Michele Soavi's promising directorial debut. In Stage Fright, a musical about a mass murderer is in rehearsal. When a mental patient (an actor-turned madman) escapes from a nearby psychiatric hospital, he sneaks into the theater and starts to off the cast one-by-one. With the keys to the outside misplaced, the actors find themselves trapped inside with the killer.
Soavi is one of the masters of Italian horror, having worked in the genre behind the scenes, in front of the camera, and as a respected director. With the assistance of cinematographer Renato Tafuri, Soavi peppers Stage Fright with surreal, nightmarish visuals. The shot composition, framing, camera movements, and sets are masterful and gorgeous. The madman's owl head costume is quite odd, but creepy and memorable (fun fact: In some cultures, Owls are closely associated with death).
The actors all do a great job, from the provocateur director (Peter, played by David Brandon), to the gay jokester (Brent, played by Giovanni Lombardo Radice), to our heroine (Alicia, played by Barbara Cupisti). Stage Fright is a playful, meta, and freaky film with quite a few memorable kills and blood/gore effects (There's definitely a sense that Soavi is enjoying himself here). There's also some noticeable dubbing, though I wouldn't necessarily say it's bad. In the end when all is said and done, Stage Fright makes for quite a memorable, fun, surreal nightmare of a film.
4 STARS
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