If the Rialto Theatre’s production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show doesn’t offend you, there probably isn’t much that will.

Rocky Horror is a cult classic, science fiction musical about a newly engaged couple that gets a flat tire and wanders into a nearby castle to ask the occupant, who turns out to be a mad-scientist time-traveling transvestite murderer from another planet, if they can use his phone.

But the point of The Rocky Horror Picture Show isn’t really the show — it’s the crowd interaction and community that come with watching it.

The moviegoers are allowed and encouraged to talk through the movie, ad-libbing new lines into the film. There are also customary replies to certain lines. For example, at one point a character said, “I’ll make you shiver with antici…” and everyone is expected to scream, “Say it!” before he can finish, “…pation.”   

Moviegoers throwing things around the theatre during certain scenes, such as rice during the on-screen wedding, is only one of the viewing rituals.

Longtime patrons draw large, red “V’s” onto first-time viewers’ foreheads, signifying their virginity, calling for veterans to usher them into the traditions.

The Rialto screens the film bimonthly, Fridays at midnight, complete with a stage in front of the screen where a troupe of actors interact with one another as well as the actors onscreen.

I’d seen the show before I attended the one at the Rialto, but I hadn’t participated in a large showing such as this and was, honestly, a little shocked. 

It was almost impossible to hear any of the film in the Rialto, as the sound was turned down and people were talking over the movie the entire time. This made it hard to follow. If you go, I definitely recommend watching the movie beforehand.

However, since the movie isn’t actually the point, I don’t think I would have minded not being able to hear it—except that I couldn’t hear what people were saying, either. Everyone talked over one another. And even when I could hear jokes people shouted, they were inside jokes about what was happening onscreen, which I was missing.

Also, be prepared for nudity and obscenities. One of the traditions is the underwear run in which many viewers strip down to thongs and pasties and run a few laps around the theatre. Many runners remained unclothed the rest of the night. There were also jokes told that were, to put it mildly, less than politically correct. 

But this crudeness wasn’t what I found intolerable — it was the way it was done. The organizers and crowd were very forceful. For example, they held a boy down to draw a “V” on his face, and at the beginning of the movie lined up all the virgins and had them pelvic thrust into each other, even the ones that didn’t want to.

When it comes to sexual or possibly offensive material, force shouldn’t be acceptable.

This review has covered the Rialto more than the film itself, and when talking about Rocky Horror and its community, that makes sense. But I would still like to mention that Rocky Horror does contain several instances of rape, or, if we’re being generous, sexual molestation. And the movie doesn’t do a good job of dealing with them, as the instances are mostly unnecessary and included as jokes. Moreover, the character responsible, though he is the villain, is one of the fan favorites and is highly celebrated.

One of the reasons I believe the character is celebrated is because he’s transsexual and his aggression is mistaken for sexual freedom. However, I think this hurts the LGBT community more than it supports it, as it perverts many people’s views of the transsexual community.

This is a huge flaw in the film. It’s when we treat rape or sexual molestation as a joke and characters that partake in them as martyrs that we allow rape to continue in our society.

The culture around this film doesn’t have to condone the forceful sexual advances of the movie, however, and it’s not as if the crowd at the Rialto excuses sexual molestation – one of the main rules that they announced beforehand was that anyone caught groping people would be kicked out of the theatre. 

But at the same time, instead of going out of their way to make you feel comfortable, the people at the Rialto go out of their way to make you feel uncomfortable. Sexuality is a large part of the movie, but by making it intimidating they highlight the wrong part of the movie, and actually make it much more terrifying that it was intended to be.

I love science fiction musicals, and I even enjoy the idea of a cult following — a welcoming, open community of people who all enjoy the same thing and are happy to share that thing. But that isn’t what you’re going to find at the Rialto. The science fiction isn’t played up, you won’t be able to hear the songs, and frankly, the community is intimidating. If this is the first time you’ve heard of Rocky Horror or if it is at all possible to offend you, stay home.