Musical / Parody / Comedy

See a B-Movie

Everything you need to know about the genre of The Rocky Horror Picture Show is in the opening number, "Science Fiction/Double Feature."

CHORUS: See androids fighting Brad and Janet. […] At the late night, double feature, picture show.

It references classic sci-fi B-movies like Flash Gordon, (1936) Forbidden Planet (1956), and The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Maybe The Rocky Sci-Fi Picture Show would be a better title.

The film itself makes explicit references to these cult classics at the end. Magenta appears with hair done by the same stylist who did the Bride of Frankenstein's bouffant. Frank and his cronies turn out to be aliens from another planet. And Frank gets his wish to be Fay Wray, although not in the way he intended.

FRANK: Whatever happened to Fay Wray? That delicate, satin-draped frame? As it clung to her thigh, how I started to cry, 'cause I wanted to be dressed just the same.

Fay Wray played the woman who was carried by King Kong in the 1933 RKO Pictures production. When Frank is killed by Riff Raff, Rocky carries him to the top of the RKO radio tower. Lasers bounce off Rocky's body, like bullets off King Kong himself. But the tower topples, and like the great ape, Rocky meets his death.

All of these references are done in both loving homage and exaggerated parody. The movie is intended to be just as campy and melodramatic as the old pictures it references, perhaps even more so. To illustrate, we have transcribed the following exchange for you in exacting detail. (It's long.)

BRAD: Dr. Scott.
DR. SCOTT: Janet!
JANET: Dr. Scott!
BRAD: Janet!
JANET: Brad!
FRANK: Rocky!
ROCKY: …
DR. SCOTT: Janet!
JANET: Dr. Scott!
BRAD: Janet!
JANET: Brad!
FRANK: Rocky!
ROCKY: …
DR. SCOTT: Janet!
JANET: Dr. Scott!
BRAD: Janet!
JANET: Brad!
FRANK: Rocky!
ROCKY: …

The main characters are shocked to find themselves in the same room together, and their reaction shots, typically a lazy way to show surprise in film, are played over and over (and over) again for comedic effect.

As with Frank-N-Furter, there's a heart buried underneath all the campy parody, but you might not notice it the first time you watch it. You have to dig a bit to find it, and we don't mean the way they dig into Eddie at the end.

OK, maybe "horror" is an appropriate title. The movie isn't afraid to cross into any genre it wants to.