Repo! The Genetic Opera: Rocky Horror for our Generation or Utter Crap?

I finally saw Repo! The Genetic Opera. It's been nearly a year that it's been pushed down our throats by the major blogs and horror sites to go see it, support it wherever it plays, see it at all costs, blah, blah, blah. And I understand this. My love of independent and horror movies encompasses this ideal, in that, we should go support the shit we love so much and scream its merits from the highest of rooftops, or more literally, from our blogs and myspace pages. And I also understand how transcending genres is important, especially in challenging the status quo. We have certainly had enough of J-horror remixes, PG-13 rated at that, crappy torture porn (thank your god that trend is pretty much over with), and even the remakes of late to piss us off and, well, sometimes, just sometimes mayyyyyybeeeee question where our beloved genre is headed. 

So it is here where we arrive at Repo! (And I'll state for the official record that although I was drinking and jet lagged during my viewing of this film, I was able to remain conscious through the entire running time and was coherent enough to make notes as well, however, this review may suffer from what my other posts and reviews often suffer from, which is, of course, my heavy consumption of wine and other spirits and extreme exhaustion). Yes, I remember when I first saw Rocky Horror. I was but a wee gothling of fifteen or so, and the fucking thing blew me away. The scene near the end when they're in the pool, I didn't know what to think. It was so beautiful and sexual and crazy and campy, wow. I freakin' loved Rocky Horror. But I was fifteen and that movie was already a cult classic, so what of it? What does this, if anything, have to do with my opinion of Repo! Well, besides the fact that they are both musicals, both appeal to the teen goth girl set, and transcend genre? I guess, nothing really. 

Repo! is not my generation's version of Rocky Horror. Rocky Horror is my version of Rocky Horror. If I was seventeen, maybe I would think Repo! was the shit. But I've gotten over myself. There's no more teen angst, there's no more 'daddy, I hate you,' hell, half the time, I don' t even dress the part any more, job be damned and all. So, what did I get out of watching Repo! Not much. I got annoyed seeing Bill Moseley try to sing in an opera. Okay, maybe the man is typecast into that redneck Chop Top Otis category or whatever, but shit, he doesn't belong in this movie, he just doesn't. And while it's cool to see Skinny Puppy's Ogre in a flick, he's kinda under-utilized, while stupid ass Paris Hilton takes center stage. And seriously, why even have this fucking skank in a movie like this anyway? Do you really think she understood what kind of movie she was showing up to 'act' in? Oooh, big deal, her face falls off during her big opera debut, but, seriously, we already cheered when she got offed in the remix of House of Wax. I like my horror movies, well, all of my movies, and my life for that matter, Paris Hilton free. 

So I guess I see the irony, but it's insulting at times. Ooh, people in this dystopic universe are addicted to surgery, plastic or otherwise - that isn't that far from how we are right now. How ironic? Oooh. Okay, I've clearly had too much to drink and I'm probably straight up not making sense but seriously, this movie pissed me off in a lot of ways. And for reals, who cares that the guy that made the Saw sequels directed this piece of crap? I hated, hated, hated those Saw movies. They sucked. I don't care what your argument is, those movies are crappy. And while this is a TOTALLY different movie from Saw, it's still crap. Directing Saw, sequels or otherwise, gives you no horror cred at all. Bill Moseley is the only one with any horror cred in this flick and he is totally miscast. 

Skip this one. Skip it. It's annoying and pretentious and not at all socially poignant or interesting. The songs are annoying and the actors can't sing. I wish I could be more eloquent about how I feel about this but it doesn't warrant that. I wish I could say that if I watched it again, my opinion would be different, that it would grow on me, so to speak, but once again, I don't care enough about a over-blown, over-produced, Saw director-having, musical where no one can sing or act or anything, and uses comic-style drawing and vignettes to drive a crappy narrative with no character development. That being said, the costumes are awesome and some of the stuff has almost a steampunk feel to it, but then again, it ain't enough to save it. Not if Paris Hilton's face actually did fall of in real life would this movie have been worth it. 

P.S. I've ordered the soundtrack so I can listen to it in the car. 

P.P.S. I kid.