An examination of the Rocky Horror Picture Show illustrates the various ways in which the cinema is closely linked to religious experience. The audience participates in the narrative of the film on both conscious and unconscious levels in the same way as the ancients participated in their myths during ritual ceremonies. Moreover, the audience shifts its mode of cognition in order to appreciate as truth the fantastic events which occur both on and off the screen. Finally, I argue that cult films function as parable in dominant cultures and therefore as primary manifestations of the "counter-civil religion". In this way secular films have more profound religious implications than is at first apparent.

No description available.