31 Days, 31 Screams: Day 5 (The Rocky Horror Picture Show)

Ah, that's far less terrifying. But our terror has been replaced with confusion and bafflement. Attempting to unpack this is going to be difficult as all hell, but by God am I going to attempt it. This is the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and it begins quite unlike any film released by 20th Century Fox. We all know the orchestral fanfare that accompanies the studio logo, but right from the start something is up. Instead of those drums, we hear... slightly different drums. The horns are replaced with a jaunty little piano ditty. After some more logos, and the ominous rush of howling wind... more music kicks in. Ruby red lips rush at the screen, and they begin to sing.

I see you shiver, with antici... ... ...

Here we are, invoking nostalgia of movies past. This is a 50's B-movie, in the form of some kind of musical. As that disembodied mouth sings about Michael Rennie and Claude Reins, it eventually goes dark and the credits come, oozing and dripping with blood. Okay, so the lips were a bit weird but we know what we're getting into here. It's a celebration of horror... with songs? I guess? Admittedly, few people go into the Rocky Horror Picture Show blind, but I did in 2004 in a dorm room. The movie's first great trick is letting you settle in and take a nice seat under this fancy rug. Hey, a wedding! That's cute! Although "WAIT TILL TONITE SHE GOT HERS NOW HE'LL GET HIS" on the car as the newlywed couple drive off is a bit... risque, isn't it? Ah, forget that, look at these happy young ordinary healthy kids! Brad and Janet, you're so nice and wholesome and oh there's another song that I won't link because if we link every song in this movie this post will be bloated. Now they're engaged, but our narrator promises doom and gloom. In just about every sense, this feels like a loving tribute to a cheesy horror film from the 50's. The only thing firmly anchoring the film to the 70's is Richard goddamned Nixon on the radio, and even that's one of the so-called biggest movie mistakes in film history. It's 20 minutes or so in when we hit our fourth song, with a hunchbacked Igor-lookin dude and a pale maid singing about time or something. The music builds, a door bursts open, and--

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN

Alright, just WHAT THE FUCK is going on here? Even that serious narrator from before is getting in on this shit, narrating the moves! And a pelvic thrust! Boy, that's really risque! Even poor Janet has fainted! With a bit of a mind flip, we're into a time slip, and nothing will ever be the same. The fancy rug has been pulled out from under us, and after that madness is over with we may think we've got a reprieve. YOU'D BE WRONG! YOU'D BE WRONG BECAUSE HERE'S TIM CURRY IN MAKEUP SINGING A SONG! And wearing pearls, a corset, panties, and fishnets because he's a sweet transvestite from transsexual Translyvania! It's an absolute left turn for the movie to take, and I don't want to say anything more in-depth than that about the portrayal because I know my own goddamned lane. It turns out, though, that Tim Curry is indeed playing an omnisexual transvestite Dr. Frankenstein-like named after a fucking hot dog who, it's revealed, is doing the whole Dr. Frankenstein thing of creating life and becoming God. His creation is not an affront to God or a monster or anything like that. No, no. Dr. Frank N. Furter creates an oiled-up blonde muscleman named Rocky to have sex with. We're still kind of in the realm of the 50's B-movie parody, but we really have taken one hell of a turn. It attempts to invade after a few more songs when Meat Loaf literally busts down a door and starts singing about rock and roll and motorcycles before Frank beats him to death with an ice pick. So yeah, watching Tim Curry in this movie definitely took a lot of the edge off of him as the portrayer of a dread beast who could transcend reality to come and kill me, but he's still got fangs. Metaphorical ones this time, though.

Okay, let's get to it. There's a new beast lurking 'round these parts. We dealt with the fun of Halloween during these past few years, and yesterday we tackled the sheer fear of it. Our new beast is that of Sexuality. Not one you run in terror from, not usually, but Sexuality will be ingrained into the later bits of media we'll be tackling. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is dripping with Sexuality, clashing against the wholesome 50's values naturally instilled in it by this being a homage to spooky movies of that era. More to the point, it wins. Frank is successful in seducing both Brad and Janet separately, at first trying to trick them by disguising himself as the other. Not cool, but eventually they do surrender to the pleasure. Janet sees Brad and Frank in the bedroom together via security camera, and realizes what's gone down. It's unclear if she had sex with Frank, but it's highly implied I suppose. Brad and Frank almost certainly did it, though. Janet finds a wounded Rocky and then we get to a song that basically sums up why the movie was so effective for me on this viewing.

Yeah. That song's message can be summed up as "FUCK ME NOW, OILY MUSCLE MAN, I WANT IT" and I love it. Without going into much detail, I'll say that the sex-positive nature of this film oozing with Sexuality resonates particularly well with me given the summer I've had. We're gonna hurry through shit a bit here, but Frank and Brad catch Janet and Rocky after they've done it, and Frank is just furious. Really? Frank is pissed off? The guy who waltzed into Brad and Janet's rooms, knowing full well that they were engaged, to fuck them? He's pissy now because his special muscleman fucked someone else? IT'S NOT SO NICE WHEN THE HIGH HEEL'S ON THE OTHER FOOT, IS IT, FRANK? Anyway, dinner time, Frank serves up Meat Loaf for dinner, half the cast gets turned into statues by a Medusa beam (now there's a kink for you) and de-Medusa beamed just in time to be all wearing the corset and panties and fishnets with clownish looking makeup (Yikes, we're invoking that dread beast a little) and sing about how goddamn sensual they're all feeling. For whatever reason, it's some of Janet's lines that resonate with me again. A sampler:

I feel released
Bad times deceased
My confidence has increased
Reality is here

Again, not too much detail, very specific to my own experience, blah blah. This is basically Frank's show now, and for a good seven and a half minutes it's all his... until that hunchback fellow and the maid burst in to take it over. Frank's mission was a failure, his lifestyle too extreme... and so he and Rocky are killed for it. The 50's B-movie has had enough of this goopy Sexuality shit, and it blasts it away with a laser beam of pure antimatter. It turns out that Transsexual, Transylvania is in space. The planet Transsexual, in the galaxy of Transylvania. The entire goddamned spooky mansion blasts off, and that's basically it. That's The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's a very good musical! In fact, I only just learned before writing this that it's being remade and aired on TV in like two weeks! With Laverne Cox in the Tim Curry role, and Tim Curry as our narrator type! Wow! I wonder if it will be good, but for now this movie can take its place in our little project. The de-fanging of Tim Curry, the invoking of the 50's B-movie mixed with our sultry new Halloween beast's special kisses of Sexuality, and some pretty goddamned catchy songs. One wonders how this new creature's influence will be used? For good, like I and that particular group of friends of mine have been using it these past few months?

Or for evil?

...pation.