An alt-rock score, a hellish nightmarish world right out of The Crow, colorful, hideous characters who sing, comic interludes expressing past incidents which tell us why the story has culminated to the point we're witnessing, and the grisly operations of a repossessor of organs working for a futuristic tyrannical businessman who practically runs the goth city where the events take place. Paul Sorvino is an obvious choice for the role of Rotti Largo, an intense, contemptible, ruthless corporate giant whose face is perfectly etched with anger and disgust, rotten to the core and dying of a cancer progressively getting worse(..his duo of gun toting female guards shoot the doctor for bringing him the news, just a sign of how the state of life is in this depressing future). Anthony Head is his diabolical repo man, Nathan, who seeks out those who have signed a contract with Rotti for an organ they needed to live..if these people fail to pay for their repaired organ, it'll be collected(..when Nathan viciously removes the organ, surgically, we can see the bar code!) Rotti took advantage of a terrible plight sweeping across the country, organ failures, and offered those afflicted hope, with a price. Nathan is held accountable for a past tragedy, caused by Rotti who was enraged at him for stealing away his bride, Marni. Using a poisonous drug, Rotti had it placed in the vial containing a formula Nathan was working on for his pregnant Marni who fell ill. Nathan, using the infected formula, instead causes the illness to worsen, needing to surgically remove their daughter, Shilo(Alexa Vega)before certain death. Caught by police for his actions in saving Shilo, Nathan must work for Rotti as a way of paying off his debt for saving him from prison. Rotti, ashamed of his horrible offspring, Amber Sweet(Paris Hilton), Luigi Largo(Bill Moseley), and Pavi(Nivek Ogre)wishes to leave his successful corporation, Geneco, to someone else. He sees this as an opportunity to get the ultimate revenge against Nathan who he hates with an overwhelming passion, for taking Marni away, by targeting a 17 year old Shilo, who has been isolated from the outside world, yearning to experience what life is like away from the prison of her apartment. Nathan has Shilo taking pills for a supposed blood disease, but, unknown to her, it's actually a poison(..he wishes for her to remain distant from a world he wants to shield her from) and Rotti will take advantage of this situation so that he can turn daughter against father. And, Rotti has plans to leave his corporation to Shilo, for she is the only one he sees fit for such an enterprize. By drawing Shilo into the outside world promising her a cure for the blood disease, Rotti can successfully trap Nathan. Also, part of the plot has "Blind Mag"(Sarah Brightman), a friend of Marni's, whose eyes were transplanted thanks to Geneco thanks in part of a contract she signed in blood, wishes to leave her singing career and have freedom from Rotti. Mag will meet Shilo with a domino effect transpiring..it's only a matter of time before Shilo will discover the truth about her father's practices and the real reason behind the death of her mother.<br /><br />I think this is indeed a cult item, the songs will work for a certain crowd, as well as the grotesque costume designs, and the industrialized look of the world, fallen to ruin, degradation, and decadence. The alt-metal music which accompanies the songs will also work for that target cult audience. It's extremely graphic with some unsettling surgical organ removals. I personally found the music and singers horrid(..but that's because I'm not exactly a fan of musicals, especially with a cast who can not sing)and the characters overbearing. This future, though, is not supposed to be a pleasant world, so the characters and what they have to sing about reflect this devastated society. Full of surgical freaks(..like Hilton's Amber), junkies(..addicted to a hypo-injected drug lifted from corpses called Zydrate), and hedonists. Moseley has his usual psychopath, Luigi, with an uncontrollable temperament, often stabbing folks who just so happen to cross him at the wrong time. Vegas has the central role, a pivotal part that inadvertently controls the inevitable confrontation between Nathan and Rotti. The character of Pavi(..and to a certain extent, Amber)reminded me of Eyes Without a Face, with his face covered by a skin mask..I kind of wondered if this was a homage of sorts. Hilton was expertly cast as a self-absorbed drug-addicted tramp who is obsessed with surgery, and with designs of being a star that takes the place of the beloved Mag. Director Darren Lynn Bousman shoots with soft focus photography, and the bleak world looks lifted right from a computer screen. Vega has an innocence and vulnerability that works for the part of an angel lost in a nightmare where fiends and miscreants lurk around every corner. The make-up effects are quite effective, particularly during those notorious organ removal sequences(..and a marvelous reveal of Amber's ruined visage).