Time Warp: Unusual Journey Director Linus O’Brien Reflects on 50 Years of The Rocky Horror Picture Show

      Linus O’Brien was motivated to create his documentary Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror by reading comments on YouTube from fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, who shared how the 1975 film had impacted their lives positively.

      He has a unique connection to the film.

      His father, Richard O’Brien, was in the process of writing the Rocky Horror stage musical when Linus was born. Linus was around a year old when it debuted on stage as The Rocky Horror Show at London’s Royal Court Theatre. He experienced it live for the first time in 1976 at the King’s Road Theatre when he was about four years old.

      “They allowed me to manage the lighting around the proscenium,” Linus O’Brien remembers.

      His father began crafting the musical as a struggling artist who had relocated to London from New Zealand. Linus was vaguely aware of their improving financial situation as they upgraded from a small flat to a larger house and started to travel more frequently. The musical quickly spread to Sydney, Los Angeles, and then across the globe, although it faced challenges in New York City, where Broadway audiences viewed its crude operatics and retro B-movie style with skepticism.

      Initially, the film adaptation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, directed by Jim Sharman, also struggled. It premiered nearly 50 years ago on September 26, 1975.

      Despite its poor initial box office performance, the story took a different turn.

      As time went on, the film transformed into an underground hit and has been shown continuously worldwide for the past fifty years, often featuring “shadow cast” performances where audience members act along with the movie as it plays.

      The phenomenon started with screenings in Austin and New York City, where an audience member’s spontaneous shout at Susan Sarandon’s character, Janet Weiss, during a storm — “Buy an umbrella, you cheap b—-!” — quickly developed into a series of cues for audience participation, which later became the shadow-cast performances.

      “It holds the record for the longest-running theatrical release in cinema history, and that’s 50 years,” Linus O’Brien shares. “The runner-up is like one-and-a-half.”

      As an actor, DJ, and filmmaker, Linus O’Brien makes his feature directorial debut with Strange Journey, a lively and celebratory documentary that explores the highs and lows of the ultimate cult classic. He interviews his father, who portrays handyman Riff Raff in Rocky Horror, and he showcases his guitar playing in Strange Journey with delightful stripped-down renditions of beloved Rocky Horror songs.

      Other captivating interviewees include Sarandon; Sharman; Tim Curry, who made his film debut as the “sweet transvestite” Dr. Frank-N-Furter; Barry Bostwick, who played Janet’s uptight fiancé, Brad; and Patricia Quinn, who portrayed Magenta and brings down the house with a story about kissing cast member Meatloaf.

      The film’s success can largely be attributed to its LGBTQ audiences, who embraced its call to genuinely express oneself, epitomized by the song “Don’t Dream It, Be It.” They kept the film alive through those midnight screenings in small towns where Rocky Horror often served as the only beacon in the darkness.

      “When the midnight screenings began, it was expected that places like Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York would have viewers interested. But it was in smaller Midwestern cities that it truly made an impact,” Linus O’Brien elucidates.

      “About 10 to 12% of the population identifies as LGBTQ. So, in a city of 20,000, there are likely 2,000 individuals who feel that way or have those feelings and have nowhere else to go. Rocky provided a safe haven for those who felt marginalized and different.”

      What does he think accounts for its longevity?

      “It was never designed to convey a message or guide anyone in a particular direction,” O’Brien explains. “Its main objective was to be enjoyable. I believe that is key to its success — had it attempted to preach, it would have encountered resistance, and many wouldn’t have appreciated that. But it didn’t, and here we are, celebrating its 50th anniversary.”

      Strange Journey premiered at SXSW and has begun a successful festival circuit, set to arrive in theaters next week. We chatted with Linus O’Brien at the Provincetown International Film Festival, where a queer and LGBTQ-friendly audience experienced a screening of Strange Journey one night, followed by Rocky Horror the next.

      Similarly to Rocky Horror, Strange Journey is an exhilarating film to enjoy with a crowd, engaging in dreaming and being.

      MovieMaker: How was it growing up with Rocky Horror?

      Linus O’Brien: People often wonder about this, but to me, he’s just my dad. I didn’t view it any differently: “Oh yeah, this is his job, and this is what he does. He sings songs, you know.” As I grew older, perhaps my perspective