There are some people who call Repo! The Genetic Opera “The new Rocky Horror Picture Show.” I say GOOD! This film is much better. Repo! The Genetic Opera is the fourth directorial outing by Darren Lynn Bousman. Bousman is best known for directing Saw II, III, and IV. Repo! couldn’t be further away from the Saw films in every possible way. I was greatly impressed by the film’s ambition. I do feel the storytelling was a little lacking at times but awesome visuals and fun music made up for it.

For starters, Repo is a musical. It takes place in nightmarish future where organ failure is at an all time high. An evil corporation called Geneco offers financing for organ transplant surgeries. The story centers around Shilo, played by Alexa Vega, who is the daughter of the repoman that comes to collect the organs when people can no longer make their payments. The Repoman is played by Anthony Head. Head delivers a solid performance. We really get to see his range in this film. In particular, there is one scene where he is repossesing a spine while talking on his holographic wrist phone with Shilo, reminding her of the importance of taking her medication. Here you have Head’s brutality as the repoman and his warmth as Shilo’s dad. Great acting by Head, great directing by Bousman.

Speaking of great acting, Paris Hilton is in this film. She plays Amber Sweet, the surgery addicted sister rounding out the tryfecta of evil children who belong to the head of the evil Genco. The other two siblings are played by Bill Mosely and Ogre from Skinny Puppy. Paris has clearly come a long way since her appearance in House of Wax. She fit very well into this operatic roll which lent itself to over acting. This is really what she should be looking to do more of. Another great fit was Bill Mosely. He was able to channel his Chop Top over acting into a new type of roll for him that worked really well. Ogre was under a lot of make up. It was hard for me to get a real sense of his acting ability. He seemed to be handling his slightly gay character pretty well. All three of these guys had a great chemistry together which I was not expecting.

Great performances aside one of the films strongest points are the sets and the costumes. My personal favorite costume was the Repoman’s. His mask with light up eyes was perfectly toped off with a head mirror. (that is what that reflective disk doctors used to wear on their heads is called). It was very Brazil type mix of future and past. It’s something that is lacking in recent nightmarish future films. My favorite set was definitely the graveyard where Shilo meets the Graverobber/drug dealer played by Terrance Zdunich. This set was another great combination of old and new with gothic type head stones surrounded by security cameras and signs that read, “Grave robbers will be executed on site.” There was a great sequence on this set where Shilo and Graverobber break through a wall will trying to escape some cemetary guards and end up in a subterranean room filled with corpses. You really get the feel that your in the future where there is a bubonic type plague happening.

Repo!’s strongest point has got to be the music. Terrance Zdunich not only played Graverobber but was also the composers and one of screenwriters. The music was absolutely awesome. My favorite song was Seventeen which Shilo sings as she is yelling at her father. While I was rocking out to this song, I thought, ” this song has a very “Bad Reputation” vibe to it”. Then Joan Jett appeared for a cameo playing guitar in Shilo’s bed room. Jett nods at Shilo almost to give her permission to rock out. I’d really like to know if she played guitar on the song.

My only problem with the film was it became incredibly convoluted in true operatic fashion. There was a story where The evil head of Genco loved Shilo’s mother but she married the Repoman so he killed her. Now he wanted Shilo to sing in his opera or something. There was a thing with Shilo’s Godmother who has special hologram eyes and he wanted the Repoman to reposes them. Story wise they lost me towards the end there. But all and all Repo! The Genetic Opera is way better than The Rocky Horror Picture Show and I hope it ultimately gets the cult following Rocky Horror has.