Some Thoughts on REPO! The Genetic Opera

After around 2 years of hearing about REPO, I decided to actually sit down and give it a chance. I've got my fair share of experience with musicals, Im big into alternative and Goth-rock, and have a soft spot for The Rocky Horror-Picture Show, so I figured this would be right up my alley. Let's just say I'm happy I took a look at the reviews first.

So here's my spoiler free opinions. If you've seen the movie before, please let me know what you thought, I'd love to get into more spoilery opinions in the comments.

This movie is just dripping with everything 2000s alternative. A lot of people attribute this to either goth specifically or horror-rock more generally, but in my opinion it doesn't really fall into either nicely. There's definitively a lot of influences on display in both the writing and the aesthetic of the film, but overall I'd label the sound and look as more Industrial, visually it's very of the era while still being a unique mix of all it's common elements. There's a heavy mix of traditional Victorian styles sets and costuming, with clear homages to both cybergoth and nu-metal in it's street-wear specifically. Everything feels like it sits in it's own little pockets of the movie, with scenes feeling a bit visually disjointed, even if the film flows decently.

There's no denying the amount of camp present in the film, but at points it's hard to tell what's intentional and what's a lack of oversight with production. The film does try really earnestly at points, and that's clear in the sincerity of the shots and characters. I can see why, in this aspect the film gets compared to Rocky Horror so much. While they world is chaotic the main characters emotions and plight are taken seriously mostly as serious as they should be (with a few exceptions I'll get into in the spoilery bit). Honestly the biggest thing that held this film back was the production.

Being a full-opera instead of a traditional musical comes with the huge drawback of little to no regular speaking scenes, and with the style of the music they opt to have half the characters scream their lines. Now I love heavy music and especially stuff from this era with industrial elements, but the lack of soft lines for contrast means every song ends up sitting at almost the exact same level of drama, which can be a problem for a story that focuses on as many heavy topics as this does. It's so so close to being not just camp, but really well made camp! but the legitimately awful audio mixing at times, and occasionally casting choices, ends up taking you out of scenes you'd probably take earnestly otherwise. even if they are a little goofy. You might be thinking, "Oh but it's a cult film, small thing's like the production being off is fine." and on most days I'd agree with you. Normally I'm not nit-picky about something like mixing issues, but when you're entire film is sung, the mixing can make or break a scene. The film may have a cult following but it was still produced by Lion's gate, with a budget of 32 million in 2007. While the effects still look pretty good for the time, you can't tell me there wasn't enough budget for a decent audio engineer. For comparison, Sweeney Todd which came out a whole year before had a budget of 50 million and was able to utilize it's assets much more significantly. In place of the massive amount of effects Repo uses, it had a much higher budget cast. (Just for reference, johnny depp had one of the best audience pulls of any star in 2007, there;s not way he didn't cost them a good chunk of that 50 mill) It feels disingenuous to say that the man who made the saw movies, which each had a budget under 10 mill, couldn't even get decent audio mixers for a musical with a budget of 32 mill.

The characters and world are very one note, and if you like that note, it's definitely worth a watch. I think to experience something so close to being really, truly great is worth the time and problems it has. But people are 100% correct when they say it has serious problems. Personally, I really enjoyed the film, but that's a big part of why I'm being so hard on it. I'm not sure where the film went wrong. The script felt mostly fine, if a little odd with the way the storytelling is done at times, most of the actors give a great performance, the sets are gorgeous, but you can never shake the feeling that something is just... off. Most people either give this film so much praise they Ignore the issues, or dismiss it entirely, and neither approach does it justice. There is a lot to love about Repo, but there's also a ton of issues. It's not fair to anyone who genuinely wants to know about the film, to not mention both. If you like what you've heard about the movie, please give it a chance, it's worth your time I promise. Just don't go in expecting the best goth-rock horror of your life, or you're gonna be disappointed.

Overall rating: 5/10. Reccomended with Cavieats.