Rocky Horror: cult film story told in new documentary

Strange Journey, The Story of Rocky Horror is billed as the definitive tale of the 1970s musical, which continues to tour and screen in UK theatres five decades on.

It’s directed by Linus O’Brien, son of The Rocky Horror Picture Show‘s creator and star Richard O’Brien.

Tim Curry played Dr Frank N Furter in both the original show upstairs at The Royal Court in London and the cult 1975 movie. (Image: Mick Rock) He was just a child when his dad’s famous creation was taking the world by storm, but he still remembers many of the performers who helped to make it iconic.

O’Brien was an out of work actor when he drew on the music and optics of glam rock – and his love of sci fi and horror B movies – to pen the music, lyrics and script for the show.

The boundary-pushing anarchic depiction of aliens from the planet Transsexual seducing a straight couple who had broken down near their castle was first staged in 1973 in a 60-seat experimental space at The Royal Court in Chelsea.

A still from the film showing the original poster for The Rocky Horror Show outside The Royal Court Theatre in 1973. 

Featuring catchy songs like The Time Warp and Hot Patootie, it was a word of mouth hit and soon moved to a larger venue on the Kings Road where it ran for six years.

By October 1974 the movie was being filmed in a gothic country house in Berkshire, and by March 1975 the show had debuted on Broadway.

But it might all have ended there. Rocky ran on Broadway for just 45 performances, and the film was panned by critics upon its release in August 1975.

Primrose Hill actress Patricia Quinn played Magenta in both the original show and the film and is interviewed in the documentary. 

But then at Midnight Screenings, New Yorkers started turning up dressed as the characters and talking back and miming to the on-screen script.

Rocky Horror’s cult status spread, it was credited with influencing the punk rock fashion of fishnets and dyed hair and trailblazing depictions of sexuality – and became the longest running theatrical release in film history.

For the documentary Linus interviews the likes of Tim Curry who played Frank N Furter, and Primrose Hill actress Patricia Quinn – the original Magenta in the film and stage show.

The Belfast-born performer moved to London in 1969 as a teenager to study at the Drama Centre in Prince of Wales Road, Kentish Town.

Richard O’Brien is the writer and star of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, who played Riff Raff the handyman. (Image: Supplied) Her disembodied lips are famously used in the film’s title sequence miming to Science Fiction/Double Feature and she once told an interviewer that – with scant special effects – they blacked out her face, drew on the lips, and put her on camera.

“But the mouth kept going out of frame so they screwed my head into a clamp thing.”

She added that when she was first approached to perform at the Royal Court: “I said to my agent ‘what is this about?’ And he said: ‘I think it’s something about a circus.’

“He wasn’t wrong because I’ve been in this circus ever since.”

Linus also interviews Susan Sarandon and Barry Borthwick who played straight couple Brad and Janet in the film.

The documentary is a deeply personal tribute as well as exploring a phenomenon he says touched so many lives.

“Several years ago, I stumbled upon the YouTube page for the song I’m Going Home and as I read through the comments, I was overcome with emotion – each person shared their personal story and the deep place the song held in their heart,” he says.

“While Rocky Horror had always been a major part of my life and I was well aware of its societal impact, this was the first time I truly grasped the enormity of its influence on individual lives.

“That realisation became the genesis of this film. I understood what a meaningful and layered story this was – Rocky’s rise, fall, and rise again; its influence on music, cinema, and pop culture; the unique cult phenomenon it fostered and the safe space it created for all kinds of people; and the unfortunate reality that, in today’s political climate, Rocky is as relevant as ever.”

He adds: “Rocky was created around the time I was born, and I grew up in its world – becoming the youngest person to see the original stage production in London at the age of four.”

“Even though Rocky is in my blood and I’d heard so many stories over the years, this was a different experience. Reconnecting with the cast and crew I had grown up around was incredibly rewarding.

“Meeting up with Nell, Barry, Susan, Tim, Pat, Jim, and Lou was especially meaningful – they knew me as a baby, and for most of them, the last time they saw me, I was eight years old.

“Speaking with fans and people whose lives were deeply affected by the film was both eye-opening and humbling. Rocky Horror is unique in the way it created communities and spaces for people to express themselves without judgment.

“This documentary is as much a celebration of them as it is of Rocky Horror itself. The fans have made it their own, giving it a life beyond what my dad or any of its original creators could have imagined.”

Strange Journey, The Story of Rocky Horror is in cinemas on October 3.