Linus O’Brien’s film Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror takes the perspective of his father, Rocky Horror creator Richard O’Brien, to reflect on the fifty years since the show was created, and on his own life from growing up in New Zealand to coming to terms with his own gender fluidity in his 70s.
The Rocky Horror Show is a cult classic and a cornerstone of LGBT culture. It’s a rock musical full of originality and power, starting from a 60-seat space at the Royal Court where the cast performed on scaffolding to a worldwide showcast phenomenon.
Strange Journey takes you back to the beginning when Richard O’Brien was a struggling actor with an idea for a show. Taking it to director Jim Sharman and arranger/musician Richard Hartley, it developed from a small idea called They Came From Denton High to the behemoth that we now recognise just from the close up red lips alone.
We hear from original cast members Tim Curry, Patricia Quinn, Nell Campbell, and Belinda Sinclair, andget to experience some archive footage and photographs from the stage run and the genesis of the film.
Mick Jagger wanted to buy the rights for the film for himself to play Frank ‘n’ Furter (which might have been interesting), but we are all blessed and very lucky that we have Tim Curry, in his prime, immortalised in fishnets forever.
Film cast members Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon, who took over as Brad and Janet, also have their say. They slotted in as the outsiders and as O’Brien says “it couldn’t be more truthful, and more obvious” that they were strangers in a strange land. For Peter Hinwood, who had never acted before, it was all ‘a bit of mystery’ when he made a hit as Rocky, the muscle man.
Oakley Court in Bray, a sprawling mansion often used for Hammer Horror films, was the location, with interiors at Bray Studios, a tiny outfit. This helped make a deliberate B movie gloss to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, while other influences came from Andy Warhol and Derek Jarman.
It’s great to see Richard O’Brien, now in his 80s, showing such enthusiasm about his ‘baby’ and even singing some of the songs. The rock ‘n’ roll show and the ‘surreal dream’ of the film as Sharman says, are different beasts, but both have clicked with generations of viewers and performers. I also loved the nod to Sal Piro, the RHPS fan club president, who ran with the idea of making the film immersive.
The fans, including actor Jack Black and drag performer Trixie Mattel, tell us how watching the film make them feel. Go to a screening now or a stage production and you can’t help being swept up in the callbacks or the cosplay. It’s freeing, and the message of being yourself as a woman, a trans person, or a gay person still deeply resonate. The music is still fun to hear.
A low budget film which was nevertheless ‘a fun experience’, with the majority of the original stage cast, probably wouldn’t get off the drawing board today. It was probably the first film that audiences made their own. That it has endured for fifty years is something to celebrate, and Strange Journey does just that.
It obviously has its main appeal to those who love the show and the film, but it is also a useful documentary to shed light on the show’s creation and longevity.
Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror will be in UK & Irish Cinemas from 3 October, and on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital 20 October.