‘Rocky Horror’ celebrates 50 years of camp

The Rocky Horror lips on a theater screen. Art by Adrian Axtell.

A screening of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975) is unlike nearly any other cinematic experience. Audience members yell vulgarities and responses at the movie, actors in costume may sync their movements to the onscreen action, and showings often happen every weekend in some theaters, including the Clinton Street Theater in Portland, without fail. 

This October, Salem alone has hosted three different screenings of the cult film. Willamette's own Student Theatre Arts Group for Equity club (STAGE) showed the film in Ford Theater; the Grand Cinema downtown hosted the Denton Delinquents shadowcast, who performed along with the movie; and the Elsinore Theater will play the 50th anniversary edition of the movie on Thursday, Oct. 30. 

Jasper Woodward, a member of Cult Cinema Club at Willamette, shared some thoughts on why the film remains popular today.

“A lot of times, there were youth who were kicked out of their homes around the street who could find safe spaces in ‘Rocky Horror’ communities and shadow casts,” Woodward said. “Even on a smaller scale, that still is true, where it gives the space for people who don't get to be themselves or express their identities, to have this one time every once in a while to be weird and be with people who kind of get what's going on.”

The shows welcome all and often have special rituals for “virgins,” the commonly accepted term for those at a live show that have never attended before. Nowadays, you can easily find guides to the show anywhere online. Lists of props, ideas for costumes, and the all-important callouts are only a quick search away.

Of course, you can watch the movie itself on Hulu. But there’s nothing like going to an actual screening. It’s less of a movie and more an interactive theater experience with a community that’s unique to “Rocky Horror.” The movie, filled with campy performances and earworm songs, is only half of the experience. To (intentionally) misquote the movie, “Don’t dream it, see it!”