Rocky Horror returns to Vancouver screens as costume culture resurges

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is staging its comeback in Vancouver this October, almost 45 years after Leonard Schein booked the first midnight screening at The Ridge Theatre in 1978.

For decades, the 1975 film starring Tim Curry has drawn obsessive fans to late-night screenings, where audiences sing, dance, throw props — rice at the opening wedding scene, toast when Dr. Frank-N-Furter raises a glass — and enact a live ritual. The Ridge packed every Saturday with the midnight shows until July 1981, when Vancouver City Council passed a bylaw banning them after local residents complained about vandalism, crime, and fans' weird costumes frightening elderly women.

Schein fought the ban with a lawyer; council rewrote it to prohibit theatres outside downtown from showing movies ending after 1 a.m. The film disappeared from The Ridge for 25 years. It returned in 2006, with Schein betting that Vancouver's "fun city" philosophy would override council's old opposition — and it did. By 2008, The Rio Theatre was screening it regularly.

Rio senior programmer Rachel Fox calls it "the cult classic of cult classics. The film that never went away. Rocky Horror owns the screen the last week of Halloween." Fox credits the film's enduring power: "The film gives the audience permission to engage, to sing and dance. Its popularity grew organically, and the live screenings are a collective dynamic experience."

Costume-wearing had flagged in the 1990s — Schein noted in a 1990 interview that younger people seemed "more inhibited about wearing costumes" — but the tradition has roared back. Fox attributes the return to two factors: the rise of cosplay and social media. "It's no longer just about the screening experience," she said. "People posting photos after is part of the fun."

At The Rio, hosts lead audiences through rituals: a pre-show "Virgin Sacrifice," costume judging contests. The Time Warp remains the audience's favourite song, with Sweet Transvestite as another consistent favourite. The theatre eventually banned rice and bread after discovering they attracted mice; confetti was banned because cleanup was too demanding.

Tim Curry, the original "Sweet Transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania," died August 25, 2026 at age 80. Prior to his death, Curry attended a 50th anniversary screening in Los Angeles, telling The Hollywood Reporter: "The message of the film — don't dream it, be it — is very important. One of the things that the movie does, I think, is give anyone permission to behave as badly as they really want, in whatever way and with whom. And I'm proud of that."

Disney gave the film a 4K remaster and commemorative logo last year for its 50th anniversary. Rocky Horror holds the record for the longest-running theatrical release in film history, a cult following that sprouted from the first midnight screenings at the Waverly Theater in New York in 1976. By 1977, fans were throwing props — a tradition Vancouver audiences have now fully revived.