This past Saturday afternoon, Tim Curry, dressed in drag and singing showtunes, shimmied his way into my bedroom and took my virginity.

Yes, I have a confession to make, World:   after 32 years of spinning around on this blue-green ball, my Rocky Horror Picture Show virginity has finally been taken.

One of the small advantages to being sick, as I was for Friday and Saturday, is that while attempting to avoid the family and between moaning and groaning in bed (and not in the nice way), you get to catch up on movies.    Thus it was that I finally broached that phenomenon that is Rocky Horror.

I know, I know…I can hear you all now.   Where have you been!?  Whaaaaaa…??? If you ask my friends, they’ll happily tell you that I’ve seen Jack Squat NOTHING in my time compared to what they have, and I’ll heartily agree.    My youth was mostly regulated to a G/PG experience so many of the ‘classic’ movies of that age passed me by without so much as a peep and these days I’m so busy, well…the Tivo is lucky it gets my attention at all.   For instance, I was college-aged before I saw any of the Brat Pack movies.

It was fortunate for me that I went into RHPS without any pre-conceived notions about what it was about or what to expect; my friends had all been good enough to simply say, “Well…you just have to watch it, really,” and left it at that.    To have a preconception of RHPS is like thinking that Alice in Wonderland or Labyrinth are children’s movies, because they are decidedly NOT.

In short — I loved it.    I mean, RHPS is one of those things that just grows on you and you can’t help but getting through it and thinking, “My god, that is fucked up,” and yet you are singing the songs in your head for the next week.   It’s just that perfect mix of the strange, macabre, hallucinogenic fog, and crazy out-of-the-map storyline that sticks with you.   Or maybe I’m just screwed in the head in general.

Tim Curry was nothing less than BRILLIANT. I never thought, given what I’ve seen him in lately, that he could pull off a singing, cross-dressing mad scientist easily, but he truly was the character of Dr. Frank-N-Furter.

Second on my list for favorite characters was Columbia, simply because I think Little Nell put so much into the acting of the character that you couldn’t help but appreciate and sympathize with her.

Susan Sarandon!   Well, there’s a name I didn’t expect to be associated with something so far off the radar, but there she was, and I have to say I thought she did a fine job with it, too, even though the majority of the acting required was to look scared, cold, wet, or all three.   There is also something to be said for spending some quality time watching her youthful jubblies bounce around on the screen.   While these days she should try to contain her assets, in 1975 she was quite lithe.

While the writing was done well, I thought Richard O’Brien as Riff Raff simply phoned in the performance.   I wasn’t convinced at all by his acting that he gave a crap.   But I guess you always have one of them in the show.

If you are the sort that loves mainline, standard Hollywood movies that typically show in the theater, get mass reviews, star popular actors, and fall easily within a specified genre, RHPS may not be for you.    But if you’re the sort that appreciates a really strange, twisted, and yet creatively fresh movie swimming in your brain, you would do well to serve yourself up a hot plate of Rocky Horror.

I’m sure glad I finally did!