Recent film production graduate Dylan Sampson first saw “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” the way many people have.
“I was roped into its crazy world by a friend,” he said.
For days the songs kept popping into his head until he watched the movie again. And again and again, as he tells it.
“‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ was made to be shared,” Sampson said.
The University Program Board would agree, as the organization is hosting an interactive screening of the cult film 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in Pruis Hall. The shadow cast show is free for students and $1 for guests.
Since the stage musical was adapted for theatrical release in 1975, it has inspired viewers to attend screenings in costume, sing along and talk back to the screen. By mid-1978, the film was playing in over 50 locations at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. By the end of 1979, there were twice-weekly showings at over 230 theatres.
On Halloween night in Pruis Hall, students will present a shadow cast show of the movie, in which they will pantomime the film behind the screen as it plays.
Sampson saw last year’s shadow production when he was a senior and became hungry for more.
“As a student of film, I admire how well the shadow performers know the movie,” Sampson said. “It’s also really impressive from a technical standpoint. In a normal stage play, actors know their lines and are told where to stand, but for shadow cast, they know every actor’s moves every second on screen.”
The film follows an innocent couple (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) trapped in a transvestite mad scientist’s (Tim Curry) castle. Little do they know, they are amidst the unveiling of his latest creation — an Adonis who is intended to be something of a sex slave for the evil Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
“Even though society is a little more open than it used to be, ‘Rocky Horror’ is still pretty taboo. So, you know, that will certainly attract college kids to it,” Sampson said with a sly grin.
Ultimately, though, the film seems to have an even broader appeal.
“It’s a melting pot of a film, a hodgepodge of camp and absurdity,” said Heath Schlatter, a junior telecommunications major. “It’s a musical, a horror flick and a comedy, giving it the ability to appeal to so many different people for so many different reasons.”
When Sampson’s friend and recent anthropology graduate Evan Dossey went with him to last year’s shadow cast show, he promised to join him the next time, no matter how far away he lived after graduating.
“Fortunately, I still live in Indiana,” Dossey said. “But I would have traveled great distances to see this show again. Of all the strange celebrations of this film over the years, the shadow cast presentation is the most imaginative one I’ve seen.”
