Today is Halloween and this week's Cinema Sunday is coming your way not once but twice (YES! TWICE, I say! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!) with a double dose of movie madness known as...
Earlier today, I posted about Horror #1, a mean green mother from outer space from Little Shop of Horrors!
Now it's time for ....
HORROR #2
A sweet transvestite from Transexual, Transylvannia.
In today's first Cinema Sunday post, I noted that Andrea and I were familiar with Little Shop of Horrors but our daughter Randie had never seen it.
Now it's time for my wife's cinematic education as we introduce her to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Andrea had never experienced the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Well, in a way, she still hasn't. While home from college, Randie decided it was time to introduce her mother to the wonders of the Time Warp and Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
Watching this movie at home is a surreal experience. I got to see Rocky Horror way back when in college with a crowd of other people a couple of times. At one showing I attended, someone actually shouted out, "Hey! Keep it down! I'm trying to watch this!"
As a rite of collegiate passage, Randie herself got to immerse herself in the full Rocky Horror experience with crowds of oddly dressed people shouting back at the screen.
I suppose I should try to summarize the plot:
Young couple Brad & Janet have car trouble in the middle of nowhere.
They seek assistance at a nearby castle. There they find a strange archaic edifice home to a horde of oddly costumed people and their host, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a full lipped black haired bundle of sexual energy in a corset and stockings.
He develops a nefarious interest in Brad and Janet as he seduces them both.
The big event of the evening is the unveiling of his new creation, a blond Adonis man named Rocky.
Meat Loaf (the singer, not the ground beef concoction) arrives, causes a commotion and is killed.
Later, Meat Loaf is served for dinner (sorry, still the singer).
Brad and Janet as well as a scientist who wandered into the plot are dressed like Dr. Frank-N-Furter for a musical number and...
Well...
You know...
Stuff... happens.
Stuff just happens. Really, what do you want from me?
OK, ostensibly The Rock Horror Picture Show is a homage, a pastiche if you will, of science fiction and horror B movies from the 1930s to the 1960s. So have fun spotting the influences of movies ranging from Frankenstein to It Conquered the World.
Beyond Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the influences for Dr. Frank-N-Furter are less obvious. Tim Curry manifests a unique character, a cross dressing pan sexual unlike anything ever seen in American cinema. He's wicked, naughty but just out to have some fun.
It is rather jarring to see Frank-N-Furter succumb to rage in his killing of Meat Loaf and the total descent into pyschotic behavior of serving up Meat Loaf (the singer, not the ground beef dish) for dinner. It seems a bit out of step with the rest of his strange agenda.
I guess if you're going to call your movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show, there needs to be some horror in it.
I think the true horror of these proceedings is the constant affront to American homogenization, the uniformity that American society imposes on itself, a specific pattern of "acceptable" behavior, of dress and expressing sexuality. The chaste and virginal Janet and Brad don't need to see Meat Loaf murdered in order to feel horror; they were horrified by the mere appearance of a man in make up and lingerie.
Or am I thinking about this too much?
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a weird ass movie where weird ass people do weird ass things for weird ass reasons.
Andrea watched this movie with a bemused interest, not unlike Aunt Harriet watching Batman & Robin fight the Joker on TV, thinking that the Caped Crusaders seem like nice boys but she's glad Bruce and Dick aren't involved in such things. That was Andrea's expression watching this movie.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is an interesting experience but it's best watched with a friend.
A lot of friends.
_______________________
Later today is the premiere of a new season of Doctor Who. With that in mind, let's take a look at remarkable video that mashes up Doctor Who with the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Let's do the Time Warp again!
Happy Halloween! Stay safe and remember to be good to one another.
BLOG NOTE: the review of today's Doctor Who premier will appear in Doctor Who Is NEW! on Wednesday.
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