On 11 July 2021, my evening movie watch was the DVD of Repo! The Genetic Opera, which, after recently spotting it ensconced inexplicably within the children's DVDs section of a local charity shop, I'd duly purchased. Just as well, really, because I feel certain that if an unsuspecting child had bought this movie and watched it, they may well have been traumatised for life! Let's put it this way, Repo! The Genetic Opera is not so much a movie musical as a slasher flick set to music!
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, and released by Lionsgate in 2008, Repo! The Genetic Opera is the movie version of the eponymous cult stage musical written by Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich (the latter of whom also stars in this movie). Now, call me odd if you will but, with the notable exception of Sweeney Todd, I hadn't normally thought of blood, gore, disembowellings, and worse as the stuff of musicals – not until I watched this scarlet-spurting serving of Grand Guignol-infused Gothic horror/rock'n'roll, that is. Let's just say that Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music it most definitely ain't, that's for sure!
True, this monstrously macabre musical does star Phantom of the Opera veteran Sarah Brightman. Yet compared to the rapacious, mass-slaughtering nightmare in human form that is its principal antagonist, i.e. the Repo Man, the Phantom is a mere dilettante in the blood-letting business!
Set mostly in the year 2056, the basic premise of Repo! The Genetic Opera is that mass organ failures have placed the continuing survival of humanity in an exceedingly precarious position, requiring organ transplants on a massive scale. This in turn has enabled the planet's leading transplant and genetic research company, GeneCo, to become unimaginably rich, charging exorbitant fees for transplants in the form of payment plans.
Moreover, if a client defaults on their plan, a merciless, greatly-feared Repo Man is sent out under cover of darkness on their hapless trail by GeneCo in order to retrieve the transplanted organ – removing it directly from his debtor victim's body by whatever grisly means he considers necessary. And if – as is generally the case – the debtor has to be killed by the Repo Man in order for said organ to be extracted successfully, so be it. Not surprisingly, people requiring transplants do whatever they possibly can, taking whatever paid work they can find, to ensure that they are able to keep up their payments.
Most dreaded of all is the head Repo Man, a sinister figure played by Anthony Head, whose alter ego is Nathan Wallace ,a seemingly kindly widower by day who looks after his sickly daughter Shilo (Alexa Vega), who is supposedly suffering from a blood disease inherited from her now-deceased mother. Shilo is so frail that Wallace (whom she mistakenly assumes is a medical doctor by trade and has no idea that he is a Repo Man at night) insists that she remain indoors permanently.
However, one evening while he is out, busily and brutally conducting his nefarious nocturnal duties for GeneCo, Shilo ventures outside at long last, visiting her mother's tomb in the local cemetery. While there, she encounters a somewhat bizarre but not unfriendly itinerant peddler youth known only as GraveRobber (Terrance Zdunich), who is also busy, but in his case extracting from some freshly-disinterred corpses a very valuable – and highly-addictive – pain-killing substance known as Zydrate that he then sells to customers in order to help him maintain his own transplant payments to GeneCo. Despite his macabre activities, GraveRobber becomes Shilo's only friend, and also acts as the movie's narrator.
Meanwhile, GeneCo's terminally-ill CEO, Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), is so disgusted by all three of his worthless offspring – Amber (obsessed with plastic surgery and Zydrate; played by Paris Hilton), Luigi (a homicidal psychopath; played by Bill Moseley), and Pavi (a narcissistic effete freak wearing a woman's skinned face over his own grossly disfigured visage; played by Nivek Ogre aka Kevin Ogilvie) – that he has decided to make Shilo his heir instead. His reason for this is that her mother was once his fiancé before marrying Wallace. Needless to say, this decision does not sit well with Largo's terrible trio…
Also entangled within this twisted, warped web of disillusionment, death, and deceit is Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman), a famous opera singer whose nickname stems from having been born blind. She hates working for GeneCo as its celebrity spokesperson, but has no choice, because she was given bionic eyes by GeneCo on condition that she works for them indefinitely.
There are a number of additional complexities featuring shared histories that link these highly disparate characters to one another, the unravelling of which leads inevitably to further carnage and catastrophe, culminating in not so much a night at the opera as a veritable slasher fest that no-one will ever forget – those who actually survive it, that is.
Gore and horror fans will love this film, musical fans probably less so, if only because, sadly, the numerous songs in it (no fewer than 58, in fact!) are irredeemably unmemorable. Less than a day after watching the movie, I couldn't even recall, let alone hum, a single melody from it, not even the hesitantly harmonious, melancholic song 'Chase the Morning' sung by Blind Mag when she first meets Shilo, or the more operatic offering 'Chromaggia' that Mag sings just before gouging out her implanted artificial eyes – yes, it is definitely 'that' kind of movie!
Brightman, Head, Sorvino, and especially Vega and Zdunich, play their parts well, but are let down by the tunelessness of the music (thereby comparing unfavourably with The Rocky Horror Picture Show, probably the most similar movie musical currently out there), the unrelentingly dark visuals that quite literally overshadow some exquisitely beautiful Gothic ornamentations, and the overlong scenes of slaughter and bloodshed, which greatly dilute the unfolding story's interest. Less is so often more.
Nevertheless, Repo! The Genetic Opera is such an offbeat entry within its somewhat limited cinematic category – a fascinating, febrile fusion of torrid terror, shocking sci fi, and raw rock – that it should definitely be viewed by anyone who is a fan of such genres.
If you feel that you can keep your nerves in check long enough to sit through an official trailer for Repo! The Genetic Opera, be sure to click here and watch one on YouTube.
To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
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