The Rocky Horror Picture Show Blu-Ray, 35th Anniversary Edition

By Christian Lipski

The Rocky Horror Picture Show played in theaters in 1975, and was finally released on VHS here in the US around 20 years ago. The movie had been around for 15 years before there was ever a legitimate copy available. People had been dressing up as the characters and mimicking the movie for FIFTEEN YEARS without a way to practice at home (there were bootleg copies around, but oh so rare).

When the VHS tape came out, it was honestly a kind of letdown. Now anyone could practice their part wherever there was a VCR, without waiting seven days to stand in line and pay your money to watch the bug screen for some nuance you forgot. But the old-old-timers eventually dropped their gripe, just as the guys riding buggies stopped yelling at the guys in cars. Time marches on, and so, too does obsession.

For the young bloods who bought the VHS tape now had more time to perfect, to enhance, to get the very soul of each performance. They improved their casts’ (of course they would join a cast, for who else would have them?) performances, as now there was no excuse for not catching that little head roll Frank does at the end of the first bar of “Sweet Transvestite,” or the way Janet’s hands are placed on Rocky’s shoulders in the tank. Access did not dull the desire to become one with The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

And then in 1995 came the Laser Disc (Google what that was), which brought forth the bounty of the “Superheroes” ending song, only available on the UK print of the film, but also the “Once In A While” sequence, which was cut from the film entirely. Tremendous opportunity to dive deeper into the world of crazed alien sex fiends. In 2000, all this was packaged up onto a DVD, with both versions of the film viewable thanks to technological magic. More people purchased it, to relive past glories, to start brand-new glories, to give their friends an idea of what went on in their brains (pointing at the screen, “That’s me, that!”).

And with the advent of the Blu-Ray disc, with FIFTY gigabytes of storage on a single optical medium, we may have perhaps reached the pinnacle of possibility when it comes to pleasing the Rocky Horror fanatic. For now we have the Blu-Ray 35th Anniversary Edition of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The packaging alone is enough to make an old Tranny scream with delight. Hard-bound (!) book with the Doctor, Frank N. Furter on the cover, picking listlessly at the corner of his liplined mouth as if to say, “Oh bring it on. I’m taking on all comers.” The pages inside the book don’t waste a lot of time on words, barring a message from Executive Producer Lou Adler and various snippets of lyrics.

The rest of the space is given over gloriously to the work of rock and roll photographer Mick Rock, who had only recently snapped the definitive pictures of another alien, Ziggy Stardust. Scenes from the film, but also staged set stills, perhaps to be used as lobby cards. Shots remembered from posters or magazine pages, but more: Columbia and Magenta in a pose never seen before. Frank and his servant Riff Raff in a tender moment. A rather revealing still of Columbia during the floor show (you know the one). It’s a goldmine of new visuals. And in the back of the book (where the answers always were) the disc slips into a little cutout, like a secret.

Put the disc in. After what seems like an inordinate amount of time passes with no response, hold back your fear that your player is having a problem with the disc, like it did with Watchmen and The Wrestler. There is just so much happening on this disc that the onboard computer needs more time to parse out what’s up. The menu begins to play the “Science Fiction Double Feature” reprise, and the song’s sadness is oddly fitting. We’re seeing old movie posters with the movie characters, and the song tells of events past, as if we were about to examine the evidence. Which we are, since the Criminologist is relating the tale of the two young healthy kids from Denton.

Menu looks simple: Play, Set Up, Search, Extras, and Live Extras. Search is for bookmarks (which you can create during the movie), scenes, and looking up cast info. Live Extras steps you out of the realm of the disc to download updated content from 20th Fox’s servers. This involves the networks and the downloads and the streaming all the kids like. Extras we will return to. . .

Hit PLAY. You have choices! US or UK version (the UK version has “Superheroes” and the sad ending credits). You then have the option to play either with alternate Black and White opening. This is the old Wizard of Oz treatment: the entire movie is in B/W for the first 20 minutes, until we burst into the main room at Frank’s Castle for the first chorus of “Time Warp.” It is surprisingly effective.

You can also choose to hear commentary from writer Richard O’Brien and Patricia Quinn, which is a true joy. I was a little disappointed that other stars couldn’t have participated, but I have a feeling that the other actors just aren’t as devoted to the movie as Ritz and Pat. Tim Curry would have been great, but he’s been trying to distance himself from the movie since principal photography wrapped. In any case, our two actors have a roaring old time telling stories and laughing. And as an added bonus (another), the commentary has subtitles available, so you can watch the movie with the regular audio and a subtitle of their words below.

The picture is pristine. It was created not from the best existing copy, but from the negatives. As Blu-ray.com’s review says, it was “given a satisfying 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer in the intended 1.66:1 aspect ratio,” which of course is probably good. The sound is 7.1 surround. SEVEN POINT ONE, for a movie that was originally released in mono (don’t worry, mono’s an option!), and you hear things you’d never heard before, separated out for you. It’s a bit odd in “Over At the Frankenstein Place” to hear high singing from nowhere, but it’s all in the name of progress.

So, done with bonuses? Hell no. While the movie plays, if you enter the “Midnight Experience” option in Extras, you can choose to have “classic callbacks” displayed in the upper right. Taken from the Audience Partici-pation album (and preceded by a message from Fan Club founder Sal Piro), these callbacks are true classics, and the reviewer confesses to laughing out loud at forgotten jokes (“Fuck the back row”). The upper left corner is used by the “Trivia Track,” which provides little-known information about the movie (Richard O’Brien met Tim Curry in 1968 when Curry was in the original cast of Hair). The lower left is for the “Prop Box” which lets you simulate the throwing of rice, prunes, etc. at the proper times. Fear not, these are all configurable, as it’s a bit difficult to follow the action when only a smidge of the screen is visible.

The final, fourth corner in the lower right is reserved for the crowning glory of this Blu-Ray disc, in this reporter’s opinion. There’s a reason why watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the privacy of your own home is weird. It’s just the movie. Taken out of its midnight context, it’s a silly spoof musical, and that’s fine, but it’s not the same. What’s missing are the people who are in the theater acting out the movie while it plays on the screen above them. Now, thanks to the brains at Fox, they are here. The bottom right corner hold a small stage set, in which the finest “shadowcast” players act out the movie with minimal props (only slightly more than a good cast would have available). As an added experiment, you can switch the PiP so that you only see the shadowcast with the movie’s audio, creating a weird kind of high school musical effect.

There are indeed even MORE extras. Seriously, fifty gigabytes of space. The main feature is the documentary about choosing the shadowcast for the film. There was a global audition for each of the parts, and you get to see some very very good actors trying out. Barry Bostwick (Brad) is shown commenting on their tapes as the selection process commences. It’s a fascinating look at the different takes on the characters, and into the minds of the people who have spent years having fun in this fashion. Congratulations to Jaimie Froeming from my old cast of Indecent Exposure (Berkeley CA) for being selected to play Janet!

There are some features that are kind of in the “trailers for other movies” sort of arena, like a documentary on Mick Rock’s participation in the film, which was to take snaps. It is rather interesting to hear his opinion of the actors and their photos, though. There’s a gallery of his shots, as well. There are outtakes, which are generally comprised of unused footage from the different angles they’d shoot of scenes, so you see the “undressing” scene three or four times from different viewpoints, two of which show Magenta being unable to undo Brad’s trousers in time. Interesting to realize they would play the dialogue for the actors to lipsynch to, in order to get the timing right when they edited the different takes together.

There’s a “misprint ending” which is the “Superheroes” film with the “sad ending” music played over it: a rarity, I suppose, but how valuable is it? To an obsessive RHPS fan, very.

And from the older releases, they include featurettes from the earlier years, from Rocky Horror Double Feature Video Show (1995. Look for my friend and Riff Raff John Liddle as the “gimme a Y” guy. RIP, Dr. John) to the 10th Anniversary celebration at the Beacon Theater, to the Time Warp Music Video included in the 1990 VHS release, which plays the song while showing fans enjoying themselves in the aisles and beyond. These videos make up a retrospective not of the movie, but of the fans’ love for what it represents.

And last but not least, “Rocky-oke,” which allows the viewer to follow the bouncing ball and sing the songs from the movie, with the option of including the official vocal or not. That sounds like a party and a recipe for naughty behavior. Count me in.

The fact that the package (!) comes with all you see here and is very nearly even part of a complete breakfast, and can be purchased for $18.49 at Amazon.com makes it ridiculous to ignore for even the mildest Rocky fan. It’s been a constant influence in the back of kids’ minds (and points south) for the last 35 years. That’s probably worth a double sawbuck, and you even get change back. I would have to guess that there is not much left in the old vaults at Fox, so what you have here is the maximum utmost in terms of RHPS.

Until they release the 50th anniversary full-sensorium format that plugs into your ass, of course.

Christian Lipski was a member of Indecent Exposure, the Berkeley CA shadowcast with the longest continual run where he played a Tranny and Frank. He was also in Another Dimension, the cast from Belmont CA, where he played Frank. Read his story “My Life In Fishnets” about the halcyon nights of his misspent youth.