After a symbolic deflowering in the front of the theater audience, I am no longer a Rocky Horror virgin. To think that a movie that has been playing continuously since 1976 is one that I had never seen is hard to believe. Perhaps it was the midnight show time. But it is now done!
A cross between Frankenstein and the Producers, the Mel Brooks analogy is a marker in the time this movie was done in the mid 70s. In fact Young Frankenstein is a good comparison as well, as are other semi serious/semi silly movies of that time: Pink Panther, Kentucky Fried Movie, all Mel Brooks as stated.
The live theater is what sets this apart from a normal movie. During the show, a troupe of actors acted out the whole movie, calling dialogue, dressing the part. The interactive nature also made it unique: the props used such as (in this theater) glow sticks, toilet paper and so forth. Some traditional props were strictly forbidden. The dancing to the Time Warp was a good way to fight 1 a.m. fatigue. Calling out all the dialogue made it twice as much to comprehend.
One refrain was "There's no plot". That may be overstated: Brad and Janet, just married, are trapped in a storm. They knock on the door of a castle where they are drawn into a homoerotic ritual and feast. The film is nararated by a criminologist and told in a series of flashbacks.
As its 70s predecesors, the satire and "campiness" so often associated with the movie makes it very appropriate for its time. Not bad for 38 years later.
* * 1/2 of 4
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