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“Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
And breastless creatures under ground
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.”
-T.S. Eliot, “Whispers of Immortality”
While the antecedent that most critics point to when discussing Repo! The Genetic Opera is the much-beloved cult classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, to me, such a comparison completely misses the point, as well as sets the former up for an unavoidably unfavorable review. Rocky Horror was conceived as a tongue-in-cheek production that used campy theatrics to poke affectionate fun at the genres of science fiction and horror. To borrow Eliot’s metaphor, Rocky Horror may or may not have seen the skull but really loved the skin anyway.
Repo! is much, much closer in spirit to the Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies of John Webster that Eliot’s poem references. The world it describes is perverse, catastrophic, filled with cruelty and deviousness, yet absolutely fascinating to behold. While some might argue that it takes the whole seeing “the skull beneath the skin” thing a tad too literally, the blood and gore onscreen reinforce the decaying, all-too-disposable society it describes.
It opens with a series of comic-book panels drawn by co-creator Terrance Zdunich, who also plays the film’s narrator, The Graverobber. An epidemic of organ failures decimates the globe. A company called GeneCo emerges, offering replacement organs as well as cosmetic surgeries, quickly becoming the most powerful force in the country. Their methods are simple: buy any body part on credit, but if you miss a payment, they’ll send a Repo Man to collect their property—without compunction or even anaesthetic.
The action turns on the long-standing feud between Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino), the head of GeneCo, and Dr. Nathan Wallace (Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Anthony Stewart Head), his chief Repo Man. Some years earlier, Rotti’s fiancée left him for Nathan. She died soon after, in a twisted series of events that led Nathan to sacrifice her for their infant daughter, Shiloh. Now, 17 years later, Rotti has designs on taking Shiloh (Alexa Vega) away, partly as revenge and partly as a replacement for his own three children (horror veteran Bill Moseley, industrial rocker Ogre, and, aiming for the twisted trifecta, Paris Hilton), each of whom exhibits a particularly nasty personal psychosis.
In a film like this, there are two elements that are far more important than the plot: the spectacle and the songs. The general aesthetic of the film is familiar enough to anyone who’s seen the producers’ Saw franchise of horror films. Everything’s dingy and seemingly constructed from scrap. The costumes are a blend of bygone-era formalism and Hollywood fetish ball. Whether this approach works for you or not is largely a matter of taste. The fact that it’s already inspiring many young fans to recreate their favorite character’s costume suggests that it’s not truly that rare a taste (and has helped fuel those erroneous Rocky Horror comparisons).
While the film’s visual approach has been seen before, combined with the music, it becomes something much more visceral and fresh. Many have derided Repo!’s music and lyrics as banal or trite, but I’m not a music critic. I can’t tell you how accomplished the songs are, but I can say that I’m still singing a few of them in my head, days later, with a big grin on my face. This is due largely to the commitment and abilities of the cast, which boasts stellar performances by Sorvino, Head, Zdunich, and a divine Sarah Brightman as GeneCo’s resident chanteuse, Blind Mag.
It’s an understatement to say that this type of film isn’t for everybody. Your attitude going in is as likely as anything onscreen to shape what you take away from it. While I’m predisposed to like most films that try to break away from typical formula, I can also say that this one held me until the end, and the music kept me around through the end of the credits.
I’ve never liked reviews that immediately bestow the term “cult classic.” That’s a title that needs to be earned over time. Yet, considering the general disdain heaped upon Repo! and the absolute fervor that many fans have already shown, I can easily see that it’s already well on its way there.
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