“What is this ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ thing?” I remember thinking this in 1978, when I heard about a movie of that title somehow playing midnights for weeks (months?) on end in a multiplex near Western Michigan University. Being an impressionable college student who liked movies (but hadn’t yet grown to love them), I thought I ought to give this one a try.
Of course, anyone who has seen “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” – which became a cult favorite not long after its unremarkable original 1975 release – knows that it is not just a movie show but a movie experience.
The few hardcore fans who dared to wear costumes, yell out dialogue and throw things at a postage-stamp screen on an otherwise sleepy Saturday night in Kalamazoo impressed me. The film’s songs, performed by Meat Loaf, Tim Curry and others, were really good. But more than anything, the movie’s edgy but affectionate send-up of the classic horror and science-fiction movies I grew up loving got me hooked. Needless to say, I came back to “Rocky Horror” – in better theaters with crazier audiences.
Now, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is returning, appropriately, to Flint’s most classic theater – the refurbished Capitol. Complete with a live appearance by actor Barry Bostwick – the clueless “Brad Majors” of the film – the movie is showing October 21 at 8pm. A live shadow cast (of course), audience participation, a costume contest and artifact displays are promised.
Bostwick, of course, has gone on to more “conventional” work in films and television – including many years on “Spin City” – and won a Tony Award. But it’s great he’s retained a sense of humor about “Rocky” as it nears its 50th anniversary.
For more information on the Capitol Theatre show, contact the box office at 810.237.7333 or visit CapitolTheatreFlint.com.
It being October, the commercial theaters are full of scary fare, with “Candyman,” “Malignant” and “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” among titles of interest. Partake … if you dare.
At the Flint Institute of Arts, the annual Halloween-weekend movie selection is “Undine,” a fantasy mystery-romance from Germany about a young woman whose current romantic relationship leads to the possibility that she is subject to an ancient curse. It’s playing October 29-31 in the FIA’s Friends of Modern Art film series.
Kicking off the museum’s cinema schedule this month is “Dream Horse” (October 1-3), an inspirational horse-racing tale from England starring Toni Collette and Damian Lewis. It’s followed by “The Lost Leonardo” (October 8-10), a documentary about a claimed masterpiece from the masterly hands of Leonardo da Vinci.
Also at the FIA are “Quo Vadis, Aida?” (October 15-17), a war story set in Bosnia and Herzegovina that was nominated for the most recent Best International Feature Oscar, and “The Killing of Two Lovers” (October 22-24), a drama with Clayne Crawford of TV’s “Lethal Weapon.”
More information can be found at the FIA website, FlintArts.org. Appropriate safety measures will be taken considering COVID-19 conditions.
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