On 14 Colonial street at the Universal Studios back lot in Hollywood sits one of the most famous houses in movie history . The "Chicken Ranch" as it's called has been used in iconic films and television series such as Rob Zombie's A House of 1000 Corpses , and the CBS drama Ghost Whisperer . But the house's most famous appearance ( and the reason for its construction ) was the 1982 movie musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas starring Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds. The Chicken Ranch ( based upon the real life Texan bordello ) serves as the main setting in the 1982 film . In the film , the Chicken Ranch is a legendary house of ill repute that dates back to the early 19th century and is run by Miss Mona (Dolly Parton ) who acts as both the madam of the house and mother to the girls who live there. The set was modeled after a real home in Austin, Texas where principal photography took place. The set was originally placed in Texas and used for establishing shots before being moved to the Universal Studios back lot . The set is still fully functional and can be used for filming internally and externally. The original Chicken Ranch was located in La Grange, Texas and operated from 1905 until 1973 when it was closed after an expose' by a Texan media watchdog named Marvin Zindler. The bordello served as inspiration for the original Broadway musical Whorehouse , the film adaption and the ZZ Top song La Grange.

Dolly Parton as Miss Mona in front of the Chicken Ranch set .

The original Chicken Ranch in La Grange , Texas.

The Phantom Of The Paradise is one of the biggest films in cult movie fandom . First overlooked by the majority of film goers, the film has gained a massive amount of fans and recognition. Phantom is a perfect example of a film flopping tremendously upon its initial release but gaining its just due recognition in time , à la Rocky Horror. Phantom,  like a rising  phoenix from the ashes ,  has become a pivotal staple in musical cinematic history and has gone on to influence countless other rock musical films . But before Phantom Of The Paradise  redeemed itself by becoming a cultural icon , it was embraced by the Canadian city of Winnipeg . As strange as it sounds , although the film was an American production and failed to catch on in the States , it became a massive hit in Winnipeg . Why Winnipeg embraced Phantom over any other Canadian city is still a mystery , but the number of highly devoted fans is still growing. With a successful POTP centered convention ( fittingly called Phantompalooza )  , Winnipeg is the true Phantom Of The Paradise city. I was fortunate enough to correspond with one of the founders of Phantompalooza  Gloria Dignazio. Below is the fascinating interview :

Cultmoviemusicals.com : Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed! First off tell me a little bit about your introduction to Phantom of the Paradise and why it made such an impact on you .

Gloria :  It’s a great pleasure and my honour! So POTP believe it or not was the first movie I ever saw! When I was 11 years old, I went on my first date and of course, brought a few girlfriends with me cause that’s what you do when you are 11 and terrified but somewhat flattered and interested in boys!  So we went to the Garrick Theatre here in Winnipeg and as soon as the movie began, like as soon as I saw the Death Records birdie and heard Rod Serling’s voice, that was it. I was gone and transported into another dimension, I just loved it, right from the first second, the opening of the movie. I honestly don’t recall anything further about the actual date, just that I had fallen in love with this movie!  Well, so of course, I HAD to have more and so I kept going back to the Garrick as much as I could and in those days, when you paid for one show, you could stay for future screenings, so that is what we did. I also fell in love with the music, the soundtrack and of course, got the LP and proceeded to play the shit out of it and drew the soundtrack cover as well. My twin brother (who also loves the movie) still remembers me saying “I need more black, more pink”! as I drew it using felt markers. I wish my parents hadn’t thrown it away as it was actually quite good if I don’t say so myself! Then life happens as it does and I just remember it coming on TV late at night and always watching it, and it made me feel a certain way, like it always cheered me up, made me really happy.  Then when VHS came out, I distinctly remember one day in the 80s and it was a Sunday ( I was down and probably hungover ) and I specifically went to a video store to find POTP and I found it! and I watched it again, and I really remember it cheered me up so much and I just loved it, it just makes me happy!


Cultmoviemusicals.com When and how did you discover that Phantom had such a large underground cult following ?

Gloria : Gee, I honestly didn’t know  that there were Phantom fans like me out there, til one day I was sitting at my mundane office job, in like either late 2003 or 2004, and was googling Phantom of the Paradise and came across this fantastic website from a guy ( Larry ? )  in Calgary and I was blown away by his site as he a had color picture of Swan (Paul Williams) on it AND a personal message from Swan himself!! I was mesmerized and completely impressed and was reading all the comments from other fans and realized that I wasn’t alone! I did post a message about how much I loved the movie and then, kinda forgot about it .


Cultmoviemusicals.com : Awesome ! Tell me a little about Phantompalooza and how it came to be .

Gloria : Well, this ties in with end of my reply to question #2. For the 30th anniversary of the film in 2004, a newspaper reporter from the Winnipeg Free Press named Dave Sanderson saw my post on that Calgary website and contacted me and asked me if I’d like to be interviewed. Being the famewhore that I am, I of course said yes!  When I told him my 10 year old son Colin and I had matching Death Records t-shirts, he said “can I send a photographer?”, so he did and that article appeared on a Saturday, a big day in newspaper land.  And  then there it was, a beautiful BIG article on POTP and a nice picture of my son and I with our matching DR tshirts! My phone started to ring off the hook at 8 a.m. (mainly from males of my age at the time )  wanting to know where they could get DR tshirts. from. I resonated with 4 of them;  Doug Carlson, Rod Warkentin, Gary (Zippy) Gurniak and Del Pannu (later to be known as my Phantom hubby.  We continue to do Phantom events together to this day) and met with them at a Tim Horton’s coffee shop to discuss what was in that article.  The reporter, Dave Sanderson had interviewed the manager at the Garrick, who really had no idea of Phantom’s history at that theatre ( it played there for a long time when it came out here in 1974/75) and I had an epiphany!  Like why not.? Let's see about doing a screening. So we all met (complete strangers at the time, but our mutual love for the movie brought us all together ) and from that meeting, we formed Phantompalooza!  My twin brother Eric was also there as well.  Each one of these guys had a niche. For example Doug is a webmaster and created the most awesome website (even better then Larry’s in Calgary) and he even had a guestbook using the “Phantom font”.  It was mindblowing.  It was all VERY synchronistic and each one of us had our various roles and managed to put together Phantompalooza I, which was held on April 23, 2005 at the original Garrick Theatre. We brought in two stars of the movie, Mr. William Finley and Mr. Gerrit Graham, it was really unbelievable. I still can’t believe we all manifested this!  I have to give credit to an honourary member of Phantompalooza, Mr. Mike Navis, who found Bill  Finley in New York for us. Bill had had experiences with stalkers and was not fond of flying, but through Mike, I was able to contact him and persuade him with all my emails with many exclamation marks letting him know that we weren’t just gonna show this on a bedsheet in someone’s basement here in Winnipeg. We ended up having 2 screenings of the movie , Q & A sessions and a huge social (like a big dance with food and music) at a gorgeous venue across from the Garrick, where 800 people showed up. And we had a couple of bands play and a couple of Phantom songs were sung live which was pretty cool.  Fans ended up cornering Bill and Gerrit in a coat change closet type of area ( I kid you not )  and they brought plungers for them to sign, it was like complete pandemonium. But Bill and Gerrit loved every second of it, so did the fans!  Bill said later in interviews that something just told him to trust and to come to Winnipeg.  The rest is history!  So Bill and Gerrit were both blown away as they were treated like total rock stars when they were here. The fans went nuts and we had not only Winnipeg fans, but people actually travelled to come to our event! So Bill says to us at the end (with a mischievous little boy grin on his face ,he was so happy), he says “you gotta do this again next year, but next year, you have to bring the entire cast to Winnipeg!”. When he said that I could hear angels singing in the background . Whatever Bill wanted, Bill got, so we just said YES of course, and proceeded to do what he asked of us. Myself, Doug, Rod and Zippy flew down to Los Angeles to meet Paul at a screening of the movie in Santa Monica (Del couldn’t make it unfortunately) .  We used the money from proceeds of Phantompalooza I to do this and it was so worth it. We met with Paul after the screening, it was mindblowing. I can’t even describe how exciting it was when at the Q & A at the screening he says “Where’s Gloria from Phantompalooza?" And mentioned Winnipeg. He was like 3 feet away from me and I was dying, dying, and we hugged each other in front of that theatre . I’ll never forget it.  So then, we got in touch with Jessica Harper and met with Archie Hahn (the singer of Goodbye Eddie Goodbye) at get this, a Denny’s! I’ll never forget the look on his face when he walked in. You could tell he was thinking "Are these guys nuts?" and "What am I doing here?'. Well, after he met us and we showed him Zippy’s merchandise, t-shirts, mugs with DR birdie,etc ,  he knew we were serious and that is how The Juicy Fruits/Beach Bums/Undead came on board. 
Phantompalooza II occurred on April 29, 2006 and was even better than Phantompalooa I!  We had again two screenings of the movie, two Q & A sessions, and this time with the entire cast of the movie, plus Paul Williams. He performed and Jessica Harper joined him on stage and they sang “Old Souls” .. it was surreal, unreal and honestly, I still can’t believe it all happened. But I have memories and video to prove to myself that it did indeed happen. We also had an incredible band made up of local musicians, the “Phantom Live Band” who performed the entire soundtrack, it was super cool and Gerrit even performed his song “Life at Last” with The Juicy Fruits joining him on stage. Need I say more? Nothing, absolutely nothing will ever be as cool as that moment was. 

 Cultmoviemusicals.com : Were You surprised about the massive amount of fans of Phantom in Winnipeg ?

Gloria : No, hmmm, hard to answer in a way, because I am such a huge fan that I just think everyone loves this movie as much as I do, especially if you are from Winnipeg. It's in our blood and in our souls. But I’d have to say I guess, I was just  surprised to find out about the Paris convention and the pockets of fans all over the world. For example, at a  screening of the movie in Los Angles in 2014, 1,000 people showed up to see the movie's screening. It is also very huge in El Salvador . For a movie that is 40 years old it's gaining in popularity. And also my kids generation, kids in their 20s are showing up to the events and they know every word to the soundtrack and are wearing their DR t-shirts!  The movie is only becoming more and more popular!


Cultmoviemusicals.com : Why do you think of all places , Phantom caught on in such big way in Winnipeg ? 

Gloria : This is a question many ask and for me, I always say, it’s a soul thing . It's in my DNA or something. But honestly, I feel a huge part of why Winnipeggers dig the movie so much is the music. The music fits the storyline of the movie perfectly, like it forms some sort of a perfect puzzle and it really rocks. It was ahead of its time and it still rocks. We are a rock town and we know our music, so yeah, I believe this is a huge part of why Winnipeggers love this movie so much.   Also, for many of us Winnipeg kids growing up, this was our first exposure to rock n roll. And the elements in the movie; a love story, a horror story, a comedy, a musical, I mean what was it really??!! It was and still IS all of those things. It was like it transformed ME into being a rock star watching it and I still get butterflies to this day when I hear the opening riffs of “Somebody Super Like You”. It takes me back to when I was that young girl of 11, innocent and bright eyed but curious and the movie satisfied my curiosity about certain things and excited me in all kinds of ways. And still does to this day. It's just a fascinating movie. I never get sick of it and have seen it too many times to count. I never dreamed the movie would end up becoming such an incredible blessing in my adult life. For now I know the cast members as friends. I sometimes get e-mails from Paul Williams while sitting at my boring, mundane office job and I just smile before I click open because I know it will be something that will make me smile. He is Swan after all , and TRUST ME, that to me is entertainment ment ment!


Like Rocky Horror , Shock Treatment and many other cult movie musicals , Phantom Of The Paradise has attracted a large and devout following of fans who attend conventions and screenings, dress as the characters and create websites in their honor. Of course mainstream has learned that these once forgotten films can be profitable and use every opportunity to exploit fans,  but it's the fans that made the movies what they were . Like Gloria and her friends who made Phantom of the Paradise an experience and local treasure in Winnipeg , it's the fans who embrace a film in obscurity and give them their much deserved second chance.

For more information about Phantompalooza visit www.phantomoftheparadise.ca

It's hard to believe that its been almost two years since Rocky Horror's sister musical film Shock Treatment shocked and thrilled audiences on stage  in London . When I first learned that creator Richard O'Brien gave his blessing for Shock Treatment to be adapted for the stage , I was beyond excited. For years O'Brien had been pursued to allow his underrated child to be adapted in theater , especially since the original 80s film predicted the exact world in which we now sadly inhabit.  Finally after being persuaded, O'Brien felt like it was now time for Shock Treatment to come out of the wings and into the theater spotlight . The film that shares it's namesake was a forgotten cult hit that gradually grew into the respected "equal" to Rocky Horror  that it's now considered to be . I was just finishing my junior year in undergrad in Newcastle , England and I  booked tickets to see the stage adaption of the 1982 film . The stage adaption followed the film version very religiously with the notable exceptions of condensing the huge cast of characters into 7 , mentioning it's predecessor Rocky Horror ( something the film didn't do ) and adding the major sub plot of actual electro shock therapy . The film was a nod to commercialism and television in the United States , whereas the stage adaption was more about the woes of overnight superstardom and reality TV. The stage adaption , which premiered in the tiny theater of the King's Head pub , was small and intimate , which made Shock Treatment a full fledge personal experience. The cast would often break the forth wall which included tons of audience participation where the audience itself became characters in the zany universe of Denton . In all of my years of theater going , I have never experienced anything remotely similar to the enthusiasm that I felt with the audience of Shock Treatment . The budget was obviously modest for the musical, but It felt as if once you entered the small theater that you were instantly transported into another dimension. As Someone who ​admires and is a massive groupie of the original film, it honestly felt as if somehow I slipped through a wormhole and magically landed into Shock Treatment. The small theater made being so close to the actors not only enthralling but also intimidating. The nefarious characters would often sit next to me on the front row and would try to draw you into their wicked scheme to get Janet away from Brad. The use of breaking the fourth wall and the isolated space made the musical feel like this was a real television station and that these characters were real fiends bent on world domination though the means of reality TV. Sadly , Shock Treatment took its bow not soon after as it was only a limited run event . But here's hoping that eventually Shock Treatment will rise from the ashes and shake London ( and maybe fittingly America ) to its core once again .

The sign for Shock Treatment outside of the King's Head theater the night I saw the show .

With summer fast approaching , it's time to break out the sun screen, bikinis, surfboards, and of course some summer themed cult movie musicals . With their beach parties , luaus , road trips and pirates , these 5 cult movie musicals are sure to get into the summer mood! 

Earth Girls Are Easy is the ultimate summer cult movie musical ! With it's California setting , beach parties , surfer dudes and beach babes , this totally rad film will get you in the summer mood fast ! Stars: Gina Davis , Julie Brown , Jeff Goldblum , Jim Carrey , Michael Mckean and Damon Wayans.

The Muppet Movie is one of the best musical road trip movies in the history of film . This beloved classic stars Jim Henson's Muppets as they travel to Hollywood in hopes to achieve to make it as film stars . With its classic soundtrack and gorgeous scenery  , this film is sure to make you want to take a summer road trip yourself .

Back to the Beach  is a  totally tubular 80s summer themed musical starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello ( the king and queen of the beach party movie). With a plethora of cameos from 80s stars and the endless beach parties, this film is a summer must.  

What better way to kick off summer than to revisit Grease 2, the cheesy 80s classic starring Michelle Pfieffer. With its totally terrible but fabulously awesome soundtrack , luaus and 80s ridiculousness, no summer would be complete without it .   

 Last on the list is one of the worst yet beloved cult movie musicals of all time. The Pirate Movie  ( which is very loosely on the operetta The Pirates of Penzance ) fits in the category of "so bad its awesome" .  A guilty pleasure of mine , this film is perfect for the summer! Pirates , terrible 80s music ( with a little Gilbert and Sullivan thrown in ) and 80s superstars Christopher Atkins and Kristy Mchnichol make this a summer classic.

 
It was the summer of 1998 that I first saw the cult gem Rock & Rule. I was 8 years old and a routine summer trip to Blockbuster Video led to my uncovering the awesome animated masterpiece that  would affect my love for musical films forever . The videotape of Rock & Rule was neatly placed alongside other animated films in the children's section. It was that same summer , in that same section that I uncovered The Last Unicorn , another life changing animated musical . I wasn't familiar at the time with Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop or Loud Reed ( the rock gods who all lent their sultry voices to the film) , so the music wasn't what first lured me into the film ( although it's what has made me stay faithful to the film all these years ) . It was the beautiful animation portrayed on the videotape's cover that first drew me in. It featured a daring hero, a beautiful girl, and a diabolical villain watching over them . All in the vein of Star Wars. When I finally took the film home from the video store (along with The Last Unicorn ) I was eager to uncover a film that I knew would be captivating. The film opens like a psychedelic trip with its alternative universe setting in which humans have somehow disappeared. Music plays a massive part in the film as it's not only a commentary on a dystopian future where the world is now a waste land and humans extinct, but it's also a commentary of the evils of the music industry.  Moc , the devlish rock star whose aim is to achieve and keep his superstardom , also vows to steal the siren-like muse Angel ( singing voice Debby Harry) away from the hero Omar for the purpose of feeding his sexual appetite and using her angelic voice to awaken a demon from slumber who he will use to enslave all alive . On first viewing, the film was understandably too dark for an 8 year old to comprehend, but its music and message stayed in the recesses of my mind until I was old enough to appreciate its genius. Rock & Rule was different than any other animated film I had seen up until that point, not only because its subject material was adult and contained adult themes such as sex , drugs and Satanic rituals , but because it both disturbed and thrilled me. I became curious of other animated musical films that could be classified as adult because of the film, and through it I became aware of Heavy Metal , the other rock centered cult animated musical . It took years for me to genuinely grasp how of an underrated masterpiece and how ahead of its time Rock & Rule was.  The film opened my ears and soul to some of the most influential rock stars of all time and planted in my subconscious a seed of rock music that would transform my senses and life forever. It has taken years for Rock & Rule to gain recognition and its beloved fan base that it deserves , but it's place is earned as one of the most influential and  groundbreaking animated films of all time. The film to me was more than just cheap summer viewing , it changed my perception of  animated films  and introduced me to a brilliant world of rock music and  ingenuous way of  storytelling.
 

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Growing up as a flamboyant gay child, I loved all things sparkly. Anything with gleam and glitz always caught my eye. Although I missed the 80s by four months, I inherited 80s toys, dolls and video tapes from my older brother and female cousin. They were ready to totally leave the 80's behind and set their sights on the 90s. With the passing of the 80s torch, I was introduced to My Little Pony, He-man & the Masters of the Universe , She-ra Princess of Power , Thundercats, and lastly Jem & the Holograms . For anyone who has never seen the gem that is Jem (cough ) the plot is pretty outrageous . In short the story is about a young woman named Jerrica Benton who runs a foster home with her sister Kimber and friends Shana and Aja and inherits half of a major record label named Starlight from her father. The other half is owned by a greedy villain named Eric Raymond who sees the all female punk band The Misfits ( you read that correctly ) as the next big thing . Jerrica opposed this as her father was a kind, decent man and The Misfits would go against everything he instilled in her and Starlight. Jerrica, Kimber , Shana and Aja are determined to stop Eric and The Misfits and regain control of Starlight Music and continue the positive legacy of Jerrica and Kimber's father. In the midnight hour, a mysterious gift containing starburst earrings arrive for Jerrica which leads her to a super computer named Synergy . Synergy tells Jerrica that her father left her tools to become the next rock music sensation Jem. With the help of Synergy's holographic projections,  Jerrica became Jem , a  glamorous pink haired  rock star and her sister and friends became her bandmates fittingly named the Holograms . Jerrica ( as Jem ) and the Holograms vow to stop Eric and The Misfits and spread a message of female power , positivity and kindness. All while remaining totally fabulous. The series featured original music, 80s inspired music videos, melodrama , sci-fi , romance , time travel , battle of the bands , every 80s trope imaginable,  and most importantly glamour , glitter , fashion and fame . As ridiculous as the series was , it worked . It caught on and gained a massive cult following. Jem dolls , tapes and cassettes were stocked on shelves and quickly flew off . Jem became an icon of the 80s not only because she represented all of the fabulous garishness of the decade, but also because she was the anti-Barbie. Of course Jem was a marketing ploy by Hasbro to sell millions of Jem inspired dolls , but Jem was truly a feminist icon . She ran her own record label, spread goodwill and cheer to girls , and remained positively glamorous . As the 80s faded , so did Jem's popularity . Since I was born in the 90s, I was introduced to Jem later than others. I inherited my cousin's Jem dolls and videos and quickly fell in love with this truly outrageous force of nature . Jem's cult following remained strong and inevitably Hollywood sensed an opportunity to turn a beloved children's property into a film franchise .When I first heard about plans from Universal to turn Jem & the Holograms into a live action film I was excited to say the least . The film's production was notoriously secretive. In my mind , the producers secretly got Madonna to play Synergy and were trying to keep Madge's casting under wraps. My mind was about to explode with the possibility of a Madonna Jem film. With announcements that 80's queens Molly Ringwald and Juliette Lewis were cast added to my further speculation that the Jem film would be a full blown nostalgic 80s trip . But alas, things took a truly floprageous turn .  The film's trailer was released sometime in May of 2015 and a thunderstorm erupted on social media.  The film ( at least according to the trailer ) bared little to no resemblance to the iconic animated show it was based upon . The trailer accumulated a record amount of ridicule and "dislikes" in a very short period . Fans took to Facebook , Twitter and YouTube to voice their disarray over this new Jem. Cast members and the film's director Jon M Chu tried to reassure fans that the film held many Easter eggs that were a nod to the original Jem and that the film was a  " Postcard to Jem & the Holograms" rather than a direct adaption of the cartoon. Universal gave the film a limited amount of promotion and if you didn't already know that there was a Jem film being released , you wouldn't even know there was a Jem film was in existence. The film was released on October 23rd 2015 to mix to negative reviews and set a new record: lowest gross for a wide release film. The Jem film was pulled from most theaters in about two weeks and failed to recoup its 5 million dollar budget. The film was a truly, truly, truly outrageous flop.  The film itself does bear little resemblance to the animated series and deviates far from its source material. For instance , Jerrica is now a shy teen who secretly writes songs but is too scared to sing them herself , The Misfits are nowhere to be seen ( except a brief cameo in the credits) , and Synergy is now a small robot that speaks through chirps and beeps. The film was poorly made and its script is on the level of a high school creative writing class assignment. Jon M Chu played it safe with the film and removed most over the top eccentricities that made the original 80s gold. One can argue that dated ideas such as a massive super computer (Synergy in the original) wouldn't work in this day in age, but there were other ways to merge the 80s Jem with the Jem of today. As ridiculous as it sounds, the world needed a Jem movie. Jem's female empowered message was something that made girls in the 80s worship her then and a new, redesigned Jem who kept the qualities that made her an icon was what was needed now. Unfortunately, Jem's message was told through the wrong mouths in the new film. Jem's essence was there, but the film had the wrong director, producers and creative team. Jem's outrageousness and the series' ridiculous is what make her the icon that she is. The film had plenty of heart and the music is carefully constructed, but it wasn't Jem. The film's colossal failure did indeed sadden me. I hoped that despite its many flaws, that this Jem would empower children the way the Jem I grew up with empowered me . The Jem film may have faded into oblivion and obscurity, but the spirit of Jem was there. The Jem of the 80s maintains a loyal and devout following and continues to attract new, younger fans , and possibly in time the Jem film will become viewed as a flawed but well intended tribute the pink haired songstress that continues to act as a muse to  her countless fans .
 

 
My love for cult movie musical began the first time I saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show when I was 8 on the American television station VH1. Every year around Halloween, Vh1 would rerun Rocky Horror as it is the ultimate Halloween film. I had never heard of the film but I had understandably had heard The Time Warp for years on the radio around Halloween. I watched bits and pieces of the film and instantly gravitated towards Tim Curry's iconic character Frankfurter.  It would be a few years before I actually watched the entire film. In the summer of 2005,  I was 15 and my sexuality started blooming. I grew up in the conservative south (Georgia) and knew no LGBT people. I myself hadn't quite come to terms with my own sexuality and it would be another 4 years before I would come out, but I instantly fell in love with Rocky Horror. The music is spectacular, the cast is iconic and the plot is wild and bizarre - it fit me to a T. But more than the fabulous ingredients it possessed, its message is what stood out to me; “Don’t dream it, be it ". Those words hit me like a bolt of lightning. It would be years before I would meet other LGBT people, but I felt as if this film was proof enough that somewhere there were others like me.  Rocky Horror became a huge part of my existence and became a light in a rather dark period. A year later I discovered it's sequel Shock Treatment  which became a guilty pleasure of mine as well . Richard O'Brien's genius mind conceived a piece that speaks to those not considered normal by society . It welcomes the freaks and weirdoes with open arms into a religion of lust , acceptance and non-conformity . As I grew older I took the wise suggestion “Don’t dream it, be it" and strived to apply it to every area of my life. No matter what society tell us we should do, who we should be, or what is the social norm, it is ultimately our prerogative to live our lives how we choose. Rocky Horror is more than a film; it's an experience, a religion, a way of life , and a life saver.