Don’t Dream It, Be It
don’t dream it, be it
by Karenna Umscheid
Watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show in theaters for the first time isn’t your typical theatrical experience — it’s chaotic, immersive, and loud. It’s known as “losing your virginity” for a reason!
The first time I saw Rocky Horror was at a midnight screening at the Coolidge Corner Theater during my freshman year. The experience was thrilling and magical; audience members yelled at the screen and danced in the aisles. There are a lot of films that are merely enhanced by being seen in a theater and are still great if you watch them in your room alone — but Rocky Horror is not one of these films. Without its culture, Rocky Horror is a campy movie musical and Tim Curry’s best performance, which is still excellent, but after watching it in a theater, you will never want to watch it any other way.
There isn’t a normal way to have a movie theater experience. Sometimes they are frustratingly obnoxious but most of the time they’re beautiful — there is something so intimate and lovely about laughing in tandem with a group of strangers you will never reunite with again. The intimacy in any movie screening can be so meaningful, but a repertory or otherwise famous, beloved cult film screening takes this to another level. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is, quite frankly, on another planet.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is so special in how its screenings encapsulate the warmth and power of the theatrical experience through outrageous comedy. The culture of the callbacks — from screaming “slut” and “asshole” at the screen when Janet and Brad appear, yelling pation!” to Frank-N-Furter — it’s an experience unparalleled, in weirdness and community, to any other film. People go to sing-along screenings and dance during Stop Making Sense and The Eras Tour film, but none of those compare to the absurdity, the loud weirdness, and profound comradery, of a Rocky Horror screening: now, a decades-old tradition that paved the way for shaping and changing what a theatrical experience looks like. The success and culture around Barbenheimer, for example, would likely not exist without Rocky Horror and how it popularized cinema as a specific, unique, in-person experience that was unparalleled by simply watching something at home. Film, due to the theatrical aspect, is not just a medium but a culture, capitalized on so heavily (and spookily) by Rocky Horror.
The film is a tribute to the campiness of old sci-fi and horror films, the absurdity of them blended with queerness, sexuality, and gorgeously replicable costuming. It did terribly theatrically when first released, but slowly grew some appeal as a midnight movie. It’s shown frequently around Halloween, because of its spooky (but not scary!) nature and the opportunities for dressing up! The resurgence of in-person screenings means we get to see the culture of theatrical experiences like repertory screenings and other special film opportunities grow exponentially, I encourage everyone to take advantage of them.
For one’s first Rocky Horror viewing, I’d recommend going with a group of friends, dressing up (either as a character or just in a slutty outfit!), and being prepared to yell, scream, laugh, and dance. I champion watching a lot of films on this blog, usually for this film’s substance. In this case, I encourage seeing Rocky Horror, not solely for the film itself, but for the theatrical experience. Laugh, dance, cry of laughter, yell “slut!” and “asshole!” while dressed up with your friends — that’s what Rocky Horror is all about, and that’s what theaters were made for.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show screens at AMC Boston Common on Oct. 27 and 28 at 9:30 p.m.
Until next time,
Karenna
Photograph: IMDb