Why I Love Repo! the Genetic Opera!
Greetings, readers, and allow me to once
again welcome you to the Why I Love Comics column where this week we
spotlight a new favorite cult movie of mine. Now if you ask yourself how it
relates to comics...just watch the opening credits. I am talking about none
other then Repo! The Genetic Opera.
I'm actually currently listening to the soundtrack as I write this to keep it
pretty fresh in my mind. Repo started out as a stage play a few years back and
soon found its way fast tracked into a movie. It started in only a few cities
with around 7 screens each making almost 4,000 dollars a piece and then they
started touring different places with it.
It's
really a fun little underdog story in the way that the movie came out, I love
that they actual released the soundtrack early to get the fans ready for the
actual movie.
The opening of the movie takes us on a monologued backstory where we follow
boxes filling us in on what this world is and why it's become the way it has.
The artwork in those first few minutes is beautiful and it feels like your
watching a motion comic.
Then of course we are very quickly introduced to Shilo Wallace played beautiful
by Alexa Vega who most people will recognize from the Spy Kids movies.
She plays a young girl who's father never allows her to leave the house as she
has a rare disease with a non existent cure. So at the beginning of the film we
follow her as she is rebelling against her father and escapes the house trying
her best to catch bugs.
Terrance Sdunich plays our Narrator who steals the show every second he's on
screen. He fills in gaps of the story and leads Shilo on the adventure of her
life following this madman who is also very connected to Paris Hilton's
character.
Yes you read that right, Paris Hilton is in this movie. But before you write
this off immediately she manages to make light of what people already think of
her by playing a horribly spoiled rich girl who is obsessed with plastic
surgery. She has two brothers who also have unique personalities. One played by
Bill Mosely (Luigi Largo) who is prone to fits of anger and the other played by
the lead singer of Skinny Puppy Nivike Ogre (Pavi) who has a new face every
couple days.
The world we follow in this universe is a world where you can get organs if you
need them but you do so by paying a loan similar to car payments or house
payments. If you miss a payment then the Repo Man comes for you.
The Repo Man is played to perfection by cult actor Anthony Stewart Head who
leads a double life throughout the whole movie. He does his best to watch after
his daughter, continues to grieve her mothers death and works for Largo repoing.
He actually has one of the strongest songs in the whole musical about halfway
through that you really have to see to get why it's so strong.
Paul Sorvino plays the twisted Rotti Largo who tries his best to keep Nathan the
repo man thinking a deep dark secret and play his own daughter against him. All
while debating who shall take his riches after he dies which is apparently
coming faster then he'd like.
The world of the film is gritty but at the same time bright, with lots of neon's
and lights as if it's some weird pastel crazy painting. Bright colors are played
to their fullest with the repo costume being bright red and everyone preparing
for the opera. When Shilo meets the woman she idolizes in the film it's done in
a really great way that the characters eyes tell stories as she sings.
The music to the movie is a weird breed of opera, punk and heavy metal and not
one line is spoken in the whole movie. It's an opera so they take a huge risk by
having the whole thing sung. But by the end you really end up wishing for more.
Each character in the movie has their flaws and their is a very deep dark secret
that ties everything together by the very end.
It clocks in at about 90 minutes and leads
you on one of the most unique adventures you will ever see in your life, I would
absolutely love to see this as an actual stage show similar to a few others that
we've seen in the past.
It's Saw meets The Rocky Horror Picture Show with a little
Across the Universe thrown in for good mix. it's one of those rides that
starts off very slowly and has you on the edge of your seat by the very end.
It's not just a Halloween flick for me, it's a perfect example of how operas can
still be relevant in this day and edge when just updated to a little more modern
rock kind of thing. Definitely search for a copy of this, you will not regret
it!
Next week, Why I Love Comics asks creators What is your favorite horror
movie and why? Join us next Thursday!
Eric Ratcliffe is a young writer/pop culture journalist/interviewer currently working on pitching a project named the Hunter chronicles. When not reading his weekly stack Eric can be found watching DVDs, playing on his 360 (gamertag: Zack Hunter) or just surfing online trying to find a scoop or two. Brand new to the Comic Related family, Eric is a fun new voice. Eric shops at TJ's Collectibles. Visit them on the web at www.tjcollect.com!
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