a theatre kid back in high school-- if someone else liked it, i could usually assume they were someone cool that i could get along with. i was terribly sheltered and closeted and even when i was technically way too young to be watching it, this movie helped me find a way to express the innate queerness within me before i was even really aware of it. i formed a few friendships that last to this day mostly through us all being rocky horror fans, one of said friends even getting to join a few shadow casts! i genuinely feel like RHPS changed my life for the better. i'm a very proudly queer adult who loves all kind of strange and offbeat media, people, and things, and i'm much happier for it. i'm also kinda baked and really hope any of this made sense
I absolutely love that you showed the picture of the River Oaks Theater in Houston (where i live only 15 min from that theater), as it closed down, but is finally been brought back to reopen, allowing the The Royal Mystic of Chaos to put on monthly Rocky Horror shows again
rocky horror is a yearly ritual for me. was in the show in college back when "virgins" were forced to go on stage (but just as party-goers). good times back before all this conservative regression
I'll never forget losing my Rocky Horror "virginity." Myself and the other first-timers had to fake an orgasm on stage for the crowd to judge. I was just drunk enough to lose all inhibitions and give it everything I had. And I won! - a candy necklace. I'll also never forget the time Eddy threw his motorcycle helmet off and it hit my friend directly in the face. I'm sure everyone out there who has been to a live-screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show has just as many fun and crazy stories to tell.
Must be said: Richard O’Brien is the composer of Rocky horror. Richard Hartley was not the composer, he was the music director and arranger/orchestrator for the original show amd the film. O’Brien wrote all the songs
To quote my nephew.."some a yall be trippin'". As a straight High School sophomore in 1979 I loved Rocky Horror. It affected me in so many positive ways. A group of European exchange students lovingly kidnapped my girlfriend to see it at a college theater. I get a call at midnight saying "come and save me feom these people". I couldnt tell if she was scared or excu6ted. Well....she was both. I get there and while looking for her TOAST IS FLYING IN THE AIR. We sat thereand had the rime of our young lives. Whatever your gender permutation is take an old mans advice. STOP throwing away your hard won CAPITAL. Uae it . This analysis that makes the past problematic squanders the work of rhe young people of the past.Yoir Freedom builds on our Freedom which you guys can turn into Liberation for rhe next generation.
I still remember watching this movie and for the first time putting on makeup and not feeling alone as a cis het dude who didn’t feel trapped by typical binary gender norms. Skirts, dresses, fishnets, makeup, and nail polish were the norm. To this day makeup and nail polish are a daily norm, skirts on occasion. Decades later I discovered the terms genderfuck and genderpunk, the latter fitting me better bc I am a huge punker, plus it’s hard drop an f-bomb when you work in retail and a curious customer has questions. Decades later I fathered two kids who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. I haven’t shown the the film yet, but soon.
If you listen to the way that this Foreign commentator describes how this amazing unique show was born, he truly doesn't understand British eccentricity and uniqueness in the annuals of film and stage. The production was courageous and outrageous and set it apart from all other films written and produced to this day. Long live Tim Curry his performance created this sensation. Love It
First mainstream Hollywood film to depict the entire audience-participation phenomena in 100% thoroughly accurate detail was Alan Parker's "Fame" in 1980. Sal Piro is the host at the Eight Street Playhouse in NYC, and the main character of Doris, a shy and repressed Jewish girl, suddenly jumps up in front of the screen and Time Warps with the shadow cast. It was a pioneering and historic sequence unto itself.
As a straight man, I love this movie. I started going to showings in 1977 while in high school. My friends and I went at least once a month. We only stopped going when the theater started cracking down on a lot of the stuff the audience was doing.
9:08 yep, that's the River Oaks theater in Houston. They were the hosts of the shadow play/Rocky Horror screenings in Houston. Broke my heart when it closed down during the pandemic.
as a queer man I've never been intrested in rocky horror, however I wasn't aware of the history that surrounds it and my community. thank you for this video!
It's the inspirational, celebrational, muppetational, this is what we call the Rocky Horror Picture Shooooooww! I saw RHPS when in came out (in Edmonton, which is what makes the anti-LGBTQ+ poster disheartening, but not unexpected), moved to the We(s)t Coast, found a tribe, and danced, sang, and costumed the hell out of myself at midnight showings. I adore the SF film references, the gender queerness, and the glorious liberation this film has afforded me. And when a person I was with loved the SF references and just said Molly Bloom's "yes" to the rest of it, they became my life-partner--now of 40 years. This film means a lot to me, and I'm so glad you treated it well.
I first saw Rocky Horror in an empty theatre in 1975 (double bill with Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things). I've seen it a few other times but never realized the cultural impact. Thanks for your insight.
My mom used to go to every midnight showing of rhps and has been in shadow casts since the 70's. I started to go to rhps at an old theater near my house like 10 years ago and it's become my weekly ritual. It really is a tight knit community
My small local theatre in rural Australia has a showing annually and it continues to be the highlight of my year this year. Its so fun and wild and free and bold. At no other event can i acceptably strip down to my underwear publicly (during the scene where janet and brad are stripped) or hand my underwear to a man dressed as riff raff from under my skirt for him to win a game
Tim Curry cannot be beat as his role as Dr. Frankenfurter in any version of Rocky horror picture show! This movie allowed people to be themselves either LGBTQ+ & feel accepted in going too Rocky Horror picture show without being judged by others... only accepted!!! I wish they would continue to play this movie in theaters in the daytime.
I guess you've never been to a showing. People bring items to toss at the screen, toast for a toast, toilet paper for the line "Great Scott" and other stuff. I've seen it a few hundred times, from the projection booth, and the seats. Everyone sings along, it's fun. I think the attraction is for more than the gender-bending but any and all non-standard, fringe and creative people.
Despite living in New York City for a very long time, I didn't hear about this until I got to college in the fall of 1980 (which happened to be in upstate New York). Some people from my dorm were going to the center of the town where the college was for a midnight showing of RHPS--in costume/makeup. I had no idea what the hell they were doing but they didn't explain it ("you mean you don't know already?"). Then, I went to graduate school at NYU, which is in Greenwich Village (the Stonewall Inn is not too far away). That's when I figured it out. Not my personal cup of tea but for those who are into that sort of thing, more power to you.
Information about it seems to be most often distributed on an if-you-know-you-know basis, so I'm glad to finally have a RU-vidr explaining this phenomenon to us!
I think in our modern day 2023/2024 world, we tend to put ourselves and our issues on something. Numerous people with no mainstream sexual/gender issues found Rocky Horror at the local Midnight Movie to be part of their 'coming of age' in a very prolific artistic time. Heck, just the concept of going to an indoor theater at midnight to watch a movie was cutting-edge. The movie is nothing if it is not cutting-edge art for its day. Rocky Horror was not the only Midnight Movie at that time that was expressive and cutting edge. We also flocked to see 'Cheech and Chong's Up In Smoke' repetitively. I also remember 'The Song Remains The Same' and so on. Art - Cinema Noir 1980.
I first saw it in its entirety at the RIver Oaks, a theater near the exclusive Houston neighborhood of RIver Oaks back in the late '70's after it had already become a cult phenomenon. It was really weird and I don't remember much about the movie, as I was high as a kite on weed. It was interesting and impressive to say the least. Wow, it's hard to think that it was THAT LONG AGO!
I saw the show 4 times, the movie more than 10 times. I also have the original soundtrack and the picturedisc on vinyl. Yes, i was and still am, a big fan !!
Thank you for your very balanced assessment by including many of rocky horror's flaws toward the trans community. As a trans woman myself rocky horror helped me rediscover my trans identity but it also scared me of my identity because of the hypersexual, villanous, and downright physically unattractive character dr frankenfurter. it also made me feel that most of society would mock me and conflated my concept of trans women with bizarre drag charicatures. Great analysis/video!
