In honor of the recent remake of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" on Fox, let's take a look at the original that opened the minds of Americans. Between the thigh-high fish net stockings, heavy eyeliner, and tight gold spandex, "Rocky Horror Picture Show" is the perfect movie to watch this Halloween. Here are some facts about the cult classic.
Audience participation was created out of boredom.
When most people watch this movie, they are placed in a theater where they can participate in specific scenes. If you have experienced this before, you know what I'm talking about. If you are a Rocky virgin, let me explain. During some scenes of the movie, like Janet and Brad's wedding, the audience is asked to participate. So, during this scene the audience throws rice while rice is thrown in the movie. Originally, in 1975 "Rocky Horror" was a total bust, but midnight showings became popular and people began to shout at the screen as the movie was played. Brian Thomson, the film designer, went to a theater once while it was screening and noticed the audience yelling at the screen. When he asked them about it, they said they thought the movie was boring and screaming at the screen would make it more fun.
The cast was genuinely frightened during the corpse scene.
If you have never seen the movie, there are spoilers ahead. During the scene where the cast is gathered around the table for a dinner party. Dr. Frakenfurter pulls back the table cloth to reveal the corpse of Eddie. For this scene, Jim Sharman (director) only told Tim Curry (Furter) about this idea. The reactions of the cast during that scene were real, nobody was expecting a false corpse to be under the table.
Princess Diana loved the movie.
There were many celebrities who were fond of the screenplay (then eventually movie), among those celebrities happened to be Princess Diana. While Tim Curry was doing the stage performance in Austria, the princess insisted on meeting him. She had nothing but accepting things to say to him.
"The Time Warp" was written to take up space.
The original stage musical script was only supposed to be 40 minutes long. Richard Hartley (co-composer) says that the iconic song was only written to fill up space.
The movie came out on VHS in America in 1990.
And it cost $89.95.
It currently holds the longest theatrical release in history.
It currently plays in theaters across the states. And if you live in the Orlando area, the movie theater at Universal Studios City Walk holds a showing every other week.
Have you done the time warp again?