“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” – 1975. Dir. Jim Sharman

With Tim Curry, Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon, Meat Loaf, Patricia Quinn, Little Nell with Charles Grey and Richard O’Brien

“Frank-n-Furter it’s all over. Your mission is a failure, your lifestyle’s too extreme. I’m your new commander. You are now my prisoner. We return to Transylvania. Prepare the transit beam.”

I was in 6^th grade, and one of my friends was telling me about “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and offered to sell me the VHS for a dollar. So I went home, asked my Mom for a dollar, and when she asked me what for, I told her it was for “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. Needless to say – she didn’t give it to me. So I scraped together change, and brought my friend two quarters and an assortment of dimes and nickels.

I remember the cover art to the VHS box vividly – it was all black, with red lips on the front, and bright red bloody text displaying the title. I was taken aback. I rushed home, and put in the VHS – I had a good three hours before my Mom would get home from work. What I witnessed was one of the most intense and confusing things of my life.

I don’t want to call this film an obsession of mine, perhaps it’s more of a compulsion. I can’t get enough of it. When I was in high school, I had a tape deck in my Toyota pickup truck, for my birthday my Mom bought me a six disc CD changer, while it was being installed in Best Buy, the first CD I bought for my new changer was “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” soundtrack.

This film is a fusion of the Golden Era horror classics, Douglas Sirk style melodramas of the 1950’s, the raunchiness of the 1970’s and the freed sexuality of the 60’s. This is unlike any film I have ever seen. The themes to this film are all charged on sexuality, but with a blanket of campy horror. This is one of those films that are a rare cinematic treat.

The music to this film is phenomenal, and I do consider this film the finest musical ever made. The music to the film is that of pure perfection. If Stanley Kubrick made a musical – this is what the film would look like.

Tim Curry who plays the diabolical Dr. Frank-n-Furte is working on his new creation Rocky, who is six feet tall, hasblonde hair with a tan – is a transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania. His Igor inspired Riff Raff (Richard O’Brien who also put together the London musical production of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” years earlier) hunches around with him, as well as his two groupies Magenta (Patricia Quinn) and Columbia (Little Nell) sing and dance around Frank-n-Furter and Riff Raff.

The music to this film is wonderful. Aside from the staple song, “Let’s Do the Time Warp Again” – I find many of these songs very powerful. I’m not ashamed to admit, but I do know all these songs by heart. I haven’t seen this film in years; I watched the “Glee” episode – the only “Glee” episode I’ve ever watched – I felt that the homage they showed to the film was excellent. There were things that I didn’t like very much, but the one thing that I love, love, love, love, love, loved was when John Stamos sang the Meat Loaf song “Hot Patootie”. John Stamos officially joined my top tier of mancrushes.

This film is so insanely ludicrous it’s hard to explain what it’s about. A lot of this film I still don’t fully understand (I don’t think you’re supposed too), but all I know is that this film is a lot of fucking fun. It’s amazing, and it’s excellent. This film is an amazing feat, it’s challenging and it’s inspiring. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is a benchmark in American cinema, and it is a film that is just as important as “Citizen Kane”, “Taxi Driver” and “Lawrence of Arabia” – plus – it’s a lot of fun.

On a Blu-Ray note: The audio is superb and the video transfer is far beyond your expectations, this is one of the best Blu Ray special editions that I have encountered. Steal this movie.

Rating: 10/10