The concept of making horror musicals is not groundbreaking but it still carries some novelty. Screen classics including the Evil Dead, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Fly have recently been adapted into musicals, and who can forget the Rocky Horror Show? What separates the class from the trash is an adherence to the creepiness and dark themes that make the horror genre so exciting. On the trash side, adapting a gritty masterpiece like Texas Chainsaw Massacre into an uber-ironic family satire seems shameful and exploitative. On the class side, making a tragic opera out of The Fly would theoretically seem to respectfully heighten the emotions of the piece by presenting the material in a new medium.
Like the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008), was a stage play before it became a horror movie musical. The film, which virtually no one saw in theaters and was recently released on DVD, is not insufferably ironic and cutesy, and based on that alone, has merit. The filmmakers, lyricists, and composers clearly had noble intentions: to tell a horrifying story set to music. They establish a tone that is vibrant and quirky, yet chilling, violent, and macabre. There is a refreshing absence of self-satisfied knowingness of how very clever it is to make a film with this kind of subject material set to music.
The plot weaves a twisted tale of greed, corruption, and familial love between a teenage daugher, Shiloh (Alexa Vega) and her overprotective father, Nathan (Anthony Stewart Head). The age-old themes root the story in emotional reality, and the horror elements are treated as both a fact of the characters’ environment as well as the fabric of the fantastical, futuristic decayed setting, which is the city of Crucifixus.
In this weird, warped, cleverly conceived world, Crucifixus is controlled by a ruthless healthcare provider, Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino). Because the human population suffers from massive organ failures, Largo’s company, GeneCo sells organ transplants at unaffordable prices. Nathan works for GeneCo as a repossession man. He is essentially a killer who carves out the organs of those who can’t make their payments on the transplants they’ve already received. The political commentary on America's broken healthcare system is piquant.
We also meet Largo’s vile children (played by Bill Moseley of Rob Zombie fame, Nivek Ogre, and yes, Paris Hilton). Famed soprano Sarah Brightman brings poignancy to her part as a tragic blind singer who has been enslaved by Largo in exchange for her bionic eyes. A mysterious grave robber (Terrance Zdunich)) narrates from afar and intervenes when necessary. Repo!’s ability to simultaneously embellish the facets of its bizarre world while making the characters’ struggles plausible within them is one of its more commendable successes.
Despite these qualities, Repo! ultimately is disappointingly inconsistent in its visuals and the music. To begin with, Darren Lynn Bousman, lacks an assured hand behind the camera. His hideous and incomprehensible compositions muddle nearly all of the action; as is the case with his wretched sequels, Saw II, III, and IV. Despite the eerie, effectively glowing cinematography, which conjures radioactivity, the movie fails to effectively depict character and theme through the art of visual storytelling. The set designer seems to have barely attempted to mask the sound stage trappings- and not in a cool Lars von Trier-type way either.
The film’ greatest obstacle to success, however, is the weak and poorly written songs. The genre of the music is well-suited to the material: a hybrid of Jesus Christ Superstar-esque operatic rock ‘n’ roll and Bjork/Madonna-influenced beat-driven dark pop. While the themes of each song feel appropriate, the manner by which they are executed is amateurish and at times, un-listenable. The rhymes are frequently strained or simply nonexistent, and the chord progressions and melodies, with a few notable exceptions, fall into predictable patterns. Despite the talent involved, Repo! is another sad example of great ideas, plenty of potential, and failed execution.
No comments:
Post a Comment