PARACINEMA: REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA
Making something from nothing, for better and worse
Spoilers for Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
I have a complicated relationship with Repo! The Genetic Opera. I first saw the film not long after it was released on DVD when I was in my late teens and remember enjoying it. I even listened to the soundtrack with friends as we learnt the words to Zydrate Anatomy. Then I saw it again in my mid-20s and my opinion changed dramatically. I wrote the film off as non-sensical rubbish, with poor performances and overly camp storytelling.
I’ll be the first to admit that musicals are not my preferred genre – this is technically a rock opera, but it involves cast members singing their way through the key plot points, so it falls squarely in the musical genre for me. Grease (Randal Kleiser, 1978) has a couple of high points, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Jim Sharman, 1975) and The Little Shop of Horrors (Frank Oz, 1986) are excellent, but Mamma Mia (Phyllida Lloyd, 2008), Les Misérables (Tom Hooper, 2012) and other films of that ilk do nothing for me.
So where does Repo… sit after my third watch? Shown at Paracinema in association with the Cult Film Club, I sat amongst a crowd of fans with some trepidation. Luckily, it’s certainly not as bad as I felt it was in my 20s. It’s nonsense, with plot holes galore and some truly bad performances, but there is a punkish, can-do attitude to the whole thing.
It's based on a one-act play written by Terrance Zdunich and Darren Smith, who expanded the universe to a feature-length production with support from director Darren Lynn Bousman, who was on good terms with Lionsgate due to his work on the Saw franchise. Set in the future, plastic surgery has become a commodity and organ transplants are provided on payment plans for those in need – with the fine print allowing a Repo Man to come and forcibly remove the organ if payments are missed.
Anthony Head plays Nathan, a Repo Man trying to protect his daughter Shilo (Alexa Vega) and indebted to the evil corporation GeneCo. The company is owned by Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino) who is terminally ill and loathe to leave his legacy to any of his three children; the sociopathic Luigi (Bill Moseley), the face-swapping horndog Pavi (Nivek Ogre), or the spoilt Amber Sweet (Paris Hilton). Also dragged into the mix is Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman), an opera singer who owes GeneCo for her eyesight and The Graverobber (Zdunich), who digs up bodies to extract Zydrate – an addictive painkiller.
The original one-act play, The Necromerchant's Debt, was focused on The Graverobber as he attempted to meet his payment plan to GeneCo, and the writers do little to hide this fact. The moments when he is on screen are the high points of Repo…, with 21st Century Cure and Zydrate Anatomy being the best songs on the soundtrack. Despite only having a few minutes of screen time, he’s also the one member of the cast who has a consistent characterisation and is all the better for it.
The rest of the characters are hastily drawn up. Largo’s children are caricatures and meant to be so, but as the main antagonist, Rotti is barely pencilled in – a fact that isn’t helped by Sorvino struggling with some of the musical numbers. Head brings his musical background to the songs, but the character of Nathan is as confused as the rest of the film; violently switching between the overprotective father and the murderous Repo Man with only the slightest provocation.
As for Vega, she does well but the Shilo character never gets above cliché.
There are laughs to be had, both intentional and unintentional but the film isn’t good. It sits awkwardly on the cult film spectrum as it’s neither the complete trainwreck it needs to be to place alongside The Room (Tommy Wiseau, 2003) nor is it good enough to fall in the horror-comedy musicals that are remembered so fondly.
While introducing the film, Johann Chipol, host of the Cult Film Club, noted that the creative team behind Repo… had plans for a trilogy, with a prequel and sequel to this. How they planned to extend it to three films, when they only briefly sketched the characters for this is anyone’s guess. Repo! The Genetic Opera remains an oddly endearing but poorly executed film.
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Writers: Terrance Zdunich, Darren Smith
Starring: Alexa Vega, Anthony Head, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton, Nivek Ogre, Terrance Zdunich, Bill Moseley, Paul Sorvino
 | A guest post by
|