The Rocky Horror Picture is a synthesis of all of the classic elements of science fiction. Set in an alternative present, RHPS features a colorful cast of aliens, involving the application of new scientific principles and postulated technology that allows them to foster and utilize the very spark of life. The unique thing about RHPS is that it also culminates and reflects numerous science fiction landmarks throughout the years, from Fay Wray to Frankenstein and from lasers to teleportation. The movie blends science fiction, horror, pornography, musical theatre, and potentially every other possible genre imaginable in an eclectic and purely decadent production and cultural gem.
Like Frankenstein’s monster itself, RHPS patches together a multiplicity of popular culture, either blatantly or subconsciously. Scholar and professor Liz Locke writes “RHPS swallows everything its makers could lay their cognition on, borrowing not only from the science fiction and horror genres, but enlisting motifs and conventions from Mae West and Elvis Presley movies, Roger Corman's biker flicks, gothic romances, Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, strip-tease and cabaret shows, the Roman myth of Psyche and Amor, 1960's-style happenings, and daytime soap operas.”
Producer Lou Adler comments, “You need not have seen King Kong to recognize the ape in Rocky Horror's final climb. You need not have heard of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly or seen Boris Karloff's monster to know the legend of Frankenstein. Certain themes and cinematic images have become part of us.” And such has become the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Ingrained into our collective culture are images of corsets, fishnets, red lipstick, and pearls; the hedonistic symbols of a new generation as pioneered and marketed by RHPS.
The aim, and consequently slogan, of the movie “Don’t Dream It, Be It” lends itself to multiple interpretations. Most blatant, of course, is one of sexual gratification. Dr. Frank-n-Furter is a being who truly indulges himself completely in his sexual desires: straight, homosexual, bizarre, kinky. In this context, the film advocates not merely dreaming one’s sexual fantasies, but acting upon them and making them a reality. By the film’s conclusion, all characters have, in some sense, fully given themselves over to their primitive desires. Janet emerges awakened, hardly believing the world of pleasure that she has been missing. Brad, in contrast, emerges befuddled, ashamed, and altogether confused sexually, a recurring theme for Brad throughout.
In addition, Frank-n-Furter also realizes his dream of creation. By putting his fantastical longings into concrete scientific forms, he achieves the reality of an artificially created man. This just serves to show that the mantra of RHPS is broadly applicable, and intentionally so. Therefore the Rocky Horror Picture Show transcends the constrictive definition as merely a vampy, drag film into a broad, taboo-shattering cultural piece that focuses upon the Epicurean way of life. Indulge yourself. Give yourself over to absolute pleasure, whether it be carnal, educational, spiritual, physical. Don’t dream it. Be it.
