What was it like in theaters?

Members of the audience would be acting out the movie up front under the screen. People would scream any time the narrator (man with no neck) was on screen. People also added in their own dialog at times.

For example when Frank-N-Furter says "Put these on. They'll make you feel less... vulnerable", they scream "naked" after the word less, and scream "same thing" after the word vulnerable.

I bought the dvd years later just so I could better understand what was going on. I prefer the theater experience.

Awesome and fan-fucking-tastic!

It's a blast.

If you really want to participate there are participation scripts that you can find online. Or you can just go and experience it.

They didn't. That was the point!

They used to let you bring water guns and rice and rolls of toilet paper into the theater. It looked like a hurricane had passed through when the lights went up at the end. A theater experience unlike any other.

I never saw it myself but back in the 80s when I was a teenager, it always showed at 10 PM on Fridays before the cool midnight movies at our local Cult/Art theater. My buddies and I would get there at 11:30 PM to see double bills of George Romero zombie movies, or Ralph Bakshi animation or rock concert movies, or trippy stuff like Aguirre, the Wrath of God and El Topo or Eraserhead. While we were on line, we'd see all the Rocky Horror fans come out. Bunch of punk rockers, gaylords and overweight proto-goth chicks in lingerie with one or two slumming preppies in the mix. When we got into the theater, the lazy-ass ushers would never have cleaned up and the whole theater was littered with confetti, silly string, slices of toast, rice etc.

It was really fun in the 80's. The first time I went some uptight girl said, "Don't see Rocky Horror". Someone squirted mustard and ketchup all over her. Someone must have thought she was Frank-N-Furter. lol

I only saw it once in theaters several ago and it was at one of the nicest theaters in town. I couldnt really get into the audience participation part of it. I think being in a trashy worn down theater might of made it more fun for me.

I actually first saw it the year it was released at a drive-in, when I was barely 12yo & long before the cult phenomenon took off. Saw it a few times in the late 70s/early 80s at the height of the cult mania & it was quite an experience.