Since its world premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia Festival in the summer, Repo! The Genetic Opera has emerged as one of the year’s most unique and divisive movies. Even director Darren Lynn Bousman sounds dumbstruck by the intensity of the reactions — from lovers and haters alike — to his gory rock opera, whose highly improbable cast includes Paris Hilton, Sarah Brightman and Skinny Puppy’s Nivek Ogre.
The 29-year-old filmmaker — who spent several years developing the screen adaptation of Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich’s stage show while putting in time with the Saw franchise — has been on the road to attend special screenings. He returns to Toronto for the Nov. 21 show at the Bloor Cinema, where the film played to a raucous sold-out crowd at Toronto After Dark. He spoke with EYE WEEKLY last week by phone from Chicago.
When did you realize it was a good idea to launch Repo! The Genetic Opera with a tour?
The minute that no one got the movie. What I mean by that is that this movie is not for the mainstream. We knew that going into it, we knew that making it, and the recent reviews completely justify what we’re talking about. It’s a 21st-century rock opera — it’s not a musical. And it appeals to a very select group of people — it’s not for the masses. And so we targeted cities where we knew had an audience for this movie. It’s been amazing. Last night we were in Seattle and there was a line that wrapped two city blocks for this movie with people dressed up as characters and singing all the songs. When the movie played, every single person in the theatre was dancing and holding hands and doing the wave. Everywhere we’ve gone, it’s been like this crazy fun club. I’ve always said that this is not just a movie, it’s an event.
Do you think a lot of Repo!’s detractors have misunderstood that notion?
I wish the majority of people who are doing articles or reviews saw it like we’ve been seeing it. Imagine if the first time you saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show was on a laptop computer. Now imagine seeing it at midnight on a Saturday night. The difference is ridiculous — your experience is totally different. When we watch Repo! in a stuffy room full of agents, lawyers, managers and all of that, there is not a smile in the room, including us. Last night we watched it with 400 screaming kids that were wearing corsets and had props and were singing along.
It’s easy for a critic to sit in a screening room and see this movie and say, “This is weird, this is self-indulgent….” I challenge that critic to go see it at midnight with an audience. I hope that as years go by and people are able to see what’s going on, they will reevaluate what they originally said. I read a review that said, “Repo! is not only the worst movie of the year, it’s in the running for the worst movie of all time.” Those are big statements to say. I hope that those critics have the ability to see the movie with an audience and see what it’s doing to this audience. It’s giving them a voice and that’s a powerful thing.
Do you think putting such a wildly disparate group of actors together helped the movie, too?
Casting was one of the hardest battles I fought and one of the best battles. Originally we were being tossed names of people who were big stars and great singers and that’s why they were completely wrong for the movie. I said, “Bon Jovi? He’s great. I don’t want him.” I wanted the what-the-fuck? factor. It was important to have that when you’re doing a rock opera and you don’t have a big marketing team behind you. We knew from the very beginning that what we had to do was create a cast that was confusing to people. How do you put Sarah Brightman, Nivek Ogre and Paris Hilton in the same movie together? Come find out. And they’re all great at what they’re doing. There’s a lot of hate on Paris now, but Paris is great in this movie. This is a lot of people’s first film roles, too. It’s such an amazing, weird, kooky cast. We became a big dysfunctional family.