“The entire experience felt like a science fiction fever dream. It was organized chaos at its finest.”
Story and photo by James Bennett III
I’ve always found myself most comfortable among the freaks and geeks. So, naturally, I’ve had to sit through my fair share of ravings about The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
I had seen the T-shirts with red lips, watched friends break out into the Time Warp and had heard phrases like, “The owner of that phone might be a beautiful woman,” followed by, “He is.”
But for the longest time, I had no clue what the movie was even about, other than hints that it had something to do with an androgenous Transylvanian. I wanted to join in on the fun, but everyone — even my parents — told me that the only way to watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show was to experience it with a live cast and audience.
So, for nearly a decade, I held off until I could find a screening to watch with a group of other people. There were many dead ends. But, last week, I finally caught my break.
I heard from a friend that SubCentral at the Iberian Rooster would host a screening on Sept. 27.
Losing my virginity
I had also heard first-timers were given “special treatment.”
Nobody would tell me what exactly the special treatment entailed — they didn’t want to spoil the fun — but brief portrayals of the experience from various movies and television shows implied there was a chance that I would be pulled on stage or have food thrown at me.
I dressed accordingly.
Driving to Iberian Rooster, I began to feel a little anxious. I wasn’t really nervous, but something about the event felt like a coming of age — like I was about to join my first cult. After all, some theatres have held weekly midnight screenings since 1975, making The Rocky Horror Picture Show the longest-running theatrical release in film history.
I got to Iberian around 10:30 p.m. and found my spot at the back of a line that stretched from the stairs toward the back of the first floor.
Looking around, the crowd was fairly diverse and a handful of people were dressed up. There were a few maids with fishnet stockings, a doctor wearing a pearl necklace and mint-green smock and a vaguely Igor-looking fellow with long blonde hair.
When I finally made my way downstairs, about half an hour later, the basement exploded with chatter as everyone scrambled to find seats or order a drink at the bar.
“Hell on Heels” was projected on the screen that hung opposite of the stairs. That was the name of the performance group that would soon take the stage — they’ve been performing since Jan. 6, 2017. (I later learned they had just been awarded Best Underground Cinema Event by Creative Loafing.)
In every corner of the dimly lit room, there were little alcoves of funky hairdos, red lip T-shirts and even more costumes. Electro swing, a bastardized genre that renders imagery of steampunks dancing the Charleston, played loudly through the venue’s speakers.
The scene took me back to my highschool days. Nearly everyone in the room looked like they belonged in a Hot Topic shop or an anime convention, and they were proud as hell of it.
A young, slim man took the stage and introduced himself as the master of ceremonies and the cast member who would play Frank-N-Furter. He instructed the audience to refer to him as Calvin, His Royal Majesty or his preferred title, Queen Daddy.
In between misleading toasts — stuff like “To cheating… if you’re going to cheat, may you cheat death” — Queen Daddy took the audience through his rules and guidelines.
Drink heavily, let your freak flags fly, and don’t touch the performers unless given permission.
“It’s 2019, I can’t believe we have to lecture on consent,” he said sternly.
Then he weeded out all of the newcomers and summoned us to the stage.
After a short pledge, he asked for 10 volunteers and dismissed the rest of the “virgins.”
Hoping to make the most out of my first screening, and having absolutely no idea what I was getting into, I joined a group of other first-timers at the edge of the stage, where Queen Daddy explained that we were about to begin a challenge.
We were divided into two groups of five, and each team was given a pool noodle.
Our challenge was to grip the noodles with our thighs, and pass it through a line of team members with a series of pelvic thrusts.
It was a well-fought and extremely personal match. I personally felt like I was obliged to call each of my team members the next morning… you know… because of how bad we lost.
We were dismissed from the stage and I happily waded my way back through the sea of people.
Lights. Camera. Action.
I don’t think that anything could have prepared me for my first viewing of Rocky Horror.
The entire experience felt like a science fiction fever dream. It was organized chaos at its finest.
Performers acted out scenes right in front of the movie screen, audience members screamed obscenities, and almost every twist and turn of the plot — which I could barely follow — was chock full of sexual liberation.
I’m still not entirely sure what the movie is about, since the live actors and audience members demanded much more attention than the projector. But I plan on rewatching the film from the relative sanity of my room.
The real treat of the evening was finding myself completely immersed in a community that didn’t really seem to give a damn about anything other than acceptance and debauchery.
Absolutely nothing was sacred. Race, gender, religion and sexuality were torn to shreds for the sake of jokes. The traditional movie theatre experience was flipped on its head and beaten to a pulp.
Drinks were tossed around, performers ran about the audience and sat in some movie-goers’ laps and I — someone who dances with about as much grace as an arthritic stickbug — finally learned how to dance the Time Warp.
Walking out of the theatre, it had become clear why Rocky Horror withstood the test of time. For those two hours, nearly everyone huddled together in the basement of Iberian Rooster had shed their societal norms and gave way to absurdity and self-expression.
I have been listening to the soundtrack on repeat for days now in antici…pation of doing the Time Warp again.
