Halloween, music, and the enduring nature of Rocky Horror
Forty-two years since Riff Raff opened the front door for Brad and Janet (forty-four if you count from the debut of the stage play) and people are still doing the Time Warp. Not a bad run for a film that was panned mercilessly when it debuted.
There may not be quite as many year-round midnight showings as there once was (though there are still quite a few) but when Halloween rolls around, for many people garters, corsets and gold bikinis are as much a part of the season as jack o’ lanterns and The Great Pumpkin.
I suppose there are many reasons why a campy musical paean to science fiction movies has resonated with enough people to survive this long, but from my own experience it comes down to one thing.
See, I grew up in a small military town that was itself smack-dab in the middle of an otherwise rural area. That combination does not generally celebrate self-expression or “marching to the beat of one’s own drum.” Conformity was de rigueur, different was “weird,” and “weird” was bad. Suffice it to say that this was not an ideal environment for your friend and humble narrator.
There was a party, with all the trappings of a typical party in that place. Hooch and Mad Dog and an acre of denim, it had all the makings of every other party that ever was, but one party-goer brought a movie to show, a VHS copy of Rocky Horror. The lights went down, the film came on, and within fifteen minutes or so two thirds of the party erupted in homophobic slurs and exited to the yard to continue shot-gunning Keystones while I and a few others stayed behind. When the closing credits rolled I asked the young lady who brought the tape if I could borrow it, and I watched it over and over for the next several days.
Soon after I learned that thirty miles north (in the big city as it were) they showed this film in actual theaters, once a month, at midnight on Saturdays, the people dressed up and played along, and I made my way to the next available showing.
It was ritual, it was shared experience and it was a hell of a lot of fun. From there I discovered conventions and a much larger (and more welcoming) world than I, in my somewhat limited experience, realized existed.
So, for me, the appeal was and still is that the goofy little film was the first time it occurred to me that maybe outsider status (for whatever reason) wasn’t necessarily something to be eschewed.
To the contrary, vive le difference, it was something to be celebrated. It was liberating and maybe, just maybe, the folks who condemned anything “out of the ordinary” were the ones who had it all wrong.
That must seem like a perfectly obvious thing now, but to a teenage kid from Kentucky it was a huge and genuinely life-changing realization. I will say that it was a proud moment for me when my older daughter, at the tender age of sixteen, asked if I had a copy of the film she and her friends could borrow (I did.)
That’s my take it on it anyway, and I suppose everyone has their own reasons for celebrating the film and its music, but the continued popularity of Richard O’Brien’s work cannot be denied.
On October 28th, the Honest Pint will present its annual showing of the film, complete with stage cast in full wardrobe pantomiming the action on the screen. Rumor has it that the show is already sold out, but I have seen at least a few tickets for sale from individuals so be just and fear not.
For that matter, Hallowcon, Chattanooga’s Halloween themed science fiction convention, is happening in East Ridge from the 27th through the 29th. The theme this year? Science Fiction Double Feature.
So if you find yourself longing to do the Time Warp again, check out hallowcon.com, don your unconventional conventionist garb and don’t dream it, be it!