By BILL REICK
Starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon and Richard O’Brien
Written by Avner Shiloah
Directed by Linus O’Brien
Magenta Light Studios
With a star-studded limited engagement currently running at New York’s Studio 64, it’s tempting to say that Rocky Horror is back. But fans know Rocky never went away. The show, and the movie it inspired, is a beautiful shlockroach, capable of surviving nuclear armageddon, only to crawl out for a midnight bash near you.
While its diehard devotees know the light never goes out over at the Frankenstein place, Rocky Horror is back in the broader frightgeist thanks in part to the Tony-nominated staging (running through November 2026) and a magnificent new documentary.
STRANGE JOURNEY: THE STORY OF ROCKY HORROR is exactly the loving homage creator Richard O’Brien and his enduring monster deserve. It’s a family affair, with O’Brien’s son Linus at the helm, ensuring unprecedented access and authority in presenting this definitive telling of the story.
The gang’s all here, too. On hand for talking head interviews are Susan Sarandon (Janet), Barry Bostwick (Brad), Patricia Quinn (Magenta), Nell Campbell (Columbia), Peter Hinwood (Rocky), producer Lou Adler, and, spectacularly, Tim Curry (Dr. Frank-N-Furter). Curry, left paralysed after a stroke in 2012, is (perhaps unsurprisingly) as magnetic now as he was onscreen in 1975. It’s also particularly fascinating to hear from Hinwood, who sheepishly regards himself as a nonperformer. His former castmates, of course, are quick to fawn over the musclebound blondie and his iconic turn as the title character.
Gone but not forgotten, of course, is Meat Loaf, The Rocky Horror Picture Show’s Eddie, and one hell of a smoocher, according to at least one co-star. The Loaf receives his due, and rightly so, as the “Hot Patootie” singer belts with the best in one of his most memorable movie roles.
Rocky Horror has spent 50 years attracting legions of fans, and STRANGE JOURNEY shows incredible restraint in selecting just two celebrity supporters for interviews. First is drag superstar and TV personality (and DJ!) Trixie Mattel, who grounds the story of Rocky in its history as a seminal queer text. It’s Mattel’s story to tell, as she recounts flocking to local performances as a safe space to be the person a family member never allowed her to be at home. In fact, Mattel reveals she reclaimed the moniker “Trixie” at a Milwaukee Rocky performance after the name was weaponized by her abusive stepfather. Hers is one high-profile example of a formative tale for millions of fans who found sanctuary through this beloved musical.
Remarkably, the other celebrity on hand is Jack Black, who saw himself in Meat Loaf’s performance at a young age. If the throughline wasn’t obvious before, Black makes it clear that Meat Loaf was a huge inspiration, and STRANGE JOURNEY is all the better for Black’s inclusion, reminding us all that Rocky Horror has always been for everyone. It ain’t just us gays and theys at this party. Everybody’s welcome. Even you virgins.
It’s no great spoiler to share with you that the best part of the documentary comes late in the runtime. Director Linus O’Brien shares with his father, the show’s creator (and Riff Raff), a few letters from fans who extoll the show’s importance in their lives. Some shared it with a loved one whom they’d since lost. Some felt anchored to this mortal coil by it. All of them, though, convey the same sense of gratitude to have been alive at the same time as O’Brien’s monster. And this mad scientist playwright and actor was moved to appropriate tears.
Anyone who has ever witnessed Rocky Horror, whether onstage or onscreen, has a relationship with it, their own unique connection to the show and what it means to them. I’ve buried mine here, for you, deep in the second half of a review about this documentary. I told my parents I was going to the big rival high school football game. Instead, three friends decked me out in their clothes and makeup and pushed me into The New Hope Theater, where I had a “V” scrawled on my face in red lipstick – the dreaded mark of Rocky Horror virginity. I was 16 and didn’t know what I was yet. But I felt inside there, I was okay.
To love Rocky Horror is to be in conversation with it, a fact the current New York production is struggling to contend with. STRANGE JOURNEY understands this back-and-forth, though, and participates in it. It’s a loving tribute not only to the play and the movie but also to its adoring masses. With STRANGE JOURNEY, Linus O’Brien immortalizes his father as a bronze statue in his likeness in Richard’s hometown and creates the definitive document of the community that made his father famous, too.
STRANGE JOURNEY: THE STORY OF ROCKY HORROR is now available on VOD, including Prime Video, AppleTV and Fandango. Don’t dream it. Be it…
