This is one odd bird of a movie- or should I say it's a hoot, given the killer's costume, which is definitely one of the silliest of all time, right up there with the bear outfit in Girls Nite Out? Be that as it may, Stage Fright (aka Aquarius or Deliria or Bloody Bird- which seems more apt) definitely grows on you, and gets creepier as it goes along.
It definitely starts out on the goofy side, though, as we focus in on a hooker, decked out in 80's era New Wave-style garb, with spiky blonde hair, out on a corner plying her trade. An unseen figure grabs her from a dark alleyway and strangles her to death.
It definitely starts out on the goofy side, though, as we focus in on a hooker, decked out in 80's era New Wave-style garb, with spiky blonde hair, out on a corner plying her trade. An unseen figure grabs her from a dark alleyway and strangles her to death.
Then, out of nowhere, Italian Disco cranks up and we see the killer for the first time, dressed in a black nylon leotard, with a giant owl's head mask on. He jumps out of the alleyway and starts busting a move, and various hookers join in, as an elaborate dance number begins. What the what? Is this an 80's music video? West Side Gory?
A director yells cut, and we see that this is, in fact, actually on a sound-stage, and everyone concerned is rehearsing a play- the "Aquarius" of the title, conveniently enough about a serial killer. A mild disaster strikes when the leading lady, Alicia (Barbara Cupisti) twists her ankle.
Not wanting to freak out the driven director, Peter (David Brandon), she sneaks off with friend and wardrobe designer, Betty (Ulrike Schwerk) to a nearby doctor's office. Actually, it's a psychiatric ward, this being a horror movie and all, but it's close enough for Italian disco, so Alicia gets her ankle looked at and attended to, and back to the sound-stage she goes.
Unfortunately for her, and everyone else, Betty has an uninvited guest along for the ride- notorious accused serial killer Irving Wallace (Clain Parker), which has to be the dorkiest psycho name ever. He happens to escape while the girls are there, and sneaks into their car, riding back with them.
Once they arrive, Irving swiftly starts to knock everyone concerned off one by one, as you do in a slasher movie. Somewhat ironically, Betty is killed right away and discovered shortly thereafter by Alicia, and the cops are called, putting a stop to the killing momentarily.
Most would go home after such a traumatic event, but Peter smells the chance to make money, so he demands everyone stay and continue to rehearse, despite the fact the killer is still on the loose. Announcing that the play will be rewritten to make Wallace the killer- talk about foreshadowing!- Peter and the producer, Ferrari (Piero Vida) offers everyone a bonus to keep going, and all concerned agree to stay.
To make matters worse, there's only one way out of the place, and Peter has one of the cast, Corrine (Loredana Parrella, aka Lori Parrel) hide the key, so that no one can sneak off, a la Alicia and Betty earlier. Naturally, the killer has already gotten into the venue, so this means everyone is locked in the theater with a wacko.
Sealing the deal, after the killer kidnaps and ties up Brett (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, aka John Morghen), he dons the costume and takes over his role- the killer in the play. In the film's most amusing scene, the director barks orders at Wallace to kill his current scene partner- in the scene, of course- and Wallace takes it as an actual cue and kills poor Corrine then and there.
As aforementioned, she's the one who hid the key to the only door out of there, so... whoops? Completely freaking out, everyone runs for their lives, though Ferrari stops to gather up his money, and literally pays the price for it when, like Corrine before him, he is stabbed to death.
After that, things proceed in typical slasher movie fashion, as almost everyone is killed off, one by one. One gets a drill to the back and through his stomach, one girl gets sawed in half with a chainsaw, and another gets his arm sawed off then has his head lopped off with an axe.
Only one lucky lady lives to tell the tale and find the key to escape. But is the killer really dead in the end? Or is he laying low, waiting to kill again, whenever someone inevitably returns to the venue, lurking in the theater like the Phantom of the Opera? I'll let you see for yourself, but I'm sure you can figure it out if you've seen any given slasher movie.
Stage Fright is indeed typical slasher movie fare, with many of the famous tropes on display. There's the escaped lunatic from a mental institution, the killer's POV cam, the bizarre mask (which does indeed turn the corner to being kind of creepy, in spite of that opening scene), a pesky black cat, the spectacularly gory killings, the "friendly fire" accidental death, the killer staging the bodies of his victims in an elaborate display, the Final Girl "defeating" the killer- for now, at least- and the last big scare after the killer is presumed dead.
As I referenced earlier, this is an Italian production, so, at a time when American censors were cracking down on our own slasher movies, they were still getting away with (vicious) murder. Heading up the roster is Michele Soavi, in his directorial debut, after working for such heavyweights as Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria), Lamberto Bava (Demons, A Blade in the Dark) and Joe D'Amato (Beyond the Darkness, Absurd), the latter of which also produced this film. You can definitely tell the influence of his former bosses, particularly Argento, in this film.
Soavi would go on to bigger and better things, notably The Church (featuring a young Asia Argento, and produced by her father), The Sect (aka The Devil's Daughter, featuring Jamie Lee's sister, Kelly Curtis) and the excellent, underrated zombie opus, Cemetery Man, with a young Rupert Everett.
He also worked as an assistant director to none other than Monty Python alum Terry Gilliam, on the films The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen and The Brothers Grimm. Soavi also acts on occasion, cropping up in City of the Living Dead (aka The Gates of Hell), Absurd, The New York Ripper, Demons and Lucio Fulci's The Black Cat. He plays the younger cop in this film as well.
Helping immeasurably is the excellent cinematography by Renato Tafuri, who also did the honors on The Church and was the second unit director of photography for Dario Argento's Opera, which, as fans of that film can attest, has some pretty impressive visuals, notably that bit with the birds.
Cast-wise, speaking of Opera, the leading lady is Barbara Cupisti, who also starred in that film. She made her motion picture debut in Fulci's The New York Ripper, following that up with a turn in the legendary Tinto Brass' The Key, the Giallo-esque Dark Bar, Umberto Lenzi's The Hell's Gate, Flesh & The Devil, Norman Jewison's Only You (with Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey, Jr.) and Gialloparma. She also co-starred in Soavi's The Church and Cemetery Man.
As the play's director, Peter, there's David Brandon, best-known for his roles in the punk-rock-themed Jubilee (featuring Adam Ant, Ari Up (of the Slits), Toyah Willcox and Siouxsie and the Banshees), The Emperor Caligula: The Untold Story (he was Caligula), the fantasy flicks The Blade Master, The Lost City, She and Warrior Queen; Lamberto Bava's Delirium, Beyond Darkness and Asia Argento's directorial debut, Scarlet Diva, in which he once again played a director.
The original Birdman, the flamboyant Brett, is played by genre vet Giovanni Radice, aka John Morghen. He made his debut in the notorious Cannibal Apocalypse, going on to appear in such cult faves as City of the Living Dead, House on the Edge of the Park, Cannibal Ferox, Cannibal Love, Deadly Impact (with Fred Williamson), Phantom of Death, Body Puzzle, Scorsese's Gangs of New York, the remake of The Omen, A Day of Violence, The Reverend, The Inflicted (with Bill Moseley and Sid Haig) and the excellently-titled Violent Shit: The Movie. Radice also appears in The Church and The Sect- a loyal one, that Soavi.
As the day-saving groundskeeper Willy, who reminds Alicia about the perils of forgetting to take off the safety on the gun- shades of Scream (the film also has some parallels to Scream 2, notably the freaky stuff happening on the stage of a play rehearsal)- there's James Sampson, another cult movie vet, with lots of genre credits, including Eye of the Cat, Zombie, City of the Living Dead, Absurd, Zombie 4: After Death, Robot Jox and Dark Bar.
As the greedy producer Ferrari, there's Piero Vida, who also has some solid genre credits on his resume, including the Giallos Short Night of Glass Dolls, Who Saw Her Die?, Deep Red, and the action flicks Tough to Kill and Man on Fire. Sadly, he died shortly before the release of Stage Fright, making it one of his last films, along with Man on Fire.
Finally, there's the dastardly Laurel, played by Mary Sellers, who almost seals Alicia's fate, when she lets her fall to the floor in her escape. When she's not donning a big blue poofy dress and a fat suit, she's actually pretty easy on the eyes. Sellers also has some cool credits on her roster, including roles in the horror flicks Ghosthouse, The Crawlers, The Childhood Friend and a small role in 2013's version of Romeo & Juliet, with Hailee Steinfeld.
Most of the rest of the cast have only a few credits on their resume, though if you like the film's cast, I'd advise you to check out Joe D'Amato's Eleven Days, Eleven Nights, which features quite a few vets of this film in it, making it play like a virtual Stage Fright family reunion of sorts.
That said, Robert Gligorov, who plays Danny, the guy who gets chainsawed after his girlfriend is cut in half by the same, was also in Fulci's somewhat similar Murder Rock: Dancing Death, about a serial killer stalking a ballet company; Mickey Knox, who played the older cop stationed outside, was in Ghoulies II, The Godfather III, Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound and the aforementioned Cemetery Man; and Domenico Fiore, who played the police chief, might be familiar to fans of the cult flick Brainscan or the cult series Orphan Black, where he also played a police chief.
Stage Fright is a fairly standard slasher that stands out from the crowd, despite being a late entry in the sub-genre, thanks to the stylistic flourishes, crisp cinematography, impressive gore, a driving soundtrack score (mostly by Simon Boswell, who also partially scored Argento's Phenomena, Jodorowsky's Santa Sangre, Richard Franklin's Hardware and Dust Devil and Clive Barker's Lord of Illusions) and that wacky killer's costume, which lends a surreal feel to the proceedings.
I also dig the theater setting, being a former theater nerd myself. It would make for a solid double feature with the similarly-themed-and-titled Stagefright, from 2015, about a killer stalking a theater-themed summer camp, though that's one's a good bit sillier, with even more full-on musical numbers.
By all means, if you haven't seen it, check it out! The film is readily available on DVD and Blu-Ray in a spectacular transfer that should please longtime fans. It also has loads of great special features.
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