When discussing what exactly makes Rocky Horror Picture Show a cult classic, several points come to mind: it was a box office bust, met with critique and confusion en masse, that eventually found its audience in Manhattan’s midnight movie scene. First at the Waverly Theater, then in neighboring counties, it slowly attracted more and more crowds of Riff Raffs and Magentas (the film’s alien-servant-siblings), straight-laced Brads and Janets, and, of course, Frank-N-Furters in full-faced glam who shouted back at the screen. Soon enough, devotees with an affinity for wayward, so-bad-its-good charm took to the stage and made a routine out of the debauched sing-a-long, or so the legend goes.
Few films have achieved near-spiritual status and even fewer can say they’re the longest-running theatrical release of all time. But Rocky Horror checks all those boxes — however messily — that, to consider it a film, let alone a cult classic film, seems an understatement. But now, 50 years since its initial theatrical release, the phenomenon and universe time warping all around it continues drawing in new generations of fans, freaks, baby gays, and first time attendees, often marked virgins with a lipsticked “V” to the forehead upon arrival. It’s a tradition so far from traditional, a rite of passage that, to some, feels profane, but to so many others is scripture.
“Lots of modern fandoms have cult followings, but Rocky is very unique in that it’s 50 years old. But that’s what people crave: they want that connection, that feeling of being a fan and being a part of a community that comes from a piece of media,” University of Georgia college student Valor Lekas, 19, tells Teen Vogue. The sophomore was first introduced to the film at just nine years old, all thanks to their father who used to attend shadow cast showings while he was in college. In full-circle nature, Lekas is now in their own university’s long-standing student production, much to their family’s thrill.
To Lekas, Rocky Horror finds that perfectly imperfect blend of cinema and theater, and its appeal lies in an absolute destruction of any sort of fourth wall. In the movie, characters such as Dr. Everett V. Scott, the UFO-inspecting government official, often address the audience, which is only amplified in the call-and-repeat of shadow performances. After all, the movie’s earliest iteration was The Rocky Horror Show, a musical staged by the film’s director (and original Riff Raff) Richard O’Brien in London circa 1973, just two years before the picture show came to be.
