State’s Classic Film series selection shows interactive cult classic
When an engaged couple happen along a mad scientist’s lair, seduction and campy nods to horror flick of old ensue in the 1975 cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
This bizarre yet successful mixture of comedy, horror and music will be the October selection for The State Theatre Center for Art’s Classic Film Series showing at 2 and 7 p.m. Oct. 27.
Audiences follow Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick, “Spin City” “Spy Hard”) and Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon, “Thelma & Louise” and “The Lovely Bones”) on back roads and misfortune that leads them to a nearby castle, where the annual Transylvanian Convention is being held. It’s not long before they’re immersed in the world of Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry, “Charlie’s Angels” and “The Hunt for Red October”) who calls himself the “sweet transvestite from Transsexual, Transylvania.”
Unexplained relations, seduction, Eddie’s “mercy killing” and an outside investigation are maneuver in the film directed by Jim Sharman with a script by Richard O’Brien, that also appeared as a stage production complete with music, lyrics and a book. The film was originally released as a parody tribute to “science fiction and horror B movies of the 1930s through to the early 1079s.”
An uncomfortable dinner later takes place in the film with Eddie’s (Meat Loaf, “Fight Club” and “Wayne’s World”) remains on the menu, while an unexpected outburst with Frank’s creation Rocky (Peter Hinwood, “The Devil’s Widow” and “Sebastiane”) leads to a chase and a cabaret live show. Handyman Riff Raff (O’Brien, “Dark City” and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”), domestic Magenta (Patricia Quinn, “The Meaning of Life” and “The Lords of Salem”) and Furter later reveal their true origins and create the climax for an overall oddball comedy horror flick.
Columbia (Nell Campbell, “Great Expectations” and “The Killing Fields”), Dr. Everett Scott (Jonathan Adams, “Jesus of Nazareth” and “Two Evil Eyes”) and a criminologist (Charles Gray, “Diamonds are Forever” and “You Only Live Twice”) are also encountered in the film.
In 1976, Roger Ebert applauded the show, though he said it might have worked better as a stage show rather than a “picture show.”
“The choreography, the compositions and even the attitudes of the cast imply a stage ambience,” he wrote in his review. “And it invited the kind of laughter and audience participation that makes sense only if the performers are there on the stage, creating mutual karma.”
Overall, though, he said the “horror-rock-transvestite-camp-omnisexual-musical parody” of two kids who stumble through a time warp “has it’s moments and it’s doing good business.”
Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for seniors, students or children. The film is rated R.
“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is part of the classic film series that is supported by the Herald-Standard Be Local program and sponsored by 84 Lumber, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa and the Hardy and Magerko families, along with the State Theatre, to create an event around each of the two viewings of the monthly movie.
Coming soon
The 2017-2018 Classic Film Series will also include: “The Green Berets” (Nov. 3) and “White Christmas” (Dec. 8).