Should I watch "rocky horror picture show"?

[NecroDancer]

Or should I wait for it in 2016?

[Kitten Champion]

Why not watch both?

You might not like it - as it's a niche work and I wouldn't casually recommend it - but if you're curious enough to make a thread about it doesn't it just seem quicker to answer it yourself?

[NecroDancer]

Good idea, I feel like an idiot for not thinking to do that (first week of school is a killer).

[Dienekes]

If I can make a suggestion either go to a viewing of it or watch it with some humorous friends. If you just watch it by yourself not in a particularly light hearted mood it's just a kinda crappy movie. But at a full viewing? It's a weird and entertaining experience.

[Winter_Wolf]

They're actually trying to remake it? Man that's sad. The whole point of it is how terrible it is, and going to the theater to participate in the show. The floor show is what it's about. Trying to recapture that, well I'll be impressed if they can, but in all probability it's going to be too tryhard and fail so hard it can't even manage the cult following. Definitely go to a theater showing of the original if you can manage.

[Razade]

Neither, it's a cult classic and like most cult classics isn't worthy of that mantle.

[Aedilred]

I'd watch the original, preferably in the company of people who've seen it before. Not sure about the full viewing, though: they always seemed to me a bit... sad.

It's not a very good film, albeit it has its moments, mainly in the early-middle portion where you get some impressively charismatic camp from Tim Curry and a bravura Meat Loaf performance. Incidentally, that those are some of the high points of the film should give you an idea of the calibre of material you're dealing with.

It is however also something of a pop culture staple, especially among students, and for that reason is worth checking out if only so you pick up on the relevant references when you later come to sneer at it you're doing so on an informed basis.

I don't really see the point in remaking it though. If I remember rightly they originally attempted a MTV remake about five or six years ago and there was outcry then. I know there's a fresh audience now, but given that part of its appeal was always the supposedly subversive sexuality and kink on display, and in this post-Fifty Shades world the whole thing is really rather amusingly vanilla, I can't imagine it working all that well.

But then really with very few exceptions my answer to any query of "should I watch this film?" is almost always yes, all other things being equal. There are only three films I can recall watching that I'd refuse to recommend to anyone on the basis of their content, and the remainder tend to be Boll/Bay-type efforts where I don't think anyone should watch their films because it seems to encourage the directors to make more of their awful work.


It's boil-in-the-bag perversion for repressed students with too many pictures of Betty Blue, Blue Velvet and The Big Blue on their blue bloody walls!

[factotum]

There are only three films I can recall watching that I'd refuse to recommend to anyone on the basis of their content

So you'd recommend people watch the Inspector Gadget movie? You're a monster, clearly. :smallwink:

[Yabvi]

Yes you should, it's great.

[BWR]

RHPS was OK. It had a few good moments but was mostly pretty crap. I'd put it in a box somewhere near Plan 9 from Outer Space in the 'so bad it's funny and kinda worth watching for the cultural appeal if nothing else'.

[DoctorFaust]

I would definitely say yes, but it is even funner to watch with other people.

[Manga Shoggoth]

If you like musicals, Sci Fi B-Movies and can stand what seems to be an anti-musical at times, I'd definitely watch the original film first.

As other people have said it is something to watch with other people. In Costume. And an assortment of things to throw at the screen. Even the original stage play has a huge degree of audience participation - I remember seeing people going to the play in costume (most of them going by taxi - I have nothing but admiration for the guy who went to the theater in costume via public transport).

You may have gathered: The original is not a film for taking seriously.

As to whether you see the remake? Well, it depends. If you don't like the original, the chances are you won't like the remake, and DVD purchase or rental is cheaper than a cinema trip. On the other hand if you really like the original then you may hate the remake. Or they could screw up the remake entirely (which may be a point in favour of seeing it or not...)

[Kislath]

There is a reason it's a classic-- it's awesome!

Everything about this movie is memorable. How many other films can compare to that?

The storyline is bizarre. The costumes are trippy. The situation is freeeky. The plot is very odd, but then the subplot kicks in and leaves you wondering what the heck just happened.

The songs are fantastic. This is a musical, and it really delivers on that front. You'll be singing these tunes in your head for years to come.

The acting is hammy, and wonderfully so. The whole movie is a parody/homage to the old science fiction B-movies of the 1950's which were usually spectacularly bad but without any intention of being that way. THIS movie pokes fun at such campiness in a way that is sheer brilliance. The crazy sexual themes would of course NEVER have been allowed in those 50's movies, so making them so over-the-top is kind of the point, although a hard one to grasp.

No other movie has enjoyed a 40-year theatrical run. Bear THAT in mind. Rocky Horror isn't just a show... it's a hobby!

So anyway... yeah. You should absolutely see it, if only to finally get a few dozen jokes you've heard all your life but didn't understand.

[Aedilred]

So you'd recommend people watch the Inspector Gadget movie? You're a monster, clearly. :smallwink:

I didn't say Inspector Gadget wasn't one of the three!

Although it isn't.

Not having seen it, I'm not in a position to advise people on whether to watch it or not. But if someone approached me and said "should I watch Inspector Gadget"? I wouldn't try to talk them out of it. It's almost certainly terrible, but you can find things to appreciate and learn from even in some of the worst films, and everyone's different.

[An Enemy Spy]

I'm sure the remake will be an Oscar worthy cinematic masterpiece, and thus completely butcher the whole point of making a Rocky Horror Picture Show movie, paradoxically making it terrible.

[Ranxerox]

You go by the name NecroDancer. How is it that you have not already seen this movie?

[factotum]

Not having seen it, I'm not in a position to advise people on whether to watch it or not. But if someone approached me and said "should I watch Inspector Gadget"? I wouldn't try to talk them out of it.

OK, if you've never seen it then you can't talk them out of watching it, that's fair. Speaking personally, it's the only film I ever paid to see that I walked out of before the end--it truly is that terrible.

[DeadpanSal]

I didn't like it. It's clearly a product of the times, and if it's something that you're into, it's a little too late to be as resonant as it would have been when it was fresher. If its subject matter isn't your cuppa, then it's also got how dated it is working against it. The format I think is pretty bad, the music is alright but you might know every good song simply through cultural absorption already, and the characters aren't all that great. If you're looking forward to it, maybe temper down that excitement a bit. It was a revolutionary movie. Now it's just kind of a secondhand oddity.

If you're looking for a musical romp through LGBT content, I'd much more recommend Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Rocky Horror is kind of pointlessly weird and strings together nonsense with a good soundtrack. Hedwig is closer to a rock opera, and I think the story and music work together better. Your mileage may vary, but Rocky seemed like a good idea with no payoffs and a non-ending that punctuates its message instead of caring about the story (of which it really doesn't have one, as compared to say Manos). Hedwig actually tells a story, goes into a bit of mythology and I think is just a less awkward experience all around. Either way, I'm sure we'd all like your opinion in the end.

[Psyren]

The remake will star Laverne Cox so that's an automatic watch for me. But yeah, watch the movie if you can and definitely watch a floor show if one is local to you or you're at a con. My first time seeing it was at community theater and the audience got in on the action, it was fantastic.

[Leewei]

Rocky Horror on a small screen with just yourself, or maybe with a friend or two, just wouldn't be that fun.

Rocky Horror at midnight in an indie theater, with a full cast, with props, and with friends (at least some who have seen it before) is wonderful.

[NecroDancer]

You go by the name NecroDancer. How is it that you have not already seen this movie?

The name was based off a necromancer/bard that sang "thriller", "don't fear the reaper" and a necromancer parody of "safety dance".

[The Fury]

Rocky Horror at midnight in an indie theater, with a full cast, with props, and with friends (at least some who have seen it before) is wonderful.

I'm in the minority on this point, but I completely disagree. Rocky Horror has an audience participation part and I'm never quite at ease being the only person in the room with no idea of what I should be doing. Seeing it for the first time at home with people that also hadn't seen it yet was fun though.

[Winter_Wolf]

I'm in the minority on this point, but I completely disagree. Rocky Horror has an audience participation part and I'm never quite at ease being the only person in the room with no idea of what I should be doing. Seeing it for the first time at home with people that also hadn't seen it yet was fun though.

If you don't go through the hazing you're cheating. And people know. Knowing when to yell out "slut!" and "*******" isn't enough. Plus every place changes a few things to keep it fresh. Fresh-ish. Okay it's putrid by now, but at least they're trying. Plus putrid ain't bad, considering it's a Halloween time favorite. At least where I've seen it take hold at all.

[2D8HP]

They're going to remake RHPS? Hoo boy, like some other artifacts of the 1970's (and 80's) I can quote it by heart, despite not having viewed it in very many years ("There's a light over at the Frankenstein place", I also remember 1981's Shock Treatment "If only you knew how to win some prizes").
I suspect I will not even look at the remake for decades, and then realize it's pretty good. But the remake after that (3e RHPS, the stage play being 0e RHS) will be wildly popular, but too unlike the 1975 movie for me to like.
If through some miracle I'm alive for 5e RHPS in 2072 I suspect I'll really like it.
:wink:
I am really, really impressed by your ability to turn everything into a "old D&D was better" statement. Here we have a thread about tolerance for racial fetishes, and somehow you still manage to make your point!

You're like this forums Cato the Elder.

[Ravens_cry]

I would definitely say yes, but it is even funner to watch with other people.
Yes, exactly. Some movies are better alone*, but Rocky Horror is a group experience.
*and I don't mean just that kind.

[Aedilred]

If you don't go through the hazing you're cheating. And people know. Knowing when to yell out "slut!" and "*******" isn't enough. Plus every place changes a few things to keep it fresh. Fresh-ish. Okay it's putrid by now, but at least they're trying. Plus putrid ain't bad, considering it's a Halloween time favorite. At least where I've seen it take hold at all.

It's this whole cultish aspect to it that is one of the reasons I find the live shows so offputting, to be honest. Being in a huge room full of people who are all in on a joke apart from you is the sort of thing that I imagine features in many people's nightmares, including mine. And even on subsequent occasions after the first viewing, as I mentioned above, I find something kind of pathetic about the devotion some fans have for what at the end of the day is just a pretty crappy movie, even if that devotion is ironic.

I'd much rather watch it, whether for the first time or not, with a handful of friends in a relatively private setting, so you have a collective experience but not a public one. (I agree that watching it alone is pointless). Though I've seen it enough times now that I could probably live quite happily without seeing it again anyway.

[Winter_Wolf]

Let's be honest, once is really enough, regardless of which venue one chooses. It's fun if you recognize the younger versions of people who went on to successful acting careers in spite of the film. Tim Curry doesn't count, too much of a gimmee.