An Outlandish Pitch-Black Comedy and Goth Rock Opera
Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) is a film containing over 50 musical numbers, such as "Depraved Heart Murder at Sanatorium Square," "Happiness Is Not a Warm Scalpel" and "Bloodbath!" The movie has high production values and a strong cast that includes Alexa Vega (Spy Kids), Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Sarah Brightman (The Phantom of the Opera), Paul Sorvino (Romeo + Juliet), celebrity Paris Hilton (who is good here), horror film veteran Bill Moseley and Ogre (from the band Skinny Puppy). Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV), Repo! is campy and, in the tradition of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), may become popular as a midnight movie.
Comic book panels provide some of the exposition in Repo! The story is set in a near-future dystopia where people purchase replacement body parts on credit from a private company called GeneCo. But if a buyer misses a payment, the body parts are repossessed. Early in the film we see a repo man rip a bloody heart from inside a young woman. There's gore in the movie, but it's highly stylized.
Alexa Vega portrays an ill 17-year-old who lives with her father (Anthony Stewart Head), a repo man employed by GeneCo. That company was founded by Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), and it made him wealthy, but his three adult offspring (Bill Moseley, Ogre and Paris Hilton) are all troubled. Another key character is singer Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman), who performs at GeneCo's Genetic Opera, a gala event where the movie's denouement occurs.
The film's music isn't particularly tuneful, but it is well integrated into the story.
DVD Bonus Materials
The DVD contains an interesting 11-minute featurette in which co-creators Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich talk about initially developing Repo! The Genetic Opera in Los Angeles rock clubs. The origins of the source material help explain why the sensibility at work in the movie is fundamentally different from that in films based on Broadway musicals. Incidentally, Zdunich appears in the movie in the role of GraveRobber.
There's also a four-minute Webisode about Repo Man's song "Legal Assassin." It is performed in the film by Anthony Stewart Head, who captures the internal conflict of his character and delivers what is arguably the movie's most effective musical number.
For hardcore fans, the DVD provides two separate audio commentary tracks. One is by director Darren Lynn Bousman and singer-actors Bill Moseley ("Luigi Largo"), Alexa Vega ("Shilo Wallace") and Ogre ("Pavi Largo"). The other is a filmmakers' commentary by the director, the two co-creators and the musical producer.
DVD Details
Below I have listed all the details for the Repo! The Genetic Opera DVD.
Release Date: January 20, 2009
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for Strong Bloody Violence and Gore, Language, Some Drug and Sexual Content
Widescreen (1.78:1), Color
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Director and Three Singer-Actors
Audio Commentary by Filmmakers
Featurette: From Stage to Screen (11 min.)
Webisode: Legal Assassin — A Repo Man on the Edge (4 min.)
Theatrical Trailer