This stupendously weird musical will have you singing wanting to dress yourself in a corset and fishnet stockings. Give yourself over to absolute pleasure!
I was lulled into a false sense of security when the two opening songs gave the impression that this was going to be a regular old musical. I couldn’t be further from the truth. Things began to get super weird and unhinged after the first two. It felt like cockily gobbling up two tabs of acid, thinking that I’ll ride this surf, instead getting completely swept up by it. I should probably take you back to the beginning, though I haven’t strayed too far from it and thrown you half-way into the story, as is usually the case with me. On this quite Wednesday evening, I watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) which completely changed the state of my evening, on account of me not being able to shake the songs out of my mind.
This has shot itself way up there with Tommy (1975) among some of my favourite musicals. When an innocent newlywed couple find themselves lost and stranded with a flat tire out in the middle of nowhere, they try their luck at a nearby castle, only to find themselves in the midst of a goddamn Transylvanian dance party headed by a charming/sweet/mad scientist transvestite. A whole host of strange people occupy this castle, nay, looney bin, and our innocent couple who just started out as pure bystanders, become embroiled in a sexual liberation they didn’t sign up for. Tell me how this tribute to kitsch horror and science fiction B-films isn’t the recipe for an exhilarating time?!
Starting off with some archetypal musical numbers about love and finding the light in the darkness, you can’t help but feel these songs will set up the tone for the rest of the film, slightly whacky, incredibly cheesy and ingratiatingly upbeat. The moment they enter the castle, however, things take a strangely sexy turn. Some incredibly catchy ditties about transvestitism, creating artificial life, making the perfect man out of said artificial life and much more awaited my ears and I couldn’t stop tapping my feet all the way till the end of the credits. The whole cast sing their parts with such passion and freedom as if it’s the very last thing they’re going to sing, their voices capture the sexual emancipations this film stands for. Especially Tim Curry, he’s so oddly sexy, everything from his voice which sounds like a caressing cabaret, to his posture and the way he carries himself in that corset and fishnet stockings. This film proves the hypothesis that anything can look sexy once you stick it in fishnet stockings and high heels. Along with their singing, their acting is a bloody treat too, often overplaying their parts to nigh ridiculous histrionics, this excess matching the decadence of the film.
How about the cinematography? I’ve been going on about the soundscape and music this whole time, it’s about time I move onto the next bit. Shot in such a playfully over-dramatic way, the frame is a perfect jigsaw fit for the music. Even though the film begins with some pretty usual music numbers, they’re still framed in a rather quirky way that despite whatever expectations I may have had of the film musically, I was definitely excited to behold how the rest of the film would look. Arriving at the castle, the camera revels in a variety of different sets with their own accompanying mood, from the pink tinted lab, to the ominous dinner room, sensual bedrooms and the final bombastic stage with the RKO tower. Everyone is moving at the whims of their amorous frenzy, and to keep up with that the scenes are a frenzy of cuts which don’t seem overbearing for they match the pace of the action. Speaking of cuts, some of the transitions between the events of the film and the criminologist narrating the events really caught my eye. There’s something about wiping transitions that get me slapping my knees.
It should be no surprise that this film has amassed such a devoted cult following and I’ve now been inducted into their group. It’s a truly marvellous film that I’d recommend to anyone, it almost feels like a rite of passage in a wholly intangible yet palpable sense, I felt changed after I watched it. Well, maybe I’m putting it a bit too dramatically but isn’t that just the film itself?
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