Richard O'Brien
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

A sensual ballet on tiptoe... Too bad the ballerina is a he...
An offensive challenge, an innovative yet rude and cheeky jovial presentation, an hilarious distorted sensuality, tension at breaking point and music as a blinding backdrop.
Comedy, condemnation, censorship, contortion and distortion, lost innocence (virginity) and lustful quest, stylistic novelty and musical precocity... Anything else???
Too many things and too big to remain serious... Grotesque (almost orgasmic) cheerfulness in a mischievous and provocative sonic embrace... AHAHAH... What else otherwise?...
When dealing with certain "things" history doesn't help... it almost isn't needed, innovation has no past nor comparisons, the importance lies in the content and not in the reasons... And here there's plenty of content... AHAHAH... It’s useless... AHAHAH!!!

Born in the early '70s (1973) as a sparkling and impertinent theatrical work, in 1975 it landed on screens without asking permission, and propriety exited through the service door.

Richard O'Brien (author of music and screenplay) molds excess to create an intriguing and compelling musical entanglement (because unfortunately, it is about music), Rock'n'Roll, Prog Rock, Boogie, Soul-Blues, Gospel, and Hard Rock blend together in a moist and spicy cauldron that serves up amazement and irony, scandal and novelty, unhealthy and corrupted atmospheres.
A soundtrack that elicits smiles and fears, it tears, compresses... It cradles you in dreams to awaken you in a world of nightmares, it transforms in a few moments and doesn't even give you time to realize you entered using the wrong door and key.

In a work like this, it's difficult to separate the visual-cinematic aspect from the purely musical aspect, the two walk hand in hand to showcase the perfect alchemy between texts (and therefore dialogues and story) and music. The musical atmospheres are the main element and arrogantly overshadow every objective consideration of the film.
Excessive, rude, visionary, brutal, sci-fi, sexual, homosexual, disenchantment and dreamy, a dark musical (and criminal) novel rich with embarrassing quotes... As innovative in its proposal as incendiary in its compelling sound arrangement.

Novelty and wonder... Moms, cover your children's eyes, there is nothing gentle or polite here... The rarity lies in maliciously and deliberately combining Sex (the themes often center on that), Drugs (paranoid alien visions and psychopathic assaults), and Rock'n'Roll as very few have managed to do.

Starts off happy. Airy and lively Country-Rock-Pop-Prog snacks in evolution, with light tones, welcome us to the story without being able to disguise that sense of unease and madness... Perhaps you've seen or understood something, perhaps... Who knows... The hope remains, it was nothing, yes, it was nothing... ("Science Fiction", "Dammit Janet").
Then suddenly a break, still with limber unawareness we move towards a dark and eerie atmosphere balancing between Gospel-PsychoPop and phrases bordering on Gothic-Rock. We are introduced: pleasure, madness; pleasure to meet you, deceit ("Over at the Frankenstein Place" with a young Susan Sarandon). A metallic "riff" dominates the scene and it feels like traveling 5 years into the future. Fear, and rightly so, such a rhythmic discharge would awaken a dead man (and perhaps it already has), a rousing choral dance and sparkling sound explosion (the well-known and overly-covered "Time Warp"), all to present us the real scandal, the real fear... Tension soars as transported by a sensual creature half Blues and half Rock who, thanks to the incredible interpretation of Tim Curry (Dr. Frank 'n' Furter), bestows distorted smiles and terrifying fears.

Unyielding will and original sin (replacing God for personal pleasure) cleverly dosed in the dark container of the most drugged and visionary Soul ("I Can Make You a Man") shatter in the funny, dazed and glittering Rock'n'Roll ("Hot Patootie-Bless My Soul") commanded by the bulky Eddie (Meat Loaf).

Amid mischievous cabaret rhythms ("Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch me"), sick and agitated choral Blues-Rock breaks ("Eddie"), gloomy and theatrical tastings of Hard Rock, Fusion and Blues-Soul ("Rose Tint My World"), we reach the poignant and epic finale amid melancholic choirs and guitar and violin solos, by now in ecstasy, that die weeping, embraced to what's left of an alien's dream that became a man for his faults...

Dream, Hope, Victory... Silence!

The work was a scandal at the time, no one had ever dared to propose in theater (and much less in cinema) a deviant and alien representation enriched with embarrassing quotes (from Frankenstein's castle to the mummy, to 70s B-Movie extraterrestrial sets), and artistic contours (the film features several works by Leonardo, Michelangelo, etc.) loading it, also thanks to the soundtrack, with a sexual tension on the verge of scandal. Innovation and censorship, brilliant!

Ps: A curiosity: Richard O'Brien, with his genius and madness, decided to write the story and music to address a disappointment. The disappointment of having been badly ousted due to his presumed incapacity from another Musical. Well... That Musical was called Jesus Christ Superstar.

Perhaps it is true... Talent speaks new and wonderful languages, but unfortunately, we do not always manage to understand them.