Review: Gayheart contrasts 2016’s Rocky Horror with 1975 original

On October 18, 2016, Fox released a new version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, called The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again. The original cult classic from 1975 starred Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist/alien transvestite, while the new version starred TV star and LGBT+ activist Laverne Cox. Some other well-known stars were cast, such as: Victoria Justice (Janet), Ryan McCartan (Brad), Adam Lambert (Eddie), Christina Milian (Magenta), and many more.

Many fans thought this was going to be a total flop. Many new-releases of old classics cannot come close to the original, yet the fan collective still found themselves counting down the days. During the intro when the cast’s names float on screen, Tim Curry’s name appeared. If the cult classic original star was going to be in it, and approve it, it had to be good, right? He played the narrator/criminologist, originally portrayed by Charles Gray. These fans were half right, half wrong.

Victoria Justice did an amazing job as Janet, as well as Ryan McCartan as Brad. While they stuck to the lines and emotions of the original actors Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick, they managed to add their own personal flairs. The rest of the cast did well, but without any stand-out performances. One actor however gave a bad name to the entire movie; Reeve Carney as Riff-Raff, the handy man servant. While his singing parts were mediocre, his acting was unrealistic. Riff-Raff, originally portrayed by Richard O’Brien, is known for his hump/hunchback, but Reeve Carney’s “hump” looked less like a hunchback and more like stumbling around with a broken ankle and bad posture.

While we all love Laverne Cox, her portrayal of Dr. Frank-N-Furter left me slightly confused. One of the Doctors famous songs is Sweet Transvestite and the doctor is a character portrayed as a transvestite. Cox is a transgender woman portraying a man dressed as a woman in the film, which eliminates the entire transvestite part, but in the film she still calls herself a transvestite. Either I am missing out on something or this wasn’t fully thought through. Confused? I was too. The reason Cox decided not to change the words is she got casted for her personality as Dr. Frank-N-Furter. She claimed, “You can’t change the words to an iconic song!” even if it doesn’t match your categorization, the Doctor’s character is more based on sexual oddity rather than gender and identifying statements.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is less about being exact and making sense and more about just letting loose and having fun. I look forward to seeing how this film will impact new generations the same way the original impacted ours. While this remake did have its flaws, it is nice to see the legacy of this cult classic carried on 41 years later.