Originally released in 2023, we’re re-publishing this episode to celebrate the 50th anniversary of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW — the longest-running continuous theatrical release of all time and one of the most iconic cult films in cinema history.

What began as a fringe stage production in a tiny experimental theater space in London evolved into a global phenomenon — complete with costumes, callbacks, and midnight screenings that are still going strong half a century later.

In this episode, we trace ROCKY HORROR’s full journey: from its origins on the London stage to its ill-fated original release, its rise through the midnight movie circuit, and its ultimate legacy as a defining piece of cult cinema.

Whether you’ve done the Time Warp a thousand times or you’re just discovering it, this is the story behind THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW.

Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.

This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop & Todd A. Davis.

For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net

“Memories are meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason.”

In the second half of our STRANGE DAYS deep dive, we pick up with the music—both on screen and behind the scenes—that gives the film its pulse. We explore how a soundtrack packed with industrial rock helps build the film’s atmosphere, and how composer Graeme Revell stepped in at the eleventh hour to pull it all together.

Then we dig into the film’s release, its disastrous box office performance, and the confused marketing campaign that helped sink it. We look at how critics received it at the time and how STRANGE DAYS slowly earned a second life as a cult classic in the years that followed.

Finally, we reflect on the film’s legacy—how it predicted everything from reality TV and social media to police body cams and memory-as-entertainment. We talk about what it gets right, what still makes us uncomfortable, and why it might just be Kathryn Bigelow’s most visionary film.

This is STRANGE DAYS, Part 2: the downfall, the rediscovery, and the relevance that still hits hard thirty years later.

🎧 Want to support the show? Subscribers of CinemaShock+ get access to: • Extended episodes with bonus content • Early access to episodes • Exclusive merch discounts • And other surprises behind the curtain

Join now at cinemashock.net/plus

ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS:

Andy Lancaster | asotirov | Benjamin Yates | Caverly | courtland ashley | curtcake5k | Elton Novara | Hunter D Mackenzie | Jackson_Baker | LillymckY | Lucy Lawson | MagicBloat | Nate Izod | Nathan Kelley | Robert Stinson | Spacemonkey73

Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.

This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop & Todd A. Davis.

For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net

“This is your life. Right here. Right now.”

Before it became one of the most underrated sci-fi films of the 1990s, STRANGE DAYS was just a few scribbles in a notebook. In Part 1 of our deep dive, we trace the film’s journey from James Cameron’s original 1985 concept through its years in development and the real-world chaos that helped inspire Kathryn Bigelow’s vision of a crumbling millennium.

We explore how Cameron and Bigelow collaborated with screenwriter Jay Cocks to shape the film’s story, how Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett were cast, and how Bigelow brought the gritty streets of Los Angeles to life—shooting almost entirely on location and inventing new camera rigs to create groundbreaking first-person POV sequences. We’ll take you all the way through the final days of production, including the now-legendary New Year’s Eve shoot involving 10,000 extras, 50 cops, and at least a few rave casualties.

This is Strange Days, Part 1: the story of how a bold, unclassifiable, and wildly ahead-of-its-time film came to be.

🎧 Want to support the show? Subscribers of CinemaShock+ get access to: • Extended episodes with bonus content • Early access to episodes • Exclusive merch discounts • And other surprises behind the curtain

Join now at cinemashock.net/plus

ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS:

Andy Lancaster | asotirov | Benjamin Yates | Caverly | courtland ashley | curtcake5k | Elton Novara | Hunter D Mackenzie | Jackson_Baker | LillymckY | Lucy Lawson | MagicBloat | Nate Izod | Nathan Kelley | Robert Stinson | Spacemonkey73

Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.

This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop & Todd A. Davis.

For episode archives, merch, show notes, and more, visit cinemashock.net