In the 1970s, a bunch of us would have marathon sessions playing this newfangled game called "Dungeons and Dragons." It was a box set then, AD&D was yet to come. We played in a games club on Yonge Street in Toronto, and just down the street as the kind of sleazy movie theatre that played "Swedish Naturist" movies and any other porn or porn-adjacent films they could get away with.

On Saturdays, we would play until about 11:45, lock the club up, and go to the theatre, where they would show The Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight. It was semi-wild. A few people would be there in costume, and lots of people would shout out the most famous lines.

I enjoyed it, and ended up making a minor contribution to the atmosphere: I started brining a water pistol along, and when there was rain in the movie, I'd fire it upwards, waving it randomly so other patrons would get a little sprinkle.

People liked that kind of thing!

This still happens with full shadow-casts and everything. Look around, and look to bigger cities if you're living somewhere out of the way. If there isn't a troupe near you that does this regularly, you may have more luck closer to Halloween.

They were great.

Some of the modern criticism of it is rather harsh. The complaints about predatory tropes, and lack of consent miss the whole point.

It is an outlandish piece of fiction, mixed with satire. It's just ment to be ridiculous and fun.

It's why people turned the whole midnight showing into an event. You either got what it was, and went to laugh and have a good time or you were just too stiff and didn't get it. The whole scene was great for suburban queer and gay kids who might not have had another outlet or gathering place.

I was lucky to have experienced it in the 80's and 90's in a few states. The relative homogeny of the crowed across states and venues was shocking. It was always a great way to "find your people" when you went somewhere new.

The first time I ever saw Rocky Horror was in a public screening during university, some friends dressed up and as I had no idea what I'd been invited to I was trying to work out why everyone was wearing these big coats

Then we hit the theater and the coats came off and I was trying to work out what the hell I'd got myself into

I'd seen Tim Curry before in Home Alone 2, but seeing him as Frank-N-Furter, strutting his stuff on the screen, that was iconic

What a show, that man knew how to commit

I spent more Friday and Saturday nights at the Tivoli in St. Louis at RHPS showings in my teen years than I can count. Quite literally, I lost track somewhere around 80 showings. (Not all at the Tivoli, but most.)

The first time I went to see it I was 16, I think, and being able to shout at the screen, throw toast and rice, generally just be loud and roudy as a teen, was fantastic.

Finally took my daughter (she's 20) to see it about some months ago during an anniversary screening... I got shushed by somebody two rows ahead for yelling a few lines. Nobody in the theatre knew about audience participation. Still fairly bummed about that. She'll probably never get the full audience participation experience, and that's sad.

RHPS was not my introduction to Tim Curry, though: Clue was. But I didn't put the two together until seeing Clue again after seeing RHPS a few times.

There’s a small cinema in Paris that still screens 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' once a month; at certain times of the year, there’s even a troupe of amateur actors.

When I went to see it, it was a joyful shambles, with rice, water, ad-libbed lines, and drag queens surfing the audience.