Repo! The Genetic OperaA worldwide epidemic encourages a biotech company to launch an organ-financing program similar in nature to a standard car loan. The repossession clause is a killer, however.

Shadowcasting: it’s not just for Rocky Horror anymore.

If you’ve never seen a shadowcast film, you’re missing out. Most people know about the Rocky Horror Picture Show, where people dress up as their favorite characters and strut and fret before the screen as the movie plays. In recent years, Rocky Horror is no longer the only game in town.

In Salt Lake City, a group called Out of the Shadows does three shows a year: Rocky Horror for Halloween, Hedwig and the Angry Inch in the summer, and in May: Repo! The Genetic Opera.

Locals lined up around the block to see this, the tenth consecutive year of shadowcasting Repo! “Genterns,” dressed up like the fetishy nurses of the film, pass through the crowd hawking trinkets and keeping the waiting public entertained.

Repo! marquee and line of fans

They weirdos line up for this experience

Once inside, there is an air of good humor and camaraderie. The audience knows the players, they know how this goes. There’s good-natured heckling and catcalls, and the emcee gives back as good as she gets. And then the lights go down and the movie starts. The hush doesn’t last long.

Repo! is a unique film. “In the not-too-distant future,” megacorporation GeneCo has perfected organ transplants and casual elective surgery. But it doesn’t come cheap, and if you can’t pay, they send the Repo Man (Anthony Head). And he’s not gentle. Meanwhile, one of GeneCo’s wonder drugs — Zydrate — is being harvested from corpses by a black marketeer and graverobber played by writer and composer Terrance Zdunich. A young girl of seventeen (Alexa PenaVega) looks out from her window wistfully, as she can’t go outside due to an unnamed blood disease and an over-protective father. On top of all that, the head of GeneCo (Paul Sorvino) is dying, and his three terrible children (Bill Moseley, Kevin ‘ohGr’ Ogilvie, and, believe it or not, Paris Hilton in the role of a lifetime) vie for his inheritance.

A story complex and distraught enough for any opera, right? And that’s not even every plot thread.

Rotti Largo, CEO of GeneCo, and his terrible children

Rotti Largo, CEO of GeneCo, and his terrible children

On stage, mottled by the film being projected on the screen behind them, the costumed players mimic the action and recite the words, often changed for a broad joke. Audience members call out familiar lines. The graverobber character mugs to the audience and flirts with Shiloh, the sick girl (but his reaction when Shiloh sings that she’s just seventeen is priceless).

The music is memorable, goth-metal-opera, and it will get stuck in your head (“Zydrate comes in a little glass vial!” is a favorite). And this cast can sing it! Often matching volume with the film, the belt out the tunes (with modified words as needed) while dancing and fooling on the stage to wild applause and laughter from the audience.

The Repo Man repossesses the organs of a poor unfortunate customer

The Repo Man repossesses the organs of a poor unfortunate customer

If you can see it live, go out of your way to do so! Salt Lake City is not the only place you can see this film shadowcast, but if you’re in the area in May, look it up. Even if you can’t, do yourself a favor and watch the film, buy the soundtrack, and look for the makers to appear at ‘cons in the near future.

Repo: The Genetic Rock Opera
RATING: R
Repo! The Genetic Opera - Trailer

 

Runtime: 90 Mins.
Directed By: Darren Lynn Bousman
Written By:
Darren Smith

About the Author

Scix has been a news anchor, a DJ, a vaudeville producer, a monster trainer, and a magician. Lucky for HorrorBuzz, Scix also reviews horror movies. Particularly fond of B-movies, camp, bizarre, or cult films, and films with LGBT content.