StageFright (1987)

Directed by: Michele Saovi

Starring: David Brandon, Barbara Cupisti, Robert Gliqorov, Giovanni Lambardo Radice, Loredana Perrella, Martin Phillips, Mary Sellers, Jo Ann Smith and Clain Parker

Genre: Horror, Slasher, Foreign, Giallo

Language: English

Rating: Unrated

I’d been looking for this film for a long time since I’d heard it was great from a number of fellow horror fans. I found it in parts on Youtube last night and I was not disappointed. The story follows a small group of stage actors rehearsing for the impending opening of their play. They soon find themselves locked inside the theater with a masked madman intent on killing them off one by one.

I feel this slasher is a step above many others because it actually lets you get to know the characters and feel for them. They each have unique personalities and there were many that I wanted to survive. Also the characters actually exhibited some intelligence and stuck together in groups; rarely was someone left alone. That was a nice change of pace.

The direction of this film switches from gritty and gory to beautiful. The onstage death is graceful and tense as the rest of the cast begins to realize that the actress is being killed for real. The music is so light and beautiful contrasting with the terror of the group as they watch her being stabbed to death. The tension only mounts when they realize they are locked inside the building with the killer. The rest are far more brutal and even upsetting as many happen when there are other people around who are unable to save the victims.

I only have a few gripes for this film. First, I felt there were some instances where the music felt out of place. The rock-like score during the chase scenes ruined the tension for me. I much preferred the music during the onstage death and during the climax of the film. The ending wasn’t that great either, I felt it could have been done a little differently. Lastly, the production values are a little off as at times you can’t hear the dialogue over the music, or one character is harder to hear than another. This could just be the version I watched, though.

Overall, this is a fun slasher flick with intelligent, likable characters, decent directing and brutal deaths. I will be adding this to my collection and I recommend it for any horror fan.

7/10