Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyably suspenseful slasher.
Review: A group of actors rehearsing a play are trapped in the theater with a madman on the loose. Michele Soavi's debut film begins rather weakly, but gets rolling at the forty-minute mark, and doesn't let up till the very end. Plenty of suspense, scares, and gore to please genre fans, though the final scene is rather lame and tiresome. Still, who would have thought a guy dressed in an owl suit could be creepy?
*** 1/2 out of *****
Rating:
Summary: An enjoyably suspenseful slasher.
Review: A group of actors rehearsing a play are trapped in the theater with a madman on the loose. Michele Soavi's debut film begins rather weakly, but gets rolling at the forty-minute mark, and doesn't let up till the very end. Plenty of suspense, scares, and gore to please genre fans, though the final scene is rather lame and tiresome. Still, who would have thought a guy dressed in an owl suit could be creepy?
*** 1/2 out of *****
Rating: 
Summary: Good to the Last Drop Feeling
Review: Having seen many of Soavi's later works fully restored on DVD, I felt obtaining Stage Fright would be something fruitful. Personally, I'm glad I picked it up, too, because the quality of this release made my formerly viewed copy blatantly outdated. Along with the gore aspects of this film that could now be witnessed, ( including the creative use of a power drill as a door knob, a chainsaw during a little tug-of-war, and, of course, the trusty axe)there were other, more subtle atmospheric qualities, now apparent, and these propelled the movie that much more. This, coupled with the fact that you really don't know who is or isn't going to die next, makes the guessing game fun while the killer plays tag. Its a safe bet.
Rating: 
Summary: Awful movie
Review: I can not figure out why all of the argento movies are considered to be works of genius. They are awful and not worth the time it takes to throw them away. Stay away from this awful creation.
Rating:
Summary: Awful movie
Review: I can not figure out why all of the argento movies are considered to be works of genius. They are awful and not worth the time it takes to throw them away. Stay away from this awful creation.
Rating:
Summary: Auspicious Debut from the Director of "Cemetery Man"
Review: Italian director Michele Soavi gained worldwide recognition with the 1994 release of his zombie masterpiece CEMETERY MAN. Horror fans knew him, though, from his work as an assistant director for Dario Argento and his many cameos in the genre (most notably in Lucio Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD where he had the back of his head smashed by a zombie). STAGE FRIGHT is his directorial debut... an auspicious Giallo that hints at the promise that he would soon live up to in CEMETERY MAN.At first glance, STAGE FRIGHT might seem to be just another cliched body-count film in the tired slasher genre... it certainly has all the ingredients. A group of characters are trapped in an empty theater and are picked off one by one by a masked maniac (this one wears a huge owl mask). However, director Soavi brings a sense of style to the violent proceedings, making STAGE FRIGHT one of the best horror films of the 1980s. Throughout the film, Soavi paints his bloody canvas with great camera shots and surreal images... He even shows some restraint in the violence. This is not to say that STAGE FRIGHT isn't a violent movie. People are stabbed, arms are lopped off and heads are decapitated, all in gruesome detail. However, there's a difference between showing just enough violence to get the point across and wallowing in bloody excess to the point of absurdity... Soavi gets it just right, providing the perfect balance between shock and gross-out. Michele Soavi also does a brilliant job building up suspense... One particularly tense moment involves the heroine attempting to get a key to unlock the door of the theater. The suspense builds and builds, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Although director Michele Soavi would go on to bigger and better things, STAGE FRIGHT is an impressive debut feature for this promising director. The Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD boasts a great widescreen presentation of the film, a theatrical trailer, and a lengthy biography of the director. Highly recommended to fans of Eurohorror...
Rating:
Summary: Auspicious Debut from the Director of "Cemetery Man"
Review: Italian director Michele Soavi gained worldwide recognition with the 1994 release of his zombie masterpiece CEMETERY MAN. Horror fans knew him, though, from his work as an assistant director for Dario Argento and his many cameos in the genre (most notably in Lucio Fulci's CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD where he had the back of his head smashed by a zombie). STAGE FRIGHT is his directorial debut... an auspicious Giallo that hints at the promise that he would soon live up to in CEMETERY MAN. At first glance, STAGE FRIGHT might seem to be just another cliched body-count film in the tired slasher genre... it certainly has all the ingredients. A group of characters are trapped in an empty theater and are picked off one by one by a masked maniac (this one wears a huge owl mask). However, director Soavi brings a sense of style to the violent proceedings, making STAGE FRIGHT one of the best horror films of the 1980s. Throughout the film, Soavi paints his bloody canvas with great camera shots and surreal images... He even shows some restraint in the violence. This is not to say that STAGE FRIGHT isn't a violent movie. People are stabbed, arms are lopped off and heads are decapitated, all in gruesome detail. However, there's a difference between showing just enough violence to get the point across and wallowing in bloody excess to the point of absurdity... Soavi gets it just right, providing the perfect balance between shock and gross-out. Michele Soavi also does a brilliant job building up suspense... One particularly tense moment involves the heroine attempting to get a key to unlock the door of the theater. The suspense builds and builds, and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Although director Michele Soavi would go on to bigger and better things, STAGE FRIGHT is an impressive debut feature for this promising director. The Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD boasts a great widescreen presentation of the film, a theatrical trailer, and a lengthy biography of the director. Highly recommended to fans of Eurohorror...
Rating:
Summary: Scary,suspenseful, and fun!
Review: Stage Fright is one of the scariest slasher films ever that almost matches up with Halloween and Psycho. The plot is simple:
Alicia, who is working on a play that is about a psycho killer dressed as an owl, hurts her ankle on set and then her costume lady named Betty sneaks her out of rehearsal and takes her to the nearest hospital. But it isn't just a hospital, it ends up being a mental institution! Still, the doctor there agrees to look at Alicia's ankle. Staying at that hospital is Irving Wallace, a beserk actor who took 16 people and "cut them into little pieces!". He is staying there because the court is reviewing his trial. Betty and Alicia go back to the theater when they're done, but they end up bringing Irving Wallace back with them because they forgot to lock the door to the car!
*Spoiler Warining* Soon after Alicia is fired for sneaking out by the director of the play named Peter, who needed her while she was gone. Betty goes back out to her car because she left her lights on and is then murdered by Irving Wallace (I won't say how, it's pretty creative). After the police come and take away her body, Peter tells Newspaper Journalist Mr. Ferrari that he will take Betty's murder as an advertisement and pull opening night back a week to encourage more people to come.
Peter asks 8 people in the production to stay and rehearse all night. They are actors Brett, Laurel, Cibil, Corrine, Danny, Alicia, assistant director Mark, and journalist Farrari. Peter asks Corrine to lock all the doors to the theater and hide the key so nobody will be able to get out and they will have to rehearse all night. Unfortunatly, Irving Wallace gets locked in along with them, and steals Brett's owl costume and walks around the theater with it. Soon after, Brett dissapears and during rehearsal on stage in front of everyone's eyes, Irving Wallace murders Corrine. Corrine was the only one who knew where the key was, and Irving pulled out the wires to the telephones, so they are trapped in there and they have to find the hiddent key to get out to the 2 policeman outside in a car. Irving Wallace starts murdering them one by one in gruesome fashion.
This movie is stunning. The soundtrack is great, the music loud and suspenseful. The gore level is high and the special effects are great. The cinematography is outstanding, especially during the fish tank scene and a certain scene at the end that will definatly have you on the edge of your seat.
Stage Fright is one of the best slasher films ever. Definatly comes close to Halloween and Psycho. Director Soavi is a great director for this film. This is highly recommended to horror film fans, even recammended to people who don't like horror films.
Rating:
Summary: Classy reunion of exploitation stalwarts
Review: STAGEFRIGHT AQUARIUS [Deliria] (Italy 1987): A group of actors become trapped in a theater with a rampaging maniac who has just escaped from the nearby psychiatric clinic... STAGEFRIGHT AQUARIUS (the full on-screen title) not only marked the directorial debut of Euro-cult favorite Michele Soavi - billed here as 'Michael' Soavi - it also marked a reunion of several prominent figures from the heyday of Italian exploitation. Produced by renowned sleaze merchant Joe D'Amato (Aristide Massaccesi [BURIED ALIVE, EMANUELLE IN AMERICA]) and written by splatter stalwart George Eastman (Luigi Montefiore [RABID DOGS, ABSURD]), and co-starring John Morghen (Giovanni Lombardo Radice [CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD]), this deceptively modest shocker attempts to subvert many of the clichés associated with 'traditional' slasher movies, and does so with style and grace. Viewers weaned on a diet of bland Hollywood 'horrors' may not succumb immediately to the film's wayward plot developments (including the central device of an off-off-Broadway stage musical which celebrates the very same serial killer who winds up massacring most of the cast!), but once the basic premise has been established, the narrative assumes a near-demonic life of its own. Beginning with a frankly horrific sequence in which the masked killer is mistaken for an actor during rehearsals and encouraged to 'kill' a female co-star (only to commit the bloody deed for real!), Soavi's direction is razor-sharp and visually appealing. The murders are outlandish and gruesome, though also tragic in places (watch out for a shower sequence which operates both as a suspense set-piece and as a vivid demonstration of human cruelty), and Eastman's clever screenplay strips the characters down to their emotional core, revealing a gamut of fears and prejudices which leave many of them vulnerable to the killer's predations. The climactic sequence - in which a frightened young actress must retrieve an all-important key from its hiding place within inches of the killer's feet - is ghastly, beautiful and terrifying, all at the same time. Outside of these major set-pieces, Soavi's relative inexperience is betrayed by a couple of ragged camera movements and some odd editing choices, while the performances are compromised by flat post-sync dubbing. But overall, the movie is a triumph, one which plays Soavi's mentor Dario Argento at his own game and largely succeeds. The movie runs 90m 8s on Anchor Bay's all-region DVD, which letterboxes the image at 1.85:1 (anamorphically enhanced). Picture quality is a little soft throughout, but colors are strong and the framing is just right. The original Dolby stereo soundtrack is reproduced in 2.0 surround, though Anchor Bay have also provided a Dolby EX 6.1 track which beefs up the music and a number of sound effects, but seems otherwise unnecessary. Extras are surprisingly sparse, limited to a trailer and a detailed biography of Soavi. There are no captions or subtitles.
Rating:
Summary: Classy reunion of exploitation stalwarts
Review: STAGEFRIGHT AQUARIUS [Deliria] (Italy 1987): A group of actors become trapped in a theater with a rampaging maniac who has just escaped from the nearby psychiatric clinic... STAGEFRIGHT AQUARIUS (the full on-screen title) not only marked the directorial debut of Euro-cult favorite Michele Soavi - billed here as 'Michael' Soavi - it also marked a reunion of several prominent figures from the heyday of Italian exploitation. Produced by renowned sleaze merchant Joe D'Amato (Aristide Massaccesi [BURIED ALIVE, EMANUELLE IN AMERICA]) and written by splatter stalwart George Eastman (Luigi Montefiore [RABID DOGS, ABSURD]), and co-starring John Morghen (Giovanni Lombardo Radice [CANNIBAL APOCALYPSE, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD]), this deceptively modest shocker attempts to subvert many of the clichés associated with 'traditional' slasher movies, and does so with style and grace. Viewers weaned on a diet of bland Hollywood 'horrors' may not succumb immediately to the film's wayward plot developments (including the central device of an off-off-Broadway stage musical which celebrates the very same serial killer who winds up massacring most of the cast!), but once the basic premise has been established, the narrative assumes a near-demonic life of its own. Beginning with a frankly horrific sequence in which the masked killer is mistaken for an actor during rehearsals and encouraged to 'kill' a female co-star (only to commit the bloody deed for real!), Soavi's direction is razor-sharp and visually appealing. The murders are outlandish and gruesome, though also tragic in places (watch out for a shower sequence which operates both as a suspense set-piece and as a vivid demonstration of human cruelty), and Eastman's clever screenplay strips the characters down to their emotional core, revealing a gamut of fears and prejudices which leave many of them vulnerable to the killer's predations. The climactic sequence - in which a frightened young actress must retrieve an all-important key from its hiding place within inches of the killer's feet - is ghastly, beautiful and terrifying, all at the same time. Outside of these major set-pieces, Soavi's relative inexperience is betrayed by a couple of ragged camera movements and some odd editing choices, while the performances are compromised by flat post-sync dubbing. But overall, the movie is a triumph, one which plays Soavi's mentor Dario Argento at his own game and largely succeeds. The movie runs 90m 8s on Anchor Bay's all-region DVD, which letterboxes the image at 1.85:1 (anamorphically enhanced). Picture quality is a little soft throughout, but colors are strong and the framing is just right. The original Dolby stereo soundtrack is reproduced in 2.0 surround, though Anchor Bay have also provided a Dolby EX 6.1 track which beefs up the music and a number of sound effects, but seems otherwise unnecessary. Extras are surprisingly sparse, limited to a trailer and a detailed biography of Soavi. There are no captions or subtitles.
|
