The world “cult classic” gets thrown around a lot these days, too often intended to mean a movie or TV show with a cult following. But before the internet gave us access to everything and anything, true cult classics meant movies that you had to be introduced to by someone already initiated. The Rocky Horror Picture Show was such a sensation, going from a London fringe play to a flopped movie to a midnight madness phenomenon that’s lasted for 50 years.
Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror is a documentary that looks back on the origins of this truly iconic film, as Richard O’Brien, author of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, lays out ahead of the trailer above.
His son, documentarian Linus O’Brien, interviews a slew of the original cast members, including O’Brien, Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Barry Bostwick. To get an idea of the impact this movie about kinky aliens had on pop culture, O’Brien also speaks to stars who grew up obsessed with Rocky Horror, including Tenacious D’s Jack Black and RuPaul’s Drag Race All-Stars champion Trixie Mattel.
Archival footage from the ’70s allows audiences to do the time warp again, taking us back to the rise of the shadow casts and all the in-theater mayhem that came to be a part of the show’s legacy. But beyond that, this documentary aims to explore why this “freak” show appeals to so, so, so, so many.
