Back in 1975, The Rocky Horror Picture Show failed to find much of an audience but it quickly became a cult classic staple of midnight screenings. For a look at the film and this phenomenon, we go to a 2025 documentary entitled Strange Journey: The Rocky Horror Story.

Much of Story focuses on the life and career of writer/actor Richard O’Brien. We see how he created the Rocky Horror stage production.

From there we trace that version’s evolution as well as its themes, the project’s path to the movie screen, its production and release, and its afterlife as a midnight hit. We also find some fan testimonials.

Like most documentaries, Journey offers the usual array of interviews to help tell the story. We hear from O’Brien, director Jim Sharman, musical director Richard Hartley, costume designer Sue Blane, producers John Goldstone and Lou Adler, casting director Joel Thurm, model/actor Chrissie Shrimpton, actor/musician/fan Jack Black, television personality/musician/fan Trixie Mattel, USC Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies Karen Tongson, film scholar Jeffrey Weinstock, original “Shadow Cast” members/fans Lillias Piro and Sean Waters, Sins O’ the Flesh Shadow Cast lead producer Austin Fresh, Flustered Mustard Shadow Cast founder Tristan Ratterman, and actors Nell Campbell, Tim Curry, Patricia Quinn, Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon, and Peter Hinwood.

Without question, the evolution of Rocky Horror offers a potentially fascinating exploration. Unfortunately, Journey doesn’t become that fascinating exploration.

On the positive side, we get a good roster of participants. Thanks to the fact he’s Richard’s son, director Linus O’Brien enjoys the ability to involve the most prominent surviving folks connected to the film, and their presence adds credibility to the project.

Unfortunately, Journey simply bites off far more than it can chew across its modest 90-minute running time. Linus O’Brien wants to profile his father, dig into the development of the stage production, look at its staging/reception, get into the creation of the movie, follow its release and reaction and then invest in the flick’s cult afterlife.

Any one of those subjects could easily fill 90 minutes on its own. The decision to cram so many large topics into such a brief documentary becomes a major issue.

Honestly, Journey could go for three hours and still feel too brief. At 90 minutes, Linus rushes through all the subjects much too quickly.

These leave us with an awfully superficial view of the domains. Some fare better than others, but none feel nearly as fleshed out as they need to be.

Journey winds up as a superficial “best of” without the depth it requires, and the Blu-ray’s lack of additional interview footage as a bonus feature disappoints, as clearly Linus shot a lot more than he used. Journey would be fine as an addition to a Rocky Horror Blu-ray release but it doesn’t boast anywhere close to enough content to be worth its $30 retail price.

Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into a typical documentary presentation.

As always, I viewed the old material and the new shots with different expectations, and the archival stuff came with the usual ups and downs.

I didn’t have any real problems with those, however, as I figured they were about as good as we could get. In any case, the flaws of the old bits didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of the program. They blended just fine and didn’t cause distractions.

Overall, the new footage offered nice visuals. Sharpness felt good, as virtually no softness impacted on the new footage. Those elements appeared concise and accurate.

Colors were reasonably natural, and no notable defects affected the new footage. Blacks and shadows followed suit, as they seemed perfectly positive. Overall, the visuals were solid given the program’s parameters.

As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Journey, its soundscape focused largely on music. Dialogue stayed centered and environmental effects broadened in a modest manner.

The mix boasted nice stereo spread for the score. The surrounds echoed the front in a mild way at most.

Audio quality was solid. The new interview comments sounded just fine, as they offered perfectly acceptable clarity. No issues with edginess or intelligibility occurred, as they provided warm and natural tones.

Music also demonstrated good range and definition, while the occasional effects appeared well-reproduced. This mix did enough right to earn a “B-“.

No extras appear on the disc. Given all the unused interview footage one assume exists, this seems like a shame.

As a brief summary of the topic, Strange Journey: The Rocky Horror Story seems enjoyable enough, and it benefits from the involvement of many folks involved with the original productions. However, 90 minutes seems far too little time for the documentary to dig into these topics in a satisfying manner. The Blu-ray comes with solid visuals and appropriate audio but it lacks supplements. Journey becomes a mostly interesting summary that needs much more running time to examine its various topics in a thorough way.