Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
Review by Jeffery J. Timbrell
Last year when I watched Saw IV (review), I made note that the elements that once drove the Saw franchise were losing steam and becoming a parody of themselves. I said that if the Saw model wasn’t given a desperate overhaul to adapt to the times, it would be usurped by something with a stronger connection to the growing cultural Zeitgeist.
This year a musical proved that my theory was correct.
And I’m not talking about High School Musical 3.
Repo! The Genetic Opera is a gore-soaked, industrial/goth/punk rock opera that is both timely and outrageous. Repo is a bonafide cult classic in the making that captures the modern growing backlash towards corporate greed and elitism and gives a voice to a thousand movements; ironically fronted by Paris Hilton, Ogre from Skinny Puppy and Sarah Brightman!
Repo’s story deals with a futuristic society plagued by organ failure, where a massive corporate entity named GeneCo, dedicated to organ replacement have crafted a new Gilded Age of hedonistic body-modification for the rich, and a harrowing underground holocaust for the rest. Because if you default on your loan for your replacement organs, GeneCo sends the Repo Man to collect their property…by any means necessary.
At the center of this nightmare world, stands a Shakespearian struggle for control that entangles the lives of the rich, ruling elite Rotti Largo (opera-trained Paul Sorvino of Goodfellas), and his three children, Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton) Luigi (Bill Moseley of Devils Rejects and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2) and Pavi (Ogre of Skinny Puppy), as well as a mysterious young girl Shilo (Alexa Vega of Spykids) and her father Nathan (Anthony Stewart Head of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) who shelters her from the real world and secretly acts as a Repo Man. Connecting all of these characters is the singer Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman), who will bring them all together in the great genetic Opera, for a finale that no one will ever forget.
I’ll be straight with you; this movie kicks ass.
Repo is not only the best horror film I’ve seen all year, it’s probably the best cult film in recent memory. It’s a bloody, frothing and foaming musical with numbers ranging from zany and kooky to incredible and powerful, from Opera to thrashing punk rock to melodramatic stage pieces to feverish industrial and experimental. It even has a cameo from Joan Jett!
Repo is bloody, brave and bold. It’s a thematic rock opera of the modern era showing the growing cynicism in corporate entitlement on Wall Street while telling an engaging and gruesome story with excellent performances.
Everyone in the film took a risk and impressed the hell out of me.
Now I’ve had more than my fair share of criticism for director Darren Lynn Bousman in the past for some of the Saw movies, but hey man, my hat’s off to him. Here’s a guy who’s taken a ten minute musical and with a ton of vision and a lot of guts brought this movie to life in a way that nobody would have ever suspected.
All the actors give great memorable performances, Alexa Vega has always been a growing talent, Anthony Stewart Head’s charisma is positively addictive and Bill Moseley and Paul Sorvino are both fantastic. Highlighting the cast are Paris Hilton, Ogre, Sarah Brightman and Terrance Zdunich (as Gravedigger) who are each incredible in their respective roles; they disappear into their characters completely. Hilton’s transformation in particular is shocking, as she’s totally unrecognizable compared to her popular and infamous persona. If nobody told me it was her, I probably wouldn’t have ever guessed it. Ogre and Brightman deliver very impressive and exciting performances as well; showing that their reputation for on-stage showmanship in the right hands and with the right material can be successfully translated to the silver screen. And Terrance Zdunich is vocally intoxicating as the deep-toned Gravedigger, a character that will send many a goth girl’s heart a flutter and is one of the most classically cult-ish on-screen performances since Tim Curry played Dr. Frank N. Furter. The soundtrack is produced by notable J-Rock legend Yoshiki Hayashi of X-Japan and I will definitely be picking it up, no doubt about it, no question in my mind. I had no idea what to really expect from this collective cast, but I was so impressed.
In the last couple of months, people all over the world have taken a thrashing due to the hedonistic recklessness of Laissez-faire corporate economics. A general lack of accountability has cost many people their lives, their futures and their homes, which has given birth to a rising sense of dissatisfaction within the middle and lower class towards the elite. In light of these events over the last couple of months Repo looks positively prophetic and iconoclastic and in stark contradiction to the same-old, same-old that is plodding its way across theater screens. While your local multiplex is home to nothing but tired toothless viewings of CGI Chihuahuas and musical renditions of Saved by the Bell, Repo is like an oasis of originality and content in a desert of mediocrity.
The fact that Repo has only been planned for a limited release by its studio is equally insulting to the horror audience and a kick in the guts to the intelligence of the average theater goer.
This is a smaller, ballsy movie that deserves a wider release and a chance to compete with the big boys. It’s more in touch with the modern audiences than anything that’s currently playing at the theaters and to simply ignore that reality and its potential gains, because Repo is a very experimental and daring film, is myopic.
Regardless, I hope the modern horror fan takes a chance on Repo and helps to promote something different, daring and new within the genre. For years horror fans have been begging for filmmakers to stop remaking old horror movies and Japanese flicks and give them something unique and different and Repo has delivered with interest.
So if its playing in your town, take a chance and go to see The Genetic Opera; you won’t be disappointed.
Watch the Repo! The Genetic Opera trailer:
Popularity: 5% [?]
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