Starring Alexa Vega, Anthony Stewart Head. Written by Darren Smith, Terrance Zdunich. Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (see
Interview). (18A) 97 min. Opens Nov 21.
Whether or not you belong to the army of dark-eyeliner-wearing androgynes that are giving the movie the cult it seeks — and who’ve filled up the Bloor Cinema once already when it played Toronto After Dark last month — you have to concede that the year in film has yielded nothing remotely like this goth phantasmagoria. And while it only rarely achieves its ambitions, Repo! The Genetic Opera still ventures into territory that even genre movies seldom travel.
Directed by Saw franchise vet Darren Lynn Bousman, this rock opera turns it up way past 11 with its lurid production design, thunderous score, Bizarroworld casting (never before has a single frame contained Paul Sorvino, Skinny Puppy’s Nivek Ogre and Paris Hilton) and mystifying plotline about a sinister biotech company that repossesses the organs of unlucky clients. Applying the same gusto he did to Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s musical episode, Anthony Stewart Head anchors the often messy proceedings with his performance as the head repo man who tries in vain to conceal his activities from daughter Shilo (Alexa Vega).
Most surprising is how faithful the work is to its operatic antecedents — imagine Rigoletto as performed at the Grand Guignol with Al Jourgensen as musical director. If those reference points are too musty, just think of how much better Moulin Rouge would’ve been if it climaxed with Nicole Kidman’s disembowelment. An achievement as singular as Repo! is bound to be reviled by many (the widely varied singing abilities of the performers doesn’t help). But never before have goths displayed so much chutzpah.