In retrospect, it should have been painfully obvious that Repo! The Genetic Opera was going to be a failure of catastrophic and epic dimensions. It had a poor, almost self-destructive release (it opened in SIX CITIES, four of which were in the United States), a gruesome premise, and appeal so limited that even calling it niche would’ve been a bit of a stretch. It had virtually no star power–outside of some fair horror names like Bill Moseley (who packs ‘em in on every direct to video release he’s involved with) and Anthony Stewart Head (still big with the Buffy crowd), the closest thing to star power was Paris Hilton, and that turned into more of a backlash than a draw. And indeed, Repo! turned out to be a gold-plated flop of spectacular magnitude, making back around a fifth of its shooting budget in theatres and going on to at least help out the score with the video sales.
The sad part about this is that, for the most part, Repo! did not actually DESERVE its fate.
Its story was graphic novel fodder at its finest–in the not too distant future, maybe around a hundred years or so, there’s an epidemic of vast proportions sweeping the planet, causing organs to fail and take their owners down into the dark with them. But along came a genetic research company, GeneCo, headed by Rotti Largo and his depraved, spoiled children, to provide replacement organs. Naturally, being the only firm in the market, GeneCo charged mammoth prices for the organs that saved people’s lives, but to get the most market share possible, offered credit financing. Due to some Congressional finagling, Largo made it legal to be able to launch repossession proceedings against anyone unable to pay GeneCo’s backbreaking prices. Thus was born the Repo Man, a surgeon of such skill that he could remove repossessed organs in a matter of minutes.
You’ve got to admit, this concept is awesome. It’s like a strange melding of Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, complete with rotten children feuding over the throne and only one good one in the bunch, with recent musical hit Sweeney Todd. It’s an EXCELLENT idea, no mistake. But I find that the problem—why this beast was a turkey from the word go—was its EXECUTION.
Despite the fact that it had a budget of fifty million dollars, Bousman and company didn’t get any kind of star draw the way Sweeney Todd did. Paris Hilton will never be a match for Helena Bonham Carter. Forget it. It’s just not gonna happen. And Johnny Depp is so far above Anthony Stewart Head that Head can’t even be seen from Depp’s level. And Bousman leaned a little too hard on his Saw roots, going for dark, bloody and somehow garish at the same time, like a dark Italian carnival where the Ferris wheel sits constantly dark and the sideshow is eating the audience. It was a little too much for the crowds, but Lions Gate was likely contractually obligated to release it, so that accounts for the lousy release.
This isn’t to say that Repo! is a bad movie—far from it. It’s a clever concept, just not done all that well. The ending screams of a sequel that will likely never come, and that only adds to the disappointment.
If you’re looking for an experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, then Repo! is definitely the way to go. It can only be remotely compared to one other film and even then it’s a rather tenuous connection. But if you’re looking for a satisfying film that’ll leave you glad you saw it, and you can’t stand disappointment, then I really don’t recommend it.
Repo! is a sad, sobering case study in the great saga of what might have been.
