This ode to 50s horror and sci-fi kicks off one of the original cult films, Rocky Horror Picture Show. The opening is iconic. Over gentle piano and bass, a lips slowly appear, then open, and a vaguely androgynous voice rattles off reference after reference that, at the time, would take the watcher back to those simpler times when you could plop down 25 cents and watch a double feature of schlock.
The voice is the writer of RHPS, Richard O’Brien. But the lips belong to Patricia Quinn, who plays Magenta in the film. Here’s a complete reference guide.

Michael Rennie played Klaatu in 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still. He told us where we stand, which is that we have a choice to live in peace or blow everything up.
Flash Gordon had a series of film serials in the late 30s and early 40s.


Claude Raines was the Invisible Man.
Fay Wray starred in 1933’s King Kong.


Movie film is made of celluloid, and the machines could get jammed from time to time.
It Came from Outer Space is a 1951 sci-fi film.


“Dr. X” refers Dr. Frank N. Furter in Rocky Horror.
His creature is “Rocky”.


Brad and Janet are the main characters of Rocky Horror.
Anne Francis starred in 1956’s Forbidden Planet. With Leslie Nielsen!


Leo G Carroll starred in 1955’s Tarantula, as Dr. Deemer, whose experiments help create a gigantic spider.
Janette Scott starred in 1962’s Day of the Triffids. A triffid is an alien plant that spits poison that kills you.


Dana Andrews was in 1957’s Night of the Demon, which is about haunted runes. The “prunes” line is apparently just a poop joke.
George Pal directed When Worlds Collide in 1951


RKO Pictures was one of the largest film studios of the Golden Age of Hollywood. In the late 40s it was run by Howard Hughes and produced such classics as Citizen Kane, It’s a Wonderful Life, and King Kong.
RKO was so old that they didn’t even call films “movies”, but “radio pictures”. By time the late 50s rolled around, it had fallen apart due to poor decisions and its films rights were sold to different studios around the world.
Richard O’Brien played Riff Raff in the film, Frank’s trusted butler. He still does voice acting on many cartoons!
