Last Friday, my housemates and I scrambled to finish our makeup, pull our outfits together, and rush out the door. But we weren’t hitting the bars—we were heading to The Screening Room.
Kingston’s locally-owned, independent cinema has screened The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) every Halloween season since 2011, when current owner Wendy Huot took over operations. Rocky Horror is a staple in Queer cinema, with a rich culture of audiences dressing up as characters, quoting scenes aloud, and throwing props at the screen. This year, the film celebrated 50 years of mayhem with a 4k Restoration version, which The Screening Room featured at showings.
During showings, audience members toss items from playing cards to toilet paper into the air at specific moments during the movie. A commercial failure upon release in ’75, Rocky Horror became a cult classic after midnight screenings at New York City’s Waverly Theater in 1976 made it popular among teenagers and young adults, particularly of the underground Queer community.
Bringing Rocky Horror to Kingston each year was the “[number one] on my priority list,” Huot wrote in a statement to The Journal. The Screening Room offers an annual “Queer Night” showing, which took place on Oct. 23 this year. “This is always the first of our Rocky Horror screens to sell out, with the most audience participation during the movie,” Huot wrote. “And the most cleanup afterwards… ha!”
Huot noted Rocky Horror was “ahead of its time,” creating a safe space to play with clothing and expression for audiences. “For a movie that turned 50 this year, I’d say it’s positive, joyful, Queer sensibility has held up incredibly well,” Huot wrote.
“The only problem we’ve with doing a single screening labeled the ‘Queer Night’ is that all 11 of our annual screenings of Rocky Horror are queer-forward!” Huot wrote.
Shadow casts of audience members costumed as characters commonly perform alongside cinema showings, famously depicted in Stephen Chbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower. When I attended a Screening Room showing on Oct. 24, two friends leapt onstage to show off homemade choreography to “I Can Make You a Man.”
Though Kingston has no official shadow cast, “we’d be happy to be the venue when some passionate Kingstonians are ready to organize and make it happen,” Huot wrote.
For the time being, local audiences seem content to simply show up and celebrate a film they love. For Queer Night’s sold-out showing, The Screening Room held their annual costume contest. Though there were winners across several categories for each character, Huot especially liked one post-murder “Dead Eddie” look.
“My favourite costumes are the glittery ‘floor show’ feather boa/fishnet costumes,” Huot wrote. At my sold-out showing, the carpet was littered with glitter, feathers, and hordes of props as audience members filed out.
Yet, Huot isn’t worried about audience members being too enthusiastic. “Actually, the more ‘outside the norm’ you are, the better,” she wrote.
The Screening Room will show Rocky Horror for the last time this year on Oct. 31.
Tags
cinema, Film, Halloween, Pop Culture, Queer, Rocky Horror, Rocky Horror Picture Show, The Screening Room
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