The Rocky Horror Picture Show: 50th Anniversary - 4K UHD StreelBook

Film Review By Billy Russell, Technical Review by Matthew Hartman
Because of a shipping snafu, this review is going to be a split effort. Billy will handle the film, Matt will take on the A/V and extras. Here’s what Billy thought of the film.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show isn’t the greatest film ever made. In fact, as a movie, it probably stinks. But that doesn't matter, because what it sets out to do, what it sets out to capture, it does so in such a way that it’s going to live forever on the screens of midnight showings throughout the world. What it created was a moment in time of pure, unbridled joy where aliens, monsters, weirdos, normies, and squares alike can all let their freak flags fly.

The story, such as it is, involves newly engaged Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) having car trouble in a ferocious rainstorm and seeking shelter in a castle owned by the drag-clad Dr. Frank-N-Furter (Tim Curry). His loyal minions throughout the castle, aliens from another world (hailing from the planet Transsexual, Transylvania), engage in song and dance routines. There’s jealousy, there’s murder, there’s cannibalism. I mean, this movie has it all!

For young film fans looking to broaden their knowledge, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the perfect place to start when it comes to all things cult cinema. My love of cult cinema began with The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It wasn’t the first cult film I’d ever seen, but it was the first time I’d associated a movie with a specific style and attitude that transcended traditional genres beyond “horror,” “comedy,” or “drama”. A cult film could be any of these. Hell, a cult film could be anything it wanted to be. It could be all of those things all at once. It could even be a musical on top of it! And a love letter to classic sci-fi features.

I was thirteen years old when I first saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show. My good friend and I, whenever I’d spend the night at his house, we’d swing by the local video store and rent both The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Army of Darkness, and make it a cult classic double feature. We did this, damn, I can’t even count how many times. It was our ritual. And it was my introduction into the world of weird movies, where I fell in love. I bought books dedicated to cult film and sought them with a ravenous appetite. I saw everything I could get my hands on. I even looked up the film’s writer, Richard O’Brien, to see what else he was involved in, which brought me to Dark City, one of the all-time great sci-fi movies.

So much joy I’ve found, I have The Rocky Horror Picture Show to thank for it. Some movies go beyond the boundaries of celluloid and become something else entirely. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a pure distillation of cult film. It’s where you begin on your journey, and it happily guides you to other entries in its expansive library. 

None of this would mean diddly squat if the movie itself wasn’t entertaining. It doesn’t matter how many hats it wears or how many balls it has in the air in its juggling act of themes and influences; it has to stand on its own. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is immensely entertaining. The songs are catchy as all get-out. There are dozens of memorable lines throughout the feature that are endlessly quotable. As I’ve said, as a movie, with so-called objective standards of quality, it largely stinks because it has zero interest in adhering to these established metrics. As a piece of entertainment, though, it’s the gift that keeps on giving, begging for rewatches at home and at your local theater. 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Disney/20th Century marks 50 years of doing the Time Warp with a two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital SteelBook release of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The 4K is pressed on a BD66 disc with a Region Free BD50 serving up the 1080p and the bulk of the extra features. This 1080p disc is not a repress and is a new encode; it looks to include the new transfer, as well as black levels that aren’t as severely pressed as the old disc and offer a higher bitrate. The discs are housed in an appropriately garish SteelBook case with individual trays. The Digital Code is Movies Anywhere compatible. 

Alrighty, Matt here for the A/V adn extra features goodies. Like many, my first outing with Rocky Horror was on VHS. I was too little to see this film in the theaters when it came to our local arthouse screens every Halloween. It wasn’t until I started dating my college girlfriend that I got to see it as it was meant to be seen on the big screen. Truly, that experience poisoned home video for me. Sure, I had this film on DVD and Blu-ray, but I rarely pulled them off the shelf because it just didn’t feel alive on home video. Admittedly, it got better with each release; that DVD pales in comparison to the 35th Anniversary Blu-ray.

Popping in this new Dolby Vision 2160p 1.66:1 disc, the film has taken another notable visual leap forward. Right away, with those red, luscious lips belting out the opening tune, the image stability and clarity were excellent. When we get to the opening scene at the church, I felt like that sense of image depth and dimension kicked in a way I felt like I hadn’t seen before. As the show progressed, I felt like the clarity in fine details, makeup, crazy hairstyles, garters, and bandages all improved dramatically. The footage around the interstitial segments with Blofeld’s Criminalogist still remains somewhat soft, but I guess it is because that footage is largely caught in the overlap of optical transitions. Once the footage snaps back to the castle or Frank-N-Furter’s lab, it’s crystal clear and sharp as a razor. Fine film grain is retained throughout is much better resolved here than in past releases.

The Dolby Vision grade is lovely, allowing the array of colors to really pop without altering the palette too dramatically. Reds certainly look more prominent, but skin tones aren't overly pinked. Black levels and shadows are deeper and inkier before, but with HDR, we’re getting better shadow separation. Again, I felt that sense of depth really kick nicely. While nothing can quite live up to the theatrical experience, I have to give props for this exceptional transfer. My only gripe is that the really slick black and white alternate opening hasn’t been included in 4K. It is on the 1080p disc, and with the new encode, it looks quite a bit better than the older 35th Anniversary disc, so that’s at least something.

Making the jump to the left, The Rocky Horror Picture Show comes home with an excellent new Dolby Atmos audio track. Effectively, this track takes the old DTS-HD MA 7.1 track, which was pretty good, refines it, reconfigures it slightly, and delivers a more impactful sonic experience. Dollars to donuts, I didn’t feel like it was a fully new experience; it’s not an Atmos mix I’d prop up against more recent Disney/20th Century releases like The Sound of Music or Master and Commander, for example.

A lot of it is very front/center focused. But it opens up beautifully for the big song and dance numbers. At first, I thought I was just hearing what I wanted to hear, but when I got down to the disc flippies during the Time Warp and other key moments, I could hear the improved presence of the vocals. At first, I thought Magenta sounded a tidbit better for her solo, but then once Columbia’s squeaky notes hit, I really noticed the vocals were stronger and more present in relation to the rest of the music. So that’s a win. Nothing sounds revised or updated with new audio effects; it’s just better balanced than before. With that in mind, though, I do wish they’d remastered the original mono mix as well. We have the same lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 mono from past releases, and it’s pretty good; it’ll do the job in a pinch if you absolutely must have it in mono. However, for this disc, the Atmos is where it’s at. The DTS 7.1 track is back for the 1080p Blu-ray, that one does not get the new Atmos mix.

What we have here for extras is a mix-em-up of one new trivia track, that is pretty decent but non-essential, along with a smattering of archival extras. We lose out on the prop box piece, the search for the 35th Anniversary shadow cast documentary, but we get everything else that matters. We get the excellent audio commentary with Richard O’Brien and Patricia Quinn. We’ve got the Alternate Version with the opening black and white 20 minutes in 1080p (not sure if it’s from the new restoration, but certainly a better encoding). And we have all of the other bits, bobs, and body parts we’ve seen in past releases. 

4K UHD

• Audio Commentary featuring Richard O’Brien and Patricia Quinn
• Trivia Track: 50 Years and Still Kicking!
• Vintage Callback Track (Unrated)
• Rocky-oke: Sing It!

Blu-ray

• Audio Commentary featuring Richard O’Brien and Patricia Quinn
• Trivia Track: 50 Years and Still Kicking!
• Vintage Callback Track (Unrated)
• Rocky-oke: Sing It!
• Alternate Version with Black and White Opening (HD 1:40:04)
• Deleted Song “Once In A While” (SD 3:08)
• Outtakes (SD 10:02)
• Alternate Credit Ending (SD 3:45)
• Misprint Ending (SD 1:44)
• Rocky Horror Double Feature Video Show (SD 36:25)
• The Time Warp Music Video (SD 4:36)
• Bacon Theater, New York City - 10th Anniversary (SD 5:20)
• Trailers

From a small 1973 stage show in London to a never-ending run on movie theater screens, Richard O’Brien certainly left his mark. The Rocky Horror Picture Show survived a rough initial theatrical release to live on as a hallmark of the midnight cult movie experience. Fifty years later, the film is still playing in theaters across the world to thousands of fans (many of whom come in costume) with frequent revivals of the original stage show. If that doesn’t define “iconic,” I don’t know what else qualifies. If you can’t make it back to theaters this month, or your local multiplex hasn’t booked it yet, you can take home this glorious 4K UHD release. The new Dolby Vision transfer is a visual treat, while the new Atmos mix pumps up the music nicely. Bonus features might be a tad modest for such an outlandish film, but they serve their purpose. Whether you love going to the theater or enjoy singing along at home, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is Highly Recommended