The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Analysis

We live in strange, confusing and quite scary times. Being home after months of living in a buzzing, student filled city where being bored isn't an option has given me a kind of delayed whiplash. So much is going on with so little to do... it's odd.

Before I left to go back home, myself and some friends got together to watch the 1975 cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It was not the first time I'd seen it but I think watching it in a group was the first time I understood it.

Amongst the panic and unique circumstances we find ourself in, watching one of the most bizarre films ever made almost felt natural. It was the perfect thing to watch because at least for a while it was impossible to think about anything else! Rocky Horror has that kind of hypnotic quality where you don't really know what you're watching, you don't always understand it but you're invested...

...and the songs are awesome!

To understand the meaning behind this maze of weirdness we're going to cover a few important topics. The first is B-movies, especially the hammer horror films of the 60's and 70's. The second is LGBT+ history of the time period and a long tradition of queer coded villains.

Ready? Let's do the time warp again!

1. Context

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a musical, sci-fi, horror, comedy film based on the stage play The Rocky Horror Show. The play was written by Richard O'Brien who plays the sinister hunchbacked figure Riff Raff in the film.

The plot is about newly engaged couple Brad and Janet. The most innocent, law abiding goodie two shoes couple you could possibly imagine. On a trip to meet their old science professor Dr Everett Scott to announce their engagement, their car gets a flat tire. They go looking for help and find it at the sinister castle on a hill that belongs to transvestite mad scientist Dr Frankenfurter.

Dr Frankenfurter invites them to stay the night and introduces them to his most recent creation, a ripped muscle man (complete with blonde hair and a tan) called Rocky.

It gets weirder...

Throughout their time at the castle Brad and Janet's eyes are opened to the pleasures of the flesh as they both cheat on each other with Frankenfurter and then Janet with Rocky. In the meanwhile secrets are revealed about Frankenfurters old flame and partial brain donor to Rocky, Eddie, who gets murdered by Frankenfurter and turned into a dining room table. Then Dr Scott turns up looking for his nephew before it's revealed that Frankenfurter and his two servants are actually aliens and must return to Transilvania. However, the servants decide to betray Frankenfurter and kill him before the entire castle sets off leaving Brad and Janet behind.

There's also a ton of other little weird details that happen throughout the film but that's the in-a-nutshell version. Essentially this is a really hard film to describe to someone and had me lost the first couple of times I watched it. I've been told that the stage version is much more coherent but having never seen it it's hard to say.

Before I continue with the analysis I'm going to address the outdated terminology used in the film. Frankenfurter still uses the he/him pronouns in the film and identifies as transvestite, a man who dresses up as a woman instead of transgender which refers to someone who wants to be another gender. He does use the term "transexual" in his opening song which by today's standards would indicate that he wanted to have a sex change but this isn't how his character is presented in the film. Essentially the terminology as far as LGBT+ politics is concerned is outdated... It's the 70's so I think we can forgive them though. I'm using he/him pronouns for Frankenfurter as the film does and not labelling any of the other characters sexualities because the film doesn't do that either which I think is partly why it's stood the test of time.

2. Hammer Horror Influences, Parody and Pastiche

The most notable visual influence on Rocky Horror are the low budget, gothic hammer horror films made in the 50's through to the 70's. These include films like the Christopher Lee Dracula, The Curse of the Werewolf, One Million Years B.C, and The Curse of Frankenstein. All these films have a distinctive look characterized by their strong shadows influenced by the German expressionist movement that gave us films like The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

Rocky horror strikes a balance between playing homage to these classics and parody. The production design, especially during the time warp sequence is textbook hammer horror. The beware sign on the gates is definitely parody but the iconic table cloth reveal of dead Eddie lends all of its weight to hammer horror iconography as Frankenfurter chases Janet up the cobweb ridden staircase of his castle. The film even acknowledges its influences in the song Over at the Frankenstein Place in a very metta way and in its opening song which lists B-movie tropes.

A lot of the ham fisted dialogue is also a parody of hammer horror. While this is more a comment on films of the past in general a lot of the dialogue in the film is ridiculously expositional and over the top which lends itself to a lot of the films comedy. The film is also hilariously self aware with its dance numbers, cheesy one-liners and fourth wall breaks.

Personally I love the campy, gothic, vintage look of the film. One of the reasons the film has survived as long as it has in pop culture is due to how distinctively theatrical its set design is and how cleverly it blends its genres while making none of them subtle.

Parody or Pastiche I think is hard to say. While there are definitely visual jokes that mock hammer, without it, Rocky Horror wouldn't have much of its story especially in regards to Rocky's creation being a direct parallel to Frankenstein only for more... adult reasons.

3. LGBT+ Subtext and History

I think a lot of the reasons people (understandably) get lost when watching Rocky Horror is because the themes and issues it's commenting on were not talked about much at the time and are only recently being talked about in a modern historical context.

While the big political milestones of the gay liberation movement are well documented the social issues and unhealthy environment that stemmed from the oppression of queer people is somewhat misty territory.

a. Frankenfurter

The most controversial character is the villain Frankenfurter. Frankenfurter's villainy is undeniable. He's a murderer with a god complex who takes joy in manipulating the people around him. There are multiple interpretations of this character but my personal interpretation is that Frankenfurter represents the dark side of the LGBT+ community in the time before homosexual legalization. He is a character who relishes in every forbidden thing even at the expense of others emotions, a theme that was unfortunately prevalent during that time especially in regards to chem-sex.

Frankenfurter's queerness isn't what makes him evil, it's his attitude towards it. When he's revealed to be an alien this is also a heavily symbolic. He feels so displaced and lonely, his vulnerability becoming apparent in the "I'm Going Home" song. This could be a metaphor for how queer people were treated as "other" and not welcomed into normal society, something that has clearly influenced Frankenfurter's attitudes as he tries to control the people around him to create a fake visard of acceptance.

b. Rocky

Rocky himself is another symbol of LGBT+ social issues however this one is still very relevant. The idea of a perfect person and looks being regarded above all else is something the LGBT+ community is still guilty of although the straight community are just as bad!

Rocky is essentially a sex object who longs for independence completely unaware of the world outside. Even though he is the very image of male perfection in Frankenfurter's mind he still feels like a freak. In many ways Rocky is the biggest victim of the film, and possibly the most important protagonist as he is the one who proves to Frankenfurter that he can not control everything. Even though he created Rocky he can't manipulate him to show affection if he does not want to.

c. Eddie

Out of all the mad things that happen in the film Eddie's storyline was what confused me the most the first few times I watched it. Essentially Eddie is Frankenfurter's old boyfriend who he fell out with. Eddie formed a relationship with one of Frankenfurter's groupies. Furious, Frankenfurter froze Eddie and took half of his brain to give to Rocky. However when Rocky is born Eddie unfreezes. Frankenfurter kills Eddie with a pick-axe telling the crowd of on-lookers that it was a mercy killing.

While we are not told explicitly I think Eddie was someone who Frankenfurter actually cared about but his loss of control over him caused him to spiral into the mad scientist character we meet him as at the beginning of the film. During the song Eddie's Teddy we're told about what kind of person Eddie was. The most important line in that song I think is Columbia the groupie's advice to Eddie "Stay sane inside insanity". I think this perfectly sums up the films LGBT+ themes. Trying to stay sane during an insane situation is incredibly difficult and not everyone, like Eddie, is strong enough to do it.

d. Brad and Janet

Brad and Janet are set up from the very beginning to be the perfect normal couple. They act as the audience's eyes but many have also drawn biblical parallels. Brad and Janet as Adam and Eve makes a lot of sense, especially if you put the other characters in other creation story roles. Frankenfurter could be interpreted as the snake who lures Brad and Janet into taking the forbidden fruit.

4. Conclusion

This film is like marmite for a lot of people in and out of the LGBT+ community. In many ways Rocky Horror is extremely outdated but in other ways it's one of the only portraits we have of a time in LGBT+ history from the communities perspective. So many films these days portray LGBT+ characters as flawless, a mixture of companies afraid of the backlash a bad LGBT+ character would create from the community and the community being terrified that negative representation could lead to hate against them, which in many cases is a valid concern.

What's so special about Rocky Horror is that the characters don't have any defined sexualities. It's one of the few films where a character's queerness is explored in direct association to their own feelings towards it which effects how they are as a person which I think is something everyone in the community can relate to in one way or another.

Love it or loathe it The Rocky Horror Picture Show is an important landmark in LGBT+ film and as abstract as it seems on the surface I hope I've been able to demystify some of its themes and intentions. So maybe it's time to give it another watch!