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  • 1 week ago
Featuring insights from director Darren Lynn Bousman and cast members, a look at how the dark, cybergoth rock opera Repo! The Genetic Opera – originating from a modest theatrical stage play – blended industrial goth aesthetics, high-camp operatic numbers, and comic-book gore into an enduring midnight-movie cult classic. The feature-length documentary highlights the grassroots fan movement, shadowcasts, and interactive community gatherings, ala The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Transcript
00:01With Repo, it felt like I was on a cliff,
00:03and at any moment I could fall and leave my career.
00:07I had an idea, which I thought was ridiculous,
00:11that you buy organs on credit, and if you can't afford it,
00:15you know, they come and Repo your organs.
00:17It's kind of a unique film where we want to make something
00:20that you've never done before.
00:22Quote was,
00:23I know you can kill, but can you sing?
00:26She was a bitch. I'll just say it.
00:28It's a bon viaggi.
00:30It's a bon vi, bon viaggi.
00:31But a vow after every concert.
00:33Holy shit, this guy's my hero.
00:35It was a great, it was a great audition.
00:37I talked to Darren, he said, I want you in this movie,
00:40and I said, well, what's it about?
00:41I would rather be blind.
00:43Right. With the blood.
00:44With the blood pouring down your face.
00:47It's so dawned that it falls off,
00:49and then I look like Freddy Krueger.
00:51Like, that, like, it still gives me nightmares.
00:54And when the gun goes off,
00:56it sparks and you're ready for surgery.
00:59Boyoke shell, motherfucker!
01:00That was tight!
01:01At the opera tuba...
01:04That's where you're gonna start.
01:05Okay?
01:08I didn't know it was being stoned.
01:10I put the camera down when Sarah Ryman told me
01:13to put the camera down.
01:15I think that I kept the camera up for everything else.
01:18But I'm possessed!
01:20I deliver!
01:22I'm the REFO legal assassin!
01:27I don't know that anybody else could've come in the way Tony did.
01:31I mean, he was the perfect REFO man.
01:33There's just so much heartache.
01:36So much heartache.
01:37This is the fucking thing we dreamed of.
01:39Like, no joke.
01:40Like...
01:41I mean, it's not just a dream.
01:43It's a very specific one.
01:45You don't get the chance to make things like this very often.
01:48So we're doing the elusive test screening.
01:50It means that they are putting it in front of an audience.
01:52And the audience is like a jury.
01:53We've been convicted of murder, and this is the jury.
01:56That was it.
01:56It was dead.
01:57That was the moment the movie died.
01:58The fans got behind this in a way that I have not seen.
02:03Darren and Terrence were not like other filmmakers and stars ourselves.
02:09There wasn't a social wall between us.
02:12This is our premiere show!
02:14This is our Rocky, you know?
02:16Darren literally created our Rocky.
02:25L.A. Times said someone repo this movie.

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