alt Hacker NewsI've read that Rocky Horror screenings were something of an event, though I have not experienced it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rocky_Horror_Picture_Show_...
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In the 1970s, a bunch of us would have marathon sessions playing this newfangled game called "Dungeons and Dragons." It was a box set then, AD&D was yet to come. We played in a games club on Yonge Street in Toronto, and just down the street as the kind of sleazy movie theatre that played "Swedish Naturist" movies and any other porn or porn-adjacent films they could get away with.
On Saturdays, we would play until about 11:45, lock the club up, and go to the theatre, where they would show The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight. It was semi-wild. A few people would be there in costume, and lots of people would shout out the most famous lines.
I enjoyed it, and ended up making a minor contribution to the atmosphere: I started brining a water pistol along, and when there was rain in the movie, I'd fire it upwards, waving it randomly so other patrons would get a little sprinkle.
People liked that kind of thing!
I spent more Friday and Saturday nights at the Tivoli in St. Louis at RHPS showings in my teen years than I can count. Quite literally, I lost track somewhere around 80 showings. (Not all at the Tivoli, but most.)
The first time I went to see it I was 16, I think, and being able to shout at the screen, throw toast and rice, generally just be loud and roudy as a teen, was fantastic.
Finally took my daughter (she's 20) to see it about some months ago during an anniversary screening... I got shushed by somebody two rows ahead for yelling a few lines. Nobody in the theatre knew about audience participation. Still fairly bummed about that. She'll probably never get the full audience participation experience, and that's sad.
RHPS was not my introduction to Tim Curry, though: Clue was. But I didn't put the two together until seeing Clue again after seeing RHPS a few times.
They were great.
Some of the modern criticism of it is rather harsh. The complaints about predatory tropes, and lack of consent miss the whole point.
It is an outlandish piece of fiction, mixed with satire. It's just ment to be ridiculous and fun.
It's why people turned the whole midnight showing into an event. You either got what it was, and went to laugh and have a good time or you were just too stiff and didn't get it. The whole scene was great for suburban queer and gay kids who might not have had another outlet or gathering place.
I was lucky to have experienced it in the 80's and 90's in a few states. The relative homogeny of the crowed across states and venues was shocking. It was always a great way to "find your people" when you went somewhere new.
This still happens with full shadow-casts and everything. Look around, and look to bigger cities if you're living somewhere out of the way. If there isn't a troupe near you that does this regularly, you may have more luck closer to Halloween.