“Rocky Horror” in 2024: Can it Still be Relevant for a New Generation?

After realizing that our interns had never heard of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” we sent them to a screening to experience it.

Boulder Theater Marque Reads: The Rocky Horror Picture Show by Morgan Taylor

The 1975 film “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is an absolute cultural institution that defies generational boundaries, or at least that’s what I’ve always thought. Although the film came out almost a full decade before I was born, I was always surrounded by this film. Growing up in the ‘90s, the local newspaper’s movie section, which was the only way to look up movie times back then, would have all the new movies and then the one listing for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” that played at the same theater every Saturday night at midnight. Everyone I grew up with knew how to do the “Time Warp.” I rented the movie when I was a teenager and watched it for the first time at home, knowing that I wanted to go see a live performance of it someday. I finally got my chance in college when a whole bunch of us took a trip to the local shadow cast performance. But even before I went to my first screening of the movie, I knew about callbacks, I knew what a shadow cast was, and I even knew about the virgin sacrifice.

In some ways, the movie is particularly important to queer culture. The film plays with gender and sexuality in ways that are very relatable to the queer community. For a lot of trans women, myself included, going to a screening of “Rocky Horror” was one of the first times we were able to feel safe crossdressing. Unfortunately, the writer of the original stage musical, Richard O’Brien, is a bit of a controversial figure, having at one point identified as transgender but then years later saying offensive things about transgender people’s identities not being real. But, at this point, the film belongs to the queer community more than it belongs to O’Brien anyway. Furthermore, some people feel the film hasn’t aged well with its outdated use of the term “transvestite” and the questionable attitude that Dr. Frank-n-Furter has towards consent. Still, it’s such an important part of queer history that, while problematic, I feel like we need to consider it in the context of the time it was made.

But while the film is important to the queer community, I’ve never thought of it as solely a queer cultural phenomenon. It was so ubiquitous to me growing up that I always felt, whether you’re queer or not, this is a movie everyone should know. So imagine our surprise when our editor-in-chief, Shavonne Blades, and I were doing an initial orientation with our interns to talk about how to load events in our calendar and, while discussing the screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” at the Boulder Theater on Halloween night, we found that none of our interns had seen this iconic film, with some of them never having heard of it.

We came up with the idea, then, to invite our interns to check out the film and report back on it for their first writing assignment. We got two volunteers: our editorial intern, Owen Houtakker, and our marketing intern (who’s planning to switch over to editorial), Morgan Taylor. We sent them, completely uninitiated, into a Halloween night performance, always the biggest night for the film, and below is what they had to say as newcomers to an event that, for many of us, is a big part of our history.

Morgan Taylor

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t that! This was my first experience at the renowned “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I initially thought I was just walking into a regular movie-like setting, but immediately knew I was in for a treat.

The line to enter was all the way around the block. While waiting, I was offered a mysterious “throw bag,” which I ended up declining. Upon entering, it was incredibly packed to the point that I could barely even find a seat. We ended up sitting on the aisle steps of the balcony. Many others surrounded us, anticipating the movie.

A crowd of people enter the Boulder Theater on Halloween night by Morgan Taylor

When I finally was able to look to the front, I was met with actors who were performing the movie live while it was playing behind them. This was apparently called a shadow cast. This made the whole experience a lot more exciting, with actors using extreme gusto to evoke the audience’s emotions more.

The shadow cast made the entire experience different. You could tell they loved to embrace the culture of this film when performing and were extremely comfortable and liberated doing so. I felt it made everyone else in the theater just as comfortable and ready to engage in the performance.

The audience participation was crucial in deciding whether the show would be unforgettable or uneventful. Passionate fans would yell callbacks and shout out phrases that play on the movie’s dialogue to make the audience members connect with those around them in a playful way. I finally got to the moment when I discovered what the “throw bags” were for when I saw toilet paper and playing cards thrown through the air.

At that moment, being in such a fun and participatory audience felt like I belonged to a big community. I finally understood why this film was called a “cult classic.” I felt I experienced a unique involvement while watching this film with the group I did. When I realized it was nearing the end, I was a little sad to know we would all have to disburse and that the night would be over.

I think this movie helped those in the LGBTQ community feel seen, comfortable, and able to express themselves in the 1970s when others made that difficult. It also promoted sexual empowerment for not only men but females as well. When a shadow cast was added in 76’ I think this enhanced the cult culture and formed a community with those who feel the movie speaks to and for them.

Being able to experience this film in 2024 and seeing the love and support it gets from people across multiple generations just shows how impactful it was for this community and those around it. Having this movie be an outlet for the LGBTQ community to feel like they can express themselves and have that feeling last for decades is inspirational.

As someone new to this “cult classic” and never having experienced anything like “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” the atmosphere makes you feel a part of this community whether you identify as LGBTQ or not. It was interesting to know this film was released about 50 years ago and yet has so many different representations of different sexualities that are often under-represented in recent cinema. It was honestly an incredible experience to be able to be a part of this community and fan base. I would definitely recommend everyone to watch and experience this film.

Audience Members throw toilet paper rolls at the RHPS shadow cast by Morgan Taylor

Owen Houtakker

I had never even heard of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” before it was off-handedly mentioned in a meeting. Once my boss heard that a great majority of the interns had not even heard of it, she felt it was necessary to fill that cultural gap in our knowledge by sending us to the aforementioned show at the Boulder Theater.

I do not think I could ever have been prepared for what I was attending, and any attempted explanation would have fallen drastically short. In a sense, I do not think an explanation could ever do a show of this cultural magnitude justice simply due to its impact. Overall, though, after finally being introduced and seeing the show, I would say no other description fits better than it is a one-of-a-kind experience, akin to having your eyes fully opened to the world around you.

The coordination between every single piece of the show was something I had never even considered a possibility until I saw it enacted in front of my very eyes. The timing of each and every line creates a wonderful coalescence between the entire cast, the film, and the viewers themselves. It was a true hoot, with a mixing of old and new that somehow makes it feel nostalgic and current at the same time.

The atmosphere was one of acceptance and celebration, yet intense in a way, showing people’s true passion for being whatever they want to be. This acceptance showed through the performances, with every line being delivered with passion and love not only for the material itself but the message that was being sent. The entirety of the theater embodied that message, allowing for a raucous attitude that never felt intimidating or out of place. This gave the atmosphere a feeling of comradery and togetherness that I have not felt with such passion in many other places in my life.

I struggle to express how engrossing the seemingly boundless quirks the show provided left you wondering what smart or audacious trick they would surprise you with next. I can only imagine how eye-opening this show would have been in the 1970s, as my eyes were opened, and as we know, our current society is much more accepting and open to these types of concepts.

Overall, experiencing “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for the first time this Halloween was a wonderful experience that opened my eyes to a fuller spectrum of people in this world and how to make them feel comfortable and accepted in our current society.

“Rocky Horror” shadow cast at Boulder Theater Oct. 31, 2024 by Morgan

I’d like to think that our interns are outliers in not knowing about this film, but I fear they’re not. And that’s a shame because, even without having been as immersed in the culture of “Rocky Horror” as I was, they had similar experiences to mine upon their first time getting to see a live shadow cast performance of the film. Maybe the film’s time has passed at this point, but I would like to think that this movie, which was so vital to the budding queer community in 1975, still has enough significance that it can teach something to young people in 2024. And, in light of the dawning of a new Trump administration, it seems that it might have a lot to teach a new generation.

It’s interesting that both of our interns mentioned how liberated the whole crowd felt. That’s always been a central theme of both the film and the live events that have grown around it. “Rocky Horror” is a remnant of another time when liberation was harder to come by, a time when those brief moments of liberation were heavily frowned upon. In 2024, we’ve seen queer rights come a long way, but we’ve also seen some really horrific backlashes to those advances in recent years. When society becomes more repressive, a movie like “Rocky Horror” becomes even more necessary.

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