If that line sounds familiar, you are one of the millions of people that have experienced the Rocky Horror Picture show. I say experienced and not seen because being in the audience at a midnight showing of the cult classic is much more than simply watching a film, it is an interactive adventure.
The first time I attended a midnight showing, I was 14. (At that time movie age ratings seemed like more of a vague suggestion). My daughter is 13 and she and her 14 year old friend would like me to take them to a showing at Universal City Walk in the next couple of months. Of course I would have to have her parent’s approval but before I go that far, I am trying to make up my mind if I myself think they are too young. I think they just may be. However, that makes me feel a little hypocritical.
So dopers, if you not only know the film but know the antics that go on with the audience participation, do you think 13 and 14 is too young. (I would be with them the entire time.)
I think they’re a little too young for the midnight movie experience. As I recall, at least back when I did such things, the crowd will be largely composed of folks under the influence of various substances.
As an alternative, you could probably rent/buy a dvd and let the girls have a sleepover to watch it.
Ahhh the memories, I played Eddie every week. Good times. that being said I don’t think a DVD at home is anywhere near the same as seeing it in person. In fact watching at home probably wouldn’t be much fun. I think the maturity level of the 13/14 year old would be a major factor in the appropiateness of taking them. My kids sure, some of their friends yes others no. All in all I don’t see a problem.
When I was 13 or 14, I wouldn’t have even understood half the stuff in RHPS. But I know times have changed. You would know these particular kids better than anyof us.
Personally… I would not take a kid to see it. But that’s just me. I dearly love the movie… Miss those every week midnight showings!
My parents wouldn’t have let me see it at that age. But when I was 18 my mother was happy to help me shop for a corset so I could play Janet in front of the screen.
I waited until my daughter was 16 before I took her to see it at a Midnight showing. She was familiar with it, in general, but the environment at most performances can be over the top.
Watch it at home with them; prepare toast, etc., and show them the ropes as far as audience participation. They may watch it and go ‘wtf was that about?’ and be bored. And yeah, it’s a bit racy for that age. I don’t think that that’s really harmful, but the other girl’s parents might think otherwise.
This makes me wonder, though, about the particpatory-ness of movies and how cool just that is.
And it makes me wonder why Disney doesn’t cash in on this. Can you imagine evening or matinee shows for kids, to dress up like their favorite characters, and be encouraged to sing out loud with the songs? That would be awesome!
Hell, at 13-14, that would work great with Grease.
A few years ago VH1(I think) was showing it on Halloween. My daughters thought I looked pretty stupid doing the time warp in the living room. They were about the 13/14 age then.
I went to a showing on Saturday for the first time in forever. Audience participation can get pretty raunchy–for example, before the show even began, the “virgins” were invited up front, where they used Snickers bars to simulate certain on-your-knees acts, and I ain’t talking communion. Consider how comfortable you would be with your thirteen-year-old viewing that (I’m already figuring you wouldn’t want her participating).
Personally I’d wait until the kid is old enough to go on her own, say, sixteen.
Definitely don’t do it on DVD. After the movie I was talking about it with my friends, and someone was saying a snob had mocked her for going to it, because there are better cult movies. “There are better cult movies,” I said, “but there are no better movie cults.” That’s the reason for going to Rocky: not for the pretty lame movie, but for the totally weird and kind of delightful cult that surrounds it.
I really see no reason to show them the movie. I am sure they would think it is dumb. (Although I own it). It was more the experience of the show that I was considering. But yeah, I think I’ll wait a year or two. I heard about that “virgin” bit although I’ve never seen it at any shows I’ve been to but I haven’t been in years.
I cannot personally imagine that people who go to cinemas at midnight are a threat to anyone and there’s no way that they will be behaving worse than they would have done where you were thirteen.
Then again I was allowed to do basically whatever I liked from roughly that age and turned up fucked up so maybe you are better off doing the parenting thing
I’d be less concerned about the audience antics than the actual content of the movie at that age. I have a 14 y.o. and I wouldn’t take her to see it. I’d share the soundtrack, but wait at least a couple of years to see the movie.
FWIW, I saw it many times in theatres before the audience participation thing had really caught on, and the first time I was probably no older than 16. Even without the distraction of the audience stuff it felt completely transgressive but was pretty much a total mystery to me. (That’s why I had to see it 25+ times–uh-huh, that’s my story.)
In addition to what I just described, you had cast members running around in underwear, feeling each other up, reaching into their pants to scratch themselves and sniff, motorboating one another, and other silly sexual antics. The call-outs are incredibly obscene, which is part of the fun. It’s about on the level of a burlesque show in its sexual mores. That’s awesome, but not where I’m comfortable taking a 13-year-old.
Having seen it more than a dozen times at the Nuart theater in Los Angeles when I was in high school and college, I would be inclined to say that is a bit young for the experience. I’d go 16 as the youngest, and even then, some treatment of the virgins can be quite bad. In the years I went, it was fairly tame, and all they made you do was wear the ass-gasket toilet seat covers from the bathroom as a necklace while being harassed by the audience. That said, I have definitely seen drunks, fights break out, etc. over the many showings, and while that’s fine in theory, and can even add to the experience, it’s a whole other story when it happens next to you and someone throws a punch or throws something that hits one of those kids instead of their intended target.
I dearly love the movie… Miss those every week midnight showings!