--- description: The remake has been jerry-rigged to ensure that fans of the original feel like they’re a part of the movie’s long legacy of midnight screenings. title: 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' Remake Strives for Camp But Is a Real Drag image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66c211a55fdd7213/6988aa5e428a9eb63bcd4a8a/screen-shot-2016-10-18-at-9-33-52-am.png?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Review: _The Rocky Horror Picture Show_ Strives for Camp But Is a Real Drag ## Video: This Video Is No Longer Available [Watch (HLS stream): This Video Is No Longer Available](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8) (0:10)  _Published 2026-06-23. The remake has been jerry-rigged to ensure that fans of the original feel like they’re a part of the movie’s long legacy of midnight screenings._  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 19, 2016 5:02 PM CUT  by [Daniel D'Addario](/author/daniel-daddario/)  ## Daniel D'Addario Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 19, 2016 5:02 PM CUT In the era of live-TV spectaculars from _Grease_ to [_The Wiz_](http://time.com/4136064/the-wiz-nbc-review-live-musical/ "undefined"), the phenomenon of networks searching for available intellectual property to turn into a ratings-boosting smash has become old-hat. But [_The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again_](http://time.com/4531025/hear-laverne-coxs-take-on-rocky-horrors-sweet-transvestite/ "undefined"), a remake of the 1975 cult classic film airing on Fox Thursday night, is different. For one thing, it’s pre-taped. While live musical broadcasts rely on the frisson of (if you’re nice) someone potentially blowing the roof off with a soaring song or (if you’re one of us) someone potentially falling down, the _Rocky Horror_ broadcast instead is hoping fans will glom onto the familiar beats where audience participation comes in. Indeed, the broadcast has been jerry-rigged to ensure that fans of the original movie feel as though they’re a part of one of the movie’s long legacy of midnight screenings, even if they’re watching alone at home. Several times throughout the broadcast, the camera switches out to an audience “watching” this _Rocky Horror_ in a theater, shouting or throwing things in exactly the manner they would were they not on a soundstage. But what’s all the shouting for? For this viewer, who’s never seen the original movie, there seemed little worth celebrating. As far as I can tell, people who respond to _Rocky Horror_ appreciate its Ed Wood-ish badness, the way that it pushes past not just norms of propriety but norms of moviemaking. The problem is that Fox’s _Rocky Horror_ looks great—it was directed by consummate pro Kenny Ortega, of the _High School Musical_ franchise and Michael Jackson’s _This Is It_—and is acted beautifully, with Laverne Cox selling every one of her songs as Dr. Frank N. Furter. (The character was originally played by Tim Curry, who makes a [cameo](http://time.com/4417995/rocky-horror-picture-show-trailer-laverne-cox/ "undefined") here as the “criminologist” narrator.) Nothing about _Rocky Horror_ has aged terribly well, but if Cox, a transgender woman taking over a role from a cisgender man, is comfortable singing a song in which she identifies herself as a “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania,” far be it from me to say no. What’s more jarring is the sheer lack of plotting from moment to moment, the way things just seem to… happen, with little in the way of motivation or sense. A sci-fi-inflected romp is one thing, but my attention flagged from scene to utterly disconnected scene—and that’s what fans love. For my part, though, never, not even watching Olympics dressage coverage, have I felt quite so strongly that I didn’t know the rules of a TV broadcast. I can only speak for the non-_Rocky Horror_ fans, but I imagine that my perspective is one shared by much of the audience Fox hopes to reach: Nostalgic subtitle aside, the network wouldn’t be giving over a full night of their prime-time schedule hoping just to attract die-hards. Dueling impulses—wanting this to be as bad as the script, but also wanting everyone to do a good job—make for a bifurcated experience. The spirit is there among performers, but they’re almost too good, calling attention to the fact that the fun of _Rocky Horror_ seems to be the camaraderie among fellow fans, not the doggerel that’s up on the screen. There’s nothing less charming than that which sets out to be campy. Camp, a certain aesthetic prized by many _Rocky Horror_ fans and defined by John Waters in a _Simpsons_ guest role is “the tragically ludicrous, the ludicrously tragic,” should be accidental. _What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?_, the movie that’s set to be the basis for the next Ryan Murphy miniseries, was a major Oscar player in the 1960s—and that’s camp. The people who put Bette Davis in baby-doll makeup wanted their movie to be good. The makers of the new _Rocky Horror_ invested untold energy into production, costumes, and casting (with theater luminaries from Ben Vereen to Annaleigh Ashford filling out the cast), in order to make something they knew so strongly would be bad that they include audience members mocking it as part of the story. It seems they knew the script was crummy but loved it for its flaws—but asking new initiates to love it too, after they’ve stripped away skuzzy atmosphere in favor of professionalism, feels like a big request. If I were giving Fox advice, I’d have told them that they might have guaranteed they’d land at the camp value they so badly wanted if they’d actually done it live. Make Frank N. Furter’s mansion on a rotating stage, and if the rotation stutters, so much the better; make us wait for Cox’s high note with the knowledge she won’t get another take. If the urgency people have long felt towards _Rocky Horror_ is the collective experience of watching it, give us the real thing—rather than a perfectly functioning theme-park ride that borrows the name. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4532178/review-rocky-horror-picture-show-laverne-cox/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4532178/review-rocky-horror-picture-show-laverne-cox/"},"headline":"Review: The Rocky Horror Picture Show Strives for Camp But Is a Real Drag","datePublished":"2016-10-19T17:02:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:57:03.942Z","description":"The remake has been jerry-rigged to ensure that fans of the original feel like they’re a part of the movie’s long legacy of midnight screenings.","url":"https://time.com/4532178/review-rocky-horror-picture-show-laverne-cox/","keywords":["Television"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66c211a55fdd7213/6988aa5e428a9eb63bcd4a8a/screen-shot-2016-10-18-at-9-33-52-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel D'Addario","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-daddario/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt66c211a55fdd7213/6988aa5e428a9eb63bcd4a8a/screen-shot-2016-10-18-at-9-33-52-am.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"screen-shot-2016-10-18-at-9-33-52-am","caption":"","creditText":"FOX","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4532178/review-rocky-horror-picture-show-laverne-cox/","name":"Review: The Rocky Horror Picture Show Strives for Camp But Is a Real Drag"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"The remake has been jerry-rigged to ensure that fans of the original feel like they’re a part of the movie’s long legacy of midnight screenings.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4532178/review-rocky-horror-picture-show-laverne-cox/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4532178/review-rocky-horror-picture-show-laverne-cox/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```