An entertainment as singular as The Rocky Horror Show clearly poses greater problems for adaptation to the cinema than most stage originals; its unprecedented blend of Gay Lib street theatre, end-of-the-pier theatrical tat and B-movie references demands something more original than a simple transposition to film. At least two feasible strategies present themselves: one would be to adopt the idiom of the Fifties' B-movies themselves (thus adding the film to the genre on which it comments), another to reverse the model of a cinematic play and produce a calculatedly theatrical movie. Jim Sharman (the original stage producer, here directing his first movie) flirts with both ideas, but it's symptomatic of his and actor-author Richard O'Brien's general failure that they have pinned more faith in pointless and completely expendable attempts to 'open out' the play. Most damagingly misconceived is the opening sequence, showing the wedding that inspires Brad and...