It’s been 50 years since The Rocky Horror Show first did the Time Warp (again). 

While the mind flip of a musical remains searingly relevant in today’s cultural landscape, its journey from a 60-seat theatre in London to more cinema screens than could ever possibly be tallied hasn’t exactly been A to B to C. Now, for the first time, that journey has been preserved in the form of an endearingly personal documentary.

Titled Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror, the 89-minute doc is directed by Linus O’Brien (son of Rocky Horror’s originating supernova Richard O'Brien), and features intimate archival recordings from Rocky Horror history, from its earliest whispers to its most raucous fan events. Interspersed are interviews with many of the stage show (and the Rocky Horror Picture Show) stars, including Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, and of course, Richard O’Brien.

“You know, it's strange,” Linus O’Brien laughs. Born in 1972, Linus was less than a year old when his father’s creation took the world by storm. He knows no life without it on the periphery. “It pops into my life at different moments. I’ve seen various stage productions since I was four. People ask me what it was like, but honestly? My dad was my dad and Rocky was Rocky. They're two very separate things. I knew my dad had this incredible job, but it was all very normal for me. Now, to revisit all of it and examine the history of Rocky 50 years on, and see it all with new eyes… It's a real, real privilege, is what it is. And I'm very, very grateful for the opportunity to understand it in a new way, now.”

While Linus has been in the entertainment industry in one way or another for decades, Strange Journey marks his debut as a feature film director. The film premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest Film & TV Festival in Austin, Texas earlier this month, with wider distribution planned.

For Richard O’Brien, participating in the documentary felt less like a retrospective and more like a reclamation of the energy that led him to create Rocky Horror in the first place. “The voice of the people is the theatre and the poets and the writers. That’s the job, it's to give a voice to the voiceless. It was very cathartic writing Rocky Horror, in ways that I can now understand. Being a transgender human being myself, it was very cathartic—but I didn't know that at the time. I ended up getting my own voice through it. I was indulging myself, pleasing myself, and nobody else. Nobody was looking over my shoulder, nobody was telling me what to do. It was a work of juvenilia, for my own enjoyment, filled with the strengths that come with adolescent joys, and then the audience got ahold of it…”

For those who may be unfamiliar with Rocky Horror’s journey, here are the bare bones. Raised in New Zealand from the age of 10, Richard returned to England in 1964, where he worked as a stuntman and horseback rider in British Westerns. Eager to entertain out of the saddle, Richard trained as a Method actor before finding his footing in musical theatre, performing in both the original touring and West End productions of Hair, as well as in the West End production of Jesus Christ Superstar in 1972.

Upon his abrupt exit from Galilee that same year, he filled his unemployed winter with a personal pet project designed to combine all of his favorite things: the stylistic overtones of B horror movies, the imagination of science fiction, the mystique of glam rock, the attraction of early bodybuilding culture, and the petulant individualism of 1950s rock and roll. Written with an audience of himself in mind, Richard crafted the book, music, and lyrics before showing the piece to his former Jesus Christ Superstar director, Jim Sharman, who was taken by the show's boundless charm.

Initially staged in a 60-seat space tucked on top of the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1973, word of mouth soon brought in larger and larger audiences who fell under its spell. Constantly moving from location to location in search of more seats to accommodate the clamoring crowds, the show ran for 2,960 performances in London. As it continued to dazzle England throughout the decade, much of the original cast from the 60-seat production, including Richard’s old Hair buddy, Tim Curry, took the show to Los Angeles, where it enjoyed a very successful run at The Roxy. Shortly after the LA production, a bare-budget yet full-hearted film adaptation was produced, with the editing process coinciding with the production's stage transfer to Broadway. Unfortunately, the Broadway run was poorly received by the critics, shuttering after only three previews and 45 performances at the Belasco Theatre. Four months later, The Rocky Horror Picture Show was released to little fanfare, with many believing that the rocket had returned to earth, and that the strange journey had come to an end.

In reality, the phenomenon was merely refueling. As O'Brien, Curry, Sharman, and the rest of the cast and creative team scattered to the wind and began work on other projects, the film found its way into the hands of those who needed it most, creating a devoted fan culture that surpasses what is now thought of as "stan" culture. Beginning in New York City and Austin, Texas, the Rocky Horror Picture Show became a lifestyle for many of its devotees, turning the film from just another cinema screening into the subcultural event for communities across the globe, providing a refuge and giving a voice to every manner of outcast, shattering cultural taboos and strictures while encouraging life without shame. Rocky Horror is an undeniable phenomenon, and the original stage show has become a beloved foundation for out-of-the-box artists in every discipline under the sun. A 2000 revival on Broadway ran for over a year while another revival is planned for 2026 at Studio 54. To many, Rocky Horror is the most successful cult classic of all time.

Is your head spinning trying to process it all? Imagine being at the center of the hurricane.

“It really was astonishing,” Richard explains, his eyes widening with emphasis. “It happened organically, the way the audience found it. It had its own legs, and it continued the journey on its own, without my guiding it. We never had to sell it in any big way, didn’t have to go out and convince people to spend a lot of money on advertising. From day one of the theatre upstairs, once word of mouth hit, it was out of my hands.”

While Linus, of course, has clear and loving access to the various casts and creative teams involved in Rocky Horror’s development, some of the most affecting and remarkable material within the documentary comes straight from the fans who turned the show into a sensation. 

“I went to Sal Piro’s wake in early 2023,” shares Linus. “Sal was the original founder of The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club. And at his wake, I met his sister Lillias, and this gentleman called Sean Waters—who we feature in the documentary to give voice to that particular kind of person who felt so alone and couldn't go home, who suffered from abuse, and for whom Rocky was their first family. I always knew there were people out there like that. But once I started working on this documentary, they found me just like they had found the film 50 years ago. The stories they shared with me… To be honest, what made the documentary happen in the first place was the comments underneath the YouTube clips of the song ‘I'm Going Home.’ That was the genesis of this project, I didn’t set out to make a documentary about Rocky Horror because of my dad. I set out to do it because of the soldier from Iraq who said he used to play ‘I'm Going Home’ to get through his tour, I did it because of the daughter who’d lost her mother and played ‘I’m Going Home’ at her funeral. It’s just one comment after another, and I had to address them. They needed to be celebrated.”

It is both to Rocky Horror’s credit, and society's demerit, that much of the show’s contents remain boundary pushing. While just about every kind of person can and has felt seen through Rocky Horror, the show is particularly prized by the queer community, who have latched on to the "transsexual" Dr. Frank-N-Furter and his dizzying world of hedonism; it's a gleaming light where untold swathes of LGBTQIA+ individuals have flocked to find their chosen family.

In 2009, Richard publicly revealed his lifelong struggle with his gender identity, describing himself as existing somewhere in between male and female polarities on the gender spectrum (although continuing to use he/him pronouns). As the queer community in the United States face wave after wave of demoralizing hate from the current authoritarian-leaning government, Richard has a sermon of support to offer to those feeling suffocated by conservative pressures to conform.

“Don't give up on yourself. To give up on yourself is a crime. Remember that you're not alone. We have to keep waving the Rainbow Banner as much as we can. We have to stand together. We have to understand that we're not alone. Because it's very frightening. I weep for America, I do. I literally weep for America. You’ve been betrayed, but you have to know, the rest of the world is with you. You must hold to your community, keep close to your friends, and keep speaking up for democracy.

“It is time to get angry and fight back with vigor. Fight for decency. Fight for civility. Fight for kindness. This can be soul-destroying, but you mustn't give up, and you must use your voice. If you’re a young person who wants to write theatre, speak out. The theatre of tomorrow speaks to the position you are in today. Maybe out of this adversity, some fine stuff will come. But we mustn't give up. We mustn't give up. We mustn't give up.”

For more information on Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror as it achieves wider distribution, visit IMDB.com