INTERVIEW: Linus O’Brien on the ‘Strange Journey’ of ‘Rocky Horror’
The new documentary Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, directed Linus O’Brien, son of creator Richard O’Brien, is a perfectly timed exposé on the never-dying cultural phenomenon of this original midnight movie. The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which is based on the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show, is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025, and Strange Journey offers viewers an insider’s look at how this cinematic force changed the world forever. The documentary features interviews with cast and crew, including Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, director Jim Sharman, Patricia Quinn and Nell Campbell, among others.
“The story of Rocky Horror, just by itself without the family connection, has never been told on this scale before, with this amount of resources, this amount of creative talent,” O’Brien said in a recent Zoom interview. “So to have seasoned people who care about film and care about documentaries put all this love into it, I think that’s what separates it from something else. Just the fact that the last major comment on this was VH1’s Behind the Music, and that’s like 30 years ago. So the space was wide open.”
O’Brien is the perfect filmmaker to explore this topic. His father not only created the stage musical and co-wrote the film with Sharman, but he also plays Riff Raff on screen and helps bring to life the iconic song “Time Warp.”
“I don’t get too spiritual about all these things, but I probably was the best person to make the documentary, just because of my connection to my dad and because Rocky has been a part of my life for the last 50 years,” O’Brien said. “If I hadn’t moved to Barcelona 20 years ago for a year, I never would have met my editor, Avner [Shiloah], and then reconnected with him in L.A., and this movie doesn’t get made. … So sometimes when you look back at your life, you’re never quite sure the little things that have happened in order to make something positive happen 20, 30, 40 years later on in your life. When you trace the steps back, you’re like, wow, God, that was a stroke of luck that that little thing happened, and that’s been the case for making the documentary.”
When O’Brien reached out to the cast members of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, everyone was on board for being filmed and sharing their insights on this important cinematic story. There’s clearly a great pride amongst the cast members for this bullet on their résumé. They are associated with arguably the most successful movie of all time.
“Everyone was very happy right from when we were reached out to them,” the director said. “The only one that took a little bit of time was Tim Curry, but that was because of scheduling. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to be involved. Everyone was very forthcoming, very kind with their time, and it all just came together very naturally. Obviously financing the movie was a struggle from time to time, but other than that, creatively it couldn’t have gone any better basically with multiple shoots across the world — two shoots in New Zealand, interviewing Jim Sharman in Australia, London, New York and then L.A. Taking a documentary around the world is just a real dream basically.”
For O’Brien, the Rocky Horror phenomenon boils down to words: community and connection. The fans who show up each and every Saturday night for a midnight screening of the cult classic are looking for acceptance and friendship amongst like-minded individuals.
“People being able to find themselves who were on the fringes of society or just don’t feel that connected to society and feel a bit different, they can go to a place where there are other people like that, and they can meet their future wives, future husbands,” O’Brien said. “They can meet their friends that will become lifelong friends. It unites people in a way … that maybe no other work of art has ever united people. And so when you start thinking about Rocky in those terms, it becomes very overwhelming because obviously the original intent was just to have three weeks of fun in a theater that held 60 people, and that was it. There was no preaching of messages. There was no trying to start a cult. There was no idea that you’d have midnight screenings. They didn’t exist before essentially, so, yeah, it’s incredible the effect that it’s had on our culture and our society. And it’s been just such a privilege to celebrate that through our documentary.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, directed by Linus O’Brien, is now playing in the United States and opens Oct. 3 in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Click here for more information.
