In the midnight hour

There was a time, back in the day, when midnight shows were special. Not just the time slot, but the films themselves. It was the witching hour, a twilight time reserved for something you couldn't get during the day. Something that would scare you. Make you think. Make you laugh. Or, in the case of Pink Flamingos, completely gross you out.

Long before the word interactive applied to a screen, it applied to a bigger screen. The midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show were the first genuine interactive movie theater experience.

People would come to the theater dressed in costume, yell back lines at the screen and act out scenes in the aisles. During the wedding scene, the audience threw rice at the screen. When they proposed a toast, the audience threw toast. During the storm, they sprayed water in the theater.

If you've never seen the movie, it stars a very young Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon. Tim Curry, in the role that made him, plays Dr. Frank N. Furter. He's the one in fishnets.

Sadly, today the studios have turned the midnight show into a money-making time slot the night before the official opening of a movie. Any and every movie. It bumps up the box office, and lets them brag about it in bigger type Monday morning.

But if you can find a midnight show of Rocky Horror - and there are still a few - it's an interactive experience you'll never forget.

And if you don't know the Time Warp, it's just a jump to the left, and then a step to the r-i-i-i-i-ght.