EXCLUSIVE: Some of our younger readers might not remember this, but Repo! The Genetic Opera was a whole thing when […]
The roadshow helped build that connection. Bousman and co-creator Terrance Zdunich took the film around the country, with screenings continuing well beyond its initial release.
Then there was that cast. Hilton was still an enormous pop-culture presence, while Brightman brought the voice of the original Christine in The Phantom of the Opera. Anthony Stewart Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Alexa Vega (Spy Kids, Machete Kills), Bill Moseley (Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Devil’s Rejects), and Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas) rounded out an ensemble you wouldn’t expect to find together, much less singing their way through a bloody organ-repossession story.
Set in a future devastated by organ failure, the film follows a world where GeneCo offers lifesaving transplants on credit. Miss your payments, and someone comes to take those organs back. Darren Smith and Zdunich adapted their stage musical into a bonkers collision of rock, opera, and gore.
Walker, who some of you may remember worked for me at Bloody Disgusting years ago, was there documenting the tours and the growing fandom. A filmmaker and visual-effects artist himself, he’s now helped turn that history into a documentary that goes far beyond the roadshow.
As we reported earlier this year, Bousman had also dug out the old behind-the-scenes tapes for the 4K release. Footage shot by his wife, Laura Bousman, offers another perspective on how this oddball passion project came together. Paired with the present-day interviews teased in the trailer, it looks like an incredibly extensive record of both making the movie and discovering what it meant to people.
The $34.99 SteelBook, available through Lionsgate Limited, includes the film on 4K UHD and Blu-ray, a digital copy, and a Bousman-approved remaster with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.
The documentary is included on the 4K disc, alongside Addicted to the Shadowcast. Other extras include a new commentary with Bousman, Smith, and Zdunich; Establishing Shot with Darren Lynn Bousman; and returning commentaries, deleted scenes, sing-alongs, and featurettes. The package also comes with four character cards and SteelBook artwork by Chuck Styles.
If you’re tired of seeing the same familiar franchises and want a horror movie willing to be this strange, Repo! is waiting. It’s a diamond in the rough, and this documentary looks like a pretty great way to discover—or rediscover—the people who made it happen.
