2008's Repo! The Genetic Opera is a strange beast of a film. Disliked by many critics and misunderstood by many viewers, this movie a strange hybrid of a Saw movie and a rock opera, and much like Rocky Horror, it's gained a cult following, complete with midnight showings involving dress-up and shouting. On top of that, it's also a surprisingly solid film and one that feels even more meaningful in 2020.
The basic premise of the film is that widespread organ failure has ravaged the population. In response, a company called GeneCo has started offering replacement organs and other medical procedures for a steep price -- but luckily, they come with payment plans, like a car loan or a mortgage. Unfortunately, also like a car loan or a mortgage, if someone doesn't make their payments, their property can be repossessed by GeneCo-appointed (and congressionally legitimized) Repo Men. This practice is essentially legalized murder, given that the Repo Men aren't exactly concerned with removing GeneCo property safely.
Meanwhile, GeneCo and its president, Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino,) have dominated society. The Largos are Italian, so Italian culture has become highly trendy, including a resurgence in the popularity of opera music, with GeneCo being responsible for managing the most notable music star around, Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman). Mag was born blind and received corneal transplants from GeneCo, essentially signing her life away to them in the process. The film is set on the day that Mag is set to "retire," meaning that a Repo Man will repossess her eyes and end her life.
GeneCo has not only stepped in to help desperate, sick people, though. They've also popularized "surgery as a fashion statement," meaning that vast numbers of people seek out surgeries they don't need and become indebted to the company. This has also created a spike in the use of prescription drugs, specifically, a painkiller called Zydrate that was invented by GeneCo. The company is the only legal distributor of Zydrate, but underground dealers called graverobbers also sell the drug to a growing population of dependents for competitive prices.
All of this goes to show to say that the society Repo! is set in is driven almost completely by corporatized healthcare. Every character in the film is inexorably tied into the system. Rotti Largo runs the company that depersonalized medicine and legalized murder as an acceptable way to "repay" debts that many people didn't even need to accrue. His children are wrapped up in the company as well, not to mention that his daughter Amber (Paris Hilton, in a fascinatingly meta performance) is addicted to surgery and Zydrate.
It was scary to consider the moral implications of such a world in 2008, but in 2020, in a world full of increasingly draconian healthcare practices and attempts to make healthcare a for-profit industry even in the midst of a literal pandemic that has destroyed millions of lives, it feels all too familiar.
Rotti Largo is also a charming but sinister businessman who has capitalized on tragedy to become famous, wealthy and powerful. He doesn't actually care about the people his company purports to help, but he's nonetheless convinced he's a beloved humanitarian worthy of respect. He's great at putting on a show for people to distract from the horror, chemical dependency, financial extortion and murder that his corporate regime enables even in the midst of a health crisis. He's also surrounded by his unqualified and demonstrably problematic children and an endless slew of yes-men willing to say and do whatever he wants, which is uncomfortably reminiscent of a certain political figure.
On a less political note, Repo! focuses on Shilo, a seventeen-year-old girl with Gothic style a mysterious blood disease. Her father Nathan is, as far as she knows, a physician, and in addition to his professional duties, he takes care of her. She's not allowed to leave the house lest she be exposed to dangerous contagions, and even when she just goes to her mother's tomb, she has to wear what looks like a gas mask to protect herself. She's very naive because she's been kept in isolation her entire life, but she's fascinated by things like music and entomology and she's curious about what goes on around her.
"Oh, I want to go outside, outside," she sings plaintively at the conclusion of her first solo song, "Infected." She's standing at her window, staring out at the post-apocalyptic city around her. While months of quarantine are less severe than a lifelong quarantine, this year has been full of social distancing and isolation, the likes of which have taken a mental toll on many people. Standing at the window, watching things (some of them horrific) go on is a sight that many people are dealing with today.
Mag, who reveals herself to be Shilo's godmother, also expresses a feeling of profound isolation despite being a public figure. Her life is controlled by GeneCo because she received eyes from them, and, unlike most people's shorter-term payment plans, she paid for those eyes with her musical career. When Shilo finally finds freedom at the end of Repo!, it's a relief. It's an optimistic coda to a dramatic and gory story. Sure, the Largos have retained control of GeneCo and therefore society, but Shilo -- the audience surrogate -- got away. As she sings, she's "free at last," and maybe someday, the rest of us can feel that way too.