Rocky Horror...

OK...help me out. I am a 37 year old, fast approaching adulthood (I will never grow up...wink!) and I have yet to experience the Rocky Horror Picture Show. This was a big thing for my friends in high school and seemed to have a cult following. Is it really that important to see, or better yet experience live?

I figured I could live my life without ever seeing Tim Curry (or anyone else for that matter) in drag...not to impugn anyone's life choices, it's just not for me. Do I need to go against my grain and check this thing out? All opinions welcome...

Well, I've made it to 78 without seeing the movie. Seeing it isn't a high priority on my lifetime to-do list either. I drove past a theatre where it was playing not long ago and the crowd waiting to get in looked like they were going to a cross-dressing costume party. Not my style.

And, I won't think poorly of you if you don't see it.

I'm about a year older than you and I went several times in college. It was fun then, but I don't have a deep need to go back again. You could rent it, but it certainly is a different experience in person.

It is a celebration of counter culture and if that is against your grain, then yes maybe you should see just to experience it. If you do choose to see it live and you don't want to get on stage and do dorky stuff you don't have to fess up to being a virgin (first timer seeing the show).

I would say on its face it isn't a great movie. The cult following comes from the culture it was made in and the culture we continue to live in. I don't think it is overly sexual. I think it is more slapstick and challenges sexual norms.

I'm about to turn 80 and have never seen it nor had the desire to see it. It's sort of a cult thing, I think. I know my children have seen it but don't know about the grandkids (the eldest of whom is almost 30). They probably wouldn't tell me if they have!

Actually tried to watch it at a party and made it through about 20 min. before getting bored. Wife did the dress-up cult movie thing in college, and said it was because the movie was so bad.
You should see "Plan 9 From Outer Space".

This made me chuckle

I moved from Rockford, IL to Hollywood Ca when I was 14. I think I was about 18 when a girl I was dating asked me to go see it. I'd heard about it, but had no real idea what it was about.

I was a bit shocked by it. I saw trannies everyday living there, but I was amazed by all the people who were there dressed in character and playing out the parts while the movie was showing, and all the throwing of rice and water and what not by the rest of the audience.

Yes, you should see it, and I'll tell you why. People actually lived for that movie. It meant something big to them. In Los Angeles back then everyone there belonged to a "clique", and Rocky Horror created one, which is notable.

I don't think that was intentional. I don't see how it could have been. It was intended to be campy and they pulled it off wonderfully well. It's pretty hard not to jump up and "Do the Time Warp" by the time it's wrapping up. You have to work at keeping yourself stuck in the mud to not get up and dance with everyone by the end of that movie, and that alone makes it worthwhile.

But it's notable because of the subject it exposed. It opened a window into a lifestyle that most people didn't have a clue about. It depicted being gay or bi as harmless fun and made them less scary for straight people. It inspired a lot of people to come out of the closet, and others who were never in one to get up and dance with them just for the fun of it. The reach of that effect was by far greater than the movie itself.

I saw it again in my late 20s and had a lot of fun. By then I wasn't feeling the pressure anymore to join a clique or explore my sexuality. I was fine being straight and didn't care if someone was gay or bi as long as they weren't hounding me incessantly, which I'd found didn't happen very often

So, yeah, I think everyone should "Do the Time Warp" at least once, even if you are 80 years old

Ah just go see it. Participate and forget your everyday cares and worries. That's what things like Rocky Horror are really about. Ya never know you may even enjoy yourself.

Great advice!

It really is an hilarious movie.