The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) 50th Anniversary Movie Review
How does a flop end up becoming the most famous cult movie ever made? That’s the story of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Back in 1975, it opened in cinemas, bombed almost immediately, and looked like it was about to fade away forever. But fifty years on, it’s still here. Still playing in cinemas. Still filling screenings. Still inspiring people to dress up, shout back, and dance in the aisles. For a so-called failure, that’s a pretty good run.
My own Rocky Horror story didn’t start at a screening or on stage. It started in a Blockbuster.
I was eight, scanning the shelves on a random cheap Tuesday, already dreading what late fees I was about to cop, when a DVD cover jumped out at me. A giant pair of red lips floating in the dark, with a strange man draped across them like a couch. My curiosity peaked instantly – it was odd, it was bold, and I couldn’t look away. I grabbed it, took it home, shoved it in the player, and what unfolded was nothing close to what I could have imagined.
The first time I pressed play, I didn’t understand the layers. I didn’t get the queerness, the gender play, the subtext. That came later. But what I did know, even at that age, was that this was something completely different. It was unapologetically strange. It was colourful, camp, alive. And the music? Untouchable. The Time Warp, Sweet Transvestite, Science Fiction/Double Feature – all of it has stuck with me ever since.
From then on, Rocky Horror became my go-to. It’s my most-watched movie of all time. My comfort film. The one I’ll always try to see when the stage show comes around or when a cinema brings it back for a late-night screening. No matter how many times I watch it, it still feels exciting.
The thing that makes Rocky Horror so special is that it didn’t find success in the usual way. No awards. No box office records. No franchise. What it found was an audience that refused to let it die. Fans kept it alive through word of mouth and midnight screenings. They dressed up, shouted lines, threw rice, and made the experience their own. Watching Rocky Horror became a tradition, a ritual. Something you don’t just see, you take part in.
That’s why it’s lasted fifty years. Tim Curry’s performance as Frank-N-Furter is still one of the all-time greats, and Richard O’Brien’s story is a mix of sci-fi parody, rock musical, and sheer queer chaos. But the audience gave Rocky Horror its heartbeat. They turned it into something more than a film. They made it an event.
And when I look back on it now, I see why it matters so much. Rocky Horror gave people permission to be bold. To be different. To embrace the weird. It made space for the outsiders and showed them that they weren’t alone. And even if that wasn’t why I fell in love with it as a kid, I understand its importance now.
For me though, it’s always been about the joy. The fun. The way it makes me feel every single time I watch it. It’s messy, chaotic, sometimes ridiculous – but that’s the point. That’s what makes it so good. It doesn’t play by the rules, and that’s exactly why it’s lasted.
And yes, there was even a follow-up – Shock Treatment. It’s got some great songs (the title track is a banger), but it could never capture the lightning-in-a-bottle magic of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Nothing ever could.
Fifty years later, the lips are still singing, the costumes are still outrageous, and audiences are still doing the Time Warp again. For me, it’ll always be more than just my favourite movie. It’s proof that sometimes the strangest films are the ones that stay with us the longest.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is available to stream on Disney+, and will release in select cinemas in a 4K restoration on October 16.
