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Genetic! Opera!
File this one under "movies that I totally expected to hate, but ended up falling in love with."
So like, here's how I spent my Saturday. I was dragged to a movie that was described to me as "a rock opera directed by that guy who did the Saw movies," and I was like, holy crap, why the heck would I want to see anything directed by the guy who did the Saw movies, let alone a rock opera?! I HATE the Saw movies and pretty much everything that they stand for.
But I went because, you know, trying to be social.
And here's what I totally wasn't prepared for: I had no idea that I was about to sit through a two-hour movie that starred Alexa Vega as a disabled but rebellious waif, Anthony Stewart Head as a singing serial killer, Sarah Brightman as a cyborg fairy godmother, Paris Hilton as a spoiled drug-addicted heiress, Bill Moseley as a necrophile with anger management issues, and Paul Sorvino as the chilling villain pulling all of their strings. And man, does Paul Sorvino have some pipes. So too, for the record, does Paris Hilton.
Even better? The guy who wrote the screenplay and composed the music Vyasa'd himself into the movie as the trickster narrator-type character.
In short: Repo! The Genetic Opera took me by surprise in terms of how darn GOOD it was, on so many levels. Its own official website describes it as "Wagnerian" in terms of story and structure, and that's not just the movie's own self-hype talking, it's also completely and honestly true. Despite the futuristic setting and modern rock score, the film follows the formula of a classic opera to a T. There is romance, heartbreak, revenge, complicated multi-layered plotting, characters keeping secrets from one another that are dramatically revealed in a series of final confrontations, and of course, there's a tragic death. Or two. But also, ultimately, an there's uplifting ending. And that was the part that I was really unprepared for. Despite all of the gore and horror and all of the awful, bloody stuff that's come before, the final scene between Nathan and Shiloh - as well as Shiloh's final song - was so beautiful and heartfelt, that it actually moved me to tears.
But when I say "gore and horror and awful, bloody stuff," I mean gore, and horror, and awful bloody stuff. It IS a movie from the guys who brought you the Saw movies, after all. There's graphic murder, there's torture porn, and to make it all worse (or better, depending on your point of view), most of the bloody brutality is accomplished by Anthony Stewart Head's character, who is singing and dancing his way through the most gory murders.
By the way, this movie ruined Anthony Stewart Head for me, forever. Much the same way that American Dad basically ruined Patrick Stewart for me. I'll never be able to look at Captain Picard again, without flashing back to Stewart's character in American Dad wearing Haley's pink bathrobe and singing about how he likes to screw little girls. Likewise, I'm never going to be able to look at Rupert Giles again, without flashing back to Anthony Stewart Head singing as he plunges his knife into a guy's stomach, rips out the large and small intestines, then sticks his hand up through his victim's chest, making the now-dead man's jaw flop up and down, turning the corpse into a hand puppet that he then pretends is singing along with his little song.
Yes, that actually happens. On screen.
In case it isn't obvious by now, this is not a movie for the weak of stomach. It's really, really bloody and really, really violent.
But if you can stomach all of the bloody violence, it's also really, really good.
Edited to add: Hey, opera nerds! This (official?) youtube channel has lots of behind-the-scenes videos, dripping with musical, composition, and recording technology nerdiness.
So like, here's how I spent my Saturday. I was dragged to a movie that was described to me as "a rock opera directed by that guy who did the Saw movies," and I was like, holy crap, why the heck would I want to see anything directed by the guy who did the Saw movies, let alone a rock opera?! I HATE the Saw movies and pretty much everything that they stand for.
But I went because, you know, trying to be social.
And here's what I totally wasn't prepared for: I had no idea that I was about to sit through a two-hour movie that starred Alexa Vega as a disabled but rebellious waif, Anthony Stewart Head as a singing serial killer, Sarah Brightman as a cyborg fairy godmother, Paris Hilton as a spoiled drug-addicted heiress, Bill Moseley as a necrophile with anger management issues, and Paul Sorvino as the chilling villain pulling all of their strings. And man, does Paul Sorvino have some pipes. So too, for the record, does Paris Hilton.
Even better? The guy who wrote the screenplay and composed the music Vyasa'd himself into the movie as the trickster narrator-type character.
In short: Repo! The Genetic Opera took me by surprise in terms of how darn GOOD it was, on so many levels. Its own official website describes it as "Wagnerian" in terms of story and structure, and that's not just the movie's own self-hype talking, it's also completely and honestly true. Despite the futuristic setting and modern rock score, the film follows the formula of a classic opera to a T. There is romance, heartbreak, revenge, complicated multi-layered plotting, characters keeping secrets from one another that are dramatically revealed in a series of final confrontations, and of course, there's a tragic death. Or two. But also, ultimately, an there's uplifting ending. And that was the part that I was really unprepared for. Despite all of the gore and horror and all of the awful, bloody stuff that's come before, the final scene between Nathan and Shiloh - as well as Shiloh's final song - was so beautiful and heartfelt, that it actually moved me to tears.
But when I say "gore and horror and awful, bloody stuff," I mean gore, and horror, and awful bloody stuff. It IS a movie from the guys who brought you the Saw movies, after all. There's graphic murder, there's torture porn, and to make it all worse (or better, depending on your point of view), most of the bloody brutality is accomplished by Anthony Stewart Head's character, who is singing and dancing his way through the most gory murders.
By the way, this movie ruined Anthony Stewart Head for me, forever. Much the same way that American Dad basically ruined Patrick Stewart for me. I'll never be able to look at Captain Picard again, without flashing back to Stewart's character in American Dad wearing Haley's pink bathrobe and singing about how he likes to screw little girls. Likewise, I'm never going to be able to look at Rupert Giles again, without flashing back to Anthony Stewart Head singing as he plunges his knife into a guy's stomach, rips out the large and small intestines, then sticks his hand up through his victim's chest, making the now-dead man's jaw flop up and down, turning the corpse into a hand puppet that he then pretends is singing along with his little song.
Yes, that actually happens. On screen.
In case it isn't obvious by now, this is not a movie for the weak of stomach. It's really, really bloody and really, really violent.
But if you can stomach all of the bloody violence, it's also really, really good.
Edited to add: Hey, opera nerds! This (official?) youtube channel has lots of behind-the-scenes videos, dripping with musical, composition, and recording technology nerdiness.
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This is the preview from last year's Scream Awards (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS0aaUsLtRI), which does a better job of showing the gore content. WARNING: GORE.
I just checked and apparently the movie is already available on DVD in most countries.
(Edited to fix link)
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Heh. No need to warn me about gore. I'm a horror movie fan so I've got no problem with that.
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If it weren't for that, I'd give it a shot.
HOly Crap!
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The fact that it's a rock opera may actually make it bearable for me. Because I love some good opera, and the singing adds a layer of ridiculousness that say, a movie like Saw might lack.
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Yeah, that's pretty much what happens in the movie.
There are a couple of straight-up murders with no torture involved. The torture-murders, however (of which I would count three) are always accompanied by somebody singing and being really funny about it, so it works out somehow. There's one prolonged murder that's played for tragedy instead of laughs, however. I.E. the audience is actually made to feel how horrible and depraved and tragic the murder scene is. That works too.
I guess the main difference between Repo! and the Saw movies is that Repo is a story driven by human emotion, whereas the Saw movies are just cynical, empty statements that all boil down to "human nature sucks." Repo comes to the opposite conclusion, actually - that the human spirit can triumph over any evil - and that does a LOT to mitigate all of the depravity in the movie. Basically, it puts Bad Shit in context. In Repo! Bad Shit happens because it serves a purpose in the overall story, whereas in Saw Bad Shit happens because the producers just wanted to come up with another clever way to gruesomely off someone.
Er, if that makes any sense.
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...Am I allowed to fangirl a guy old enough to be my dad?
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On a related note: I must be the only person on the planet that actually really LIKED the Saw series of films. Foo.