Anniversary

“One Battle After Another” has already been hailed as a modern masterpiece, but for its opening weekend in Los Angeles, the lines outside the new Paul Thomas Anderson film looked almost tame compared to another pop culture must-attend happening on the other side of town.

Not even Leonardo DiCaprio in limited VistaVision could compete with the most powerful midnight movie ever made as partygoers in full costume emerged across the city to toast “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and celebrate its 50th anniversary at the Academy Museum, the Roxy Theatre, and more L.A. venues, kicking off a particularly festive October for the twisted classic.

“This really is the only good cult in the world,” star Nell Campbell said during an interview at the Sofitel Los Angeles in Beverly Hills. Still sporting that same cherry-red hair — and quick as ever to flirt with her fans — the 72-year-old actress is better known as her character, Columbia. Almost always rocking gold, she’s the feisty groupie Campbell debuted on stage in 1973 and then on film in 1975.

“How grateful do I feel that I was just this happy hoofer at age 19, tap-dancing on the top of a table and in the streets of London,” she said. “They’d planned to have a three-week run, and it’s had this profound effect on four generations now.” 

On Friday night in Los Angeles, “Rocky Horror” restoration distributor Disney had trouble finding enough seats for even their honored guests at the cult classic’s special screening inside the Academy Museum.

With sparkly red lips stitched onto her lapel, other “Rocky Horror” bombshell Patricia Quinn, 81, originated her role — the minxy maid Magenta — when she and Campbell were on the West End together over 50 years ago. She joined Campbell, IndieWire, and another of her “Rocky Horror” co-stars, actor Barry Bostwick, for the conversation at the Sofitel.

“I just saw it on a plane recently,” said Quinn. “I thought, ‘Oh God, will I have to watch ‘Rocky Horror?’ And I did, and I still thought it was brilliant.”

Inspired as much by B-movie excellence as by that form’s flaws, director Jim Sharman and writer Richard O’Brien’s campy rock musical stars Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter. The domineering yet magnetic actor made the leap from London to the big screen, his sexy mad scientist becoming synonymous with controversy itself.

“I always thought the best part of the movie was when you guys stripped me,” joked Bostwick, who stars as Brad Majors, to his co-stars. (“I was exhausted after that,” said Quinn, noting that Bostwick is over six feet. “He’s so tall!”)

The 80-year-old Bostwick didn’t become Brad Majors until he joined Susan Sarandon’s Janet Weiss and more of the original troupe to make a silly-soulful indie film two years later. Sharman returned to helm the screen version, with O’Brien reprising the gaunt man-servant Riff-Raff he originated with live audiences.

“Rocky Horror” started small, got big, and hit some serious setbacks on Broadway. When the film was released, it didn’t scare up enough interest at the box office. “Rocky Horror” recovered historically between 1976 and 1977 when an April Fool’s Day screening sparked a new weekly tradition that drew repeat customers — and some copycats — who kept showing the movie for years.

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” became a proper midnight movie craze, attended by those who didn’t just like the film but craved a chance to see it in theaters, when the beginnings of its most passionate fanbase realized “Rocky Horror” could help them find like-minded cinephiles out there in the real world.

Boasting killer jokes about necrophilia, and an almost too-good reason to throw around the double entendre “a mouthful of Meatloaf” (R.I.P. Eddie), “Rocky Horror” was nowhere near the Oscars in 1976. Today, repertory screenings still happen everywhere, with international fans sharing what Campbell calls “a universal language of love.” 

Live tradition often calls for messy audience rituals, mainly driven by call-backs and props. Think projectile toilet paper, crunched-up water bottles, so-called “wedding” rice (which, thrown fast enough, can cause an injury akin to road-rash?), and even an errant toast point… or two! The harder-to-clean activities were reportedly limited at the sold-out Academy screening by the venue, which had Sins O’ the Flesh (the “Rocky Horror” shadow cast typically found at Landmark’s Nuart Theatre in Santa Monica) and an elaborate light display for the film’s rainstorm to avoid anything getting wet.

“It’s necessary now to show this film again, and for people to see it and to embrace its thoughts and its vision,” said Bostwick. He attended with Campbell, Quinn, and Curry (who appeared himself for a Q&A before the film and spoke candidly about the aftermath of his stroke from 2012).

“I think we’re going backwards society-wise,” said Bostwick. “I have a greater appreciation for our differences in terms of personality, sexuality, and people who can be considered outcasts or the other.”

The actor has reservations about the word misfit (“What? They just don’t ‘fit’ anywhere?“), but Bostwick looks back on playing the heel (in heels!) for “Rocky Horror” as a crucial lesson in empathy. 

To this day, he’s never learned “The Time Warp,” the beloved line-dance that serves as “Rocky Horror” 101 for most of the film’s so-called “virgins.” Brad was firmly outside the mansion’s mysterious aura of cool during that now 50-year-old scene, so Bostwick just hangs out with other fans if he gets lost. 

“At a charity thing years ago, they brought us all up on stage,” he said. “Everybody was doing ‘The Time Warp,’ and I just had to look around and see. I didn’t know whether it was a step to the right, or a step to the left.” (Note: It is a step to the right, and a “jump“ to the left, and if you’re ever caught with your pants down at “Rocky Horror,” remember the instructions are the lyrics, Barry!) 

“I personally love the songs in ‘Jaws,’” Bostwick quipped out of left field when asked about the music. “Can’t get enough of ’em. I think that’s one of the reasons why our movie has stayed where it is in terms of the zeitgeist — because the music is so great.“

Also released in 1975, Spielberg’s watery monster movie (you know, about three nerds getting drunk on a boat?) was Best Picture-nominated and won three Oscars. Although not promoted as a double feature, cheeky “Rocky Horror” press materials from that summer positioned the fiendish musical and “Jaws” as the Barbenheimer of their day — under the punny copy “A DIFFERENT SET OF JAWS.”

“But fans of Jaws are very different, aren’t they?” Campbell laughed. When the trio’s eventual smash-hit film came to theaters in the U.S. that summer, shark jokes followed the shuffling pansexuals everywhere. Still, Campbell sees the many coincidences and oddities of “Rocky Horror” as part of its magic.

“‘Rocky Horror’ changes people’s lives, always it seems, for the best,” she said. “I’m hugely grateful that I was in something that … continues to mean so much to people. It doesn’t date.” 

“Yes, we were doing sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll,” said Quinn. “We weren’t setting out to change anybody’s lives, and that’s how we began at the Royal Court, too. Richard O’Brien is the first person to say that ‘Rocky Horror’ is like a ‘Hansel and Gretel’ story. [Brad and Janet] go to the house of the wicked witch, and that’s what [Richard O’Brien] was writing. But how it’s proceeded and what it’s done to change lives since then is something else that’s happened along the way.” 

Campbell, Quinn, and Bostwick share a sense of wonder about the effervescent “Rocky Horror” community. On Saturday, a massive fan event — known as RockyCon — took place inside the Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, where the live show haunted the stage with Curry performing there in 1974. 

“I thought I knew everything there was to know about ‘Rocky Horror,’” said Quinn. “Until I started doing these tours, and I realized I didn’t know anything. I knew nothing about the fandom of it. It was beyond belief, the amount of people.” She gushed that she’s a big fan of her fans’ “ledging.” That’s sticking your hand under your chin to nail your finest Magenta pose, mimicking the wide-eyed look she gives, leaning over that wall in the first number.

Headlining a new spoken-word cover album for “Rocky Horror” (available on October 1), Quinn kicked off a tour through 55 U.S. cities with the celebration in Los Angeles. Bostwick, Campbell, and more will appear on some stops, and ribbing Fox’s 2016 TV rendition of the musical starring Laverne Cox, Bostwick cracked, “I saw that on a plane, so I couldn’t walk out.” 

RockyCony went from the morning into the night, attended by dozens of Eddies, Janets, Dr. Scotts, Frank-N-Furters, and Curry, who chatted with fans for yet another Q&A. Across town at the Nuart, the Sins O’ Flesh weren’t back on yet, but director Linus O’Brien appeared at a screening of the 2025 documentary “Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror.” He spoke about growing up with Riff-Raff as a dad and answered questions about making the deeply personal doc.

“It’s never meant to bang you over the head with a message,” O’Brien said of inclusivity and the “Rocky Horror” legacy. More than a movie, it’s an essential safe space for fringe and queer movie lovers. “At its core, it’s about joy and having fun. The other things that you get from that is up to you to a degree.”

“Don’t dream it,” said both Nell and Curry throughout the weekend. “Be it, man. Be it.”

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a 4K restored release of the film, which will be available via digital & Blu-Ray by Disney on October 7 — as well as shown in 55 cities on a national tour with each stop headlined by Quinn, with appearances from Bostwick and Campbell. It will also be at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery as part of the Cinespia screening series on October 4.