The Rocky Horror Picture Show

About

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical comedy film which follows a young couple as they encounter a group of eccentric aliens after their car breaks down. The movie gained a large cult following, which often gathers for regular screening which encourage the audience to talk to and interact with the screen at predetermined moments.

History

The Rocky Horror Picture Show^[1] was released on August 31st, 1975. On October 26th, 2010, Glee aired an episode titled “The Rocky Horror Glee Show” which features several numbers from the film.

Premise

After the wedding of their friend, Janet Weiss (Susan Sarandon) and Brad Majors (Barry Bostwick) become engaged. To celebrate, they decide to visit their old college professor who taught the class where they met. On the way their car breaks down, and they decide to go to a neighboring castle to use the phone. Their they meet Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry), an evil scientist who is just revealing Rocky (Peter Hinwood), a man he’s created to be his boyfriend. Brad and Janet are troubled by Frank-N-Furter, but through deceit he eventually seduces them both, then Janet seduces Rocky. Eventually Janet, Brad, Rocky, and Frank-N-Furter, as well as Frank-N-Furter’s ex, Columbia (Nell Campbell) perform a burlesque show, before Frank-N-Furter is informed by his servants that their home planet has decided he is out of control and must be killed. They kill him before launching the entire house, once Brad and Janet have escaped, into outer space.

Reception

The film earned a score of 7.4 on IMDB and a rating of 58 on Metacritic.^[4] In 1980 it was entered into the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Hall of Fame and in 2005 it was entered into the National Film Preservation Board’s National Film Registry.

Fandom

As of October 2014, there are over 7,000 pieces of Rocky Horror fan art on Deviant Art.^[2] Fan run Tumblr blogs include fuckyeahrockyhorror^[3] and rockyhorrorpictureshowpics.^[8] As of October 2014, the films Facebook page^[9] has gained over 1.2 million likes.

Related Memes

Antici…..pation

On May 8th, 2009, Twitter user DrFNFurter^[6] created his account naming it after the Rocky Horror character and sending out a series of tweets quoting the film:

“So, come up to the lab, and see what’s on the slab! I see you shiver with antici …”

Fours years later, he tweeted the rest of the word “pation,” playing off the long pause in the middle of the word in the film, as well as the meaning of the word. The stunt was covered by several websites including The Huffington Post^[5] and The Independent.^[7]