Michele
Soavi a former assistant director to the likes of Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava and
Joe D’Amato (the producer here) created this hit and miss pastiche of the
slasher and one of that sub-genre’s main innovators the Italian giallo. In this
his directorial debut Soavi recreates all the common characteristic traits of a
slasher film both good and bad with the latter being displayed here in the massive
gaping flaws in logic. ‘StageFright’ also fails to elicit the mystery of the
gialli thriller.
Taking
place in the single late night setting of a theatre a troupe of struggling
young actors are rehearsing a bizarre musical about a serial killer called the
night owl as he wears a large owl head to cover his own. They are working with perfectionist
arsehole director Peter (David Brandon) and the production’s investor Ferrari (Piero
Vida) is overseeing the rehearsals. The leading lady of the show Alicia (Barbara
Cupist) sprains her ankle so her and the wardrobe mistress Betty (Ulrike
Schwerk) sneak out of the back entrance to go see a doctor. Unfortunately and
very implausibly, the nearest medical centre is a mental asylum. One of the on
duty psychiatrists happily agrees to treat Alicia. While waiting Betty notices a
male patient restrained to a bed behind bars. The doctor tells them that he
just so happens to be a former actor (I am rolling my eyes as I write this) named
Irving Wallace who went bat shit crazy and killed sixteen people. Before they
leave and without their knowledge, Wallace kills one of the orderlies who were
attending to him with a syringe and hides in the back seat of Betty’s car
(groan!).
When they
arrive back at the theatre Peter is most displeased at Alicia’s disappearance
from rehearsals and fires her. While this is going on the escaped Wallace
murders Betty outside (I am leaving how she is killed spoiler free). After
Betty’s body is taken away, the police leave two ineffective officers outside
in the car park to keep a look out (the younger of the two is director Soavi in
a cameo). Peter has one of his actresses hide the key so nobody can leave and
cashing in on Betty’s murder, he alters the script. The once anonymous killer
is now named after Irving Wallace. The director demands that the entire cast stay
all night to rehearse with the new material with the vast amount of that just being the ingenious change of the play’s
title. Back stage during the late night rehearsals the real Wallace kills the
actor playing him and dons the owl head. When he is called onto stage to
rehearse a death scene with the actress who hid the key the only one who knows
where it is he viciously murders her for real (another kill I will leave free
of spoilers for you). Now trapped in the theatre Wallace picks them off one by
one in numerous gruesome ways as they struggle to find a way out.
As you
might gather from my sarcasm in this synopsis, it was easy for me to poke fun
at the ridiculous amount of illogical dumb plot points. However, to be fair to
the movie it does have its tongue in cheek but it is just not so obvious for us
to notice. It plays out like a prototype ‘Scream’ with Michele Soavi taking a
stab (terrible pun) at the slasher film. Having worked with Argento one of the
most prominent auteurs in influencing this style of horror Soavi has a firm
grasp of the conventions of this sub-genre but he does not differentiate for
the audience between what is a satirical nod to slasher elements and what we
the viewers are supposed to take as serious plot developments. We know from the
off watching Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’ (1996) that
it deconstructs those elements. It serves as a survival
guide for the self-aware characters as they try to avoid the fatal mistakes made
by the victims in these movies as they defend themselves against the horror
film obsessed killer who is trying to make their very own feature. There is
nothing here as a nudge and a wink approach to its source material. Except for
the ending and more specifically the very last shot of the movie do we see this
satire brought to the surface. Other than that though it all just seems like
immense stupidity.
The mystery of the giallo is shot in the foot
with the reveal of the killer early on and for that, the film is more just slasher
territory. The director does though show off stylistic touches with visuals that would
make Argento proud of his former stalwart. Aficionados
of this movement of Italian cinema will have a fun time pointing out the
homages Michele
Soavi makes to the very movies he served as
assistant director on particularly Dario Argento’s fantastic ‘Tenebre’ (1982).
Plus points
are scored for entertaining stalk and slash set-pieces incorporating solid
tense suspense and goretastic kills that are truly memorable (again, I am not
spoiling any). While I feel the musical score does not fit in with the
unsettling action of the horror in this isolated setting of a darkened theatre
it is quite atmospheric. Apart from Cupist as the likable final girl Alicia the
rest of the characters trying to survive the night are just so unlikable in
that they are either annoyingly stupid or just overbearingly obnoxious.
All in all
‘StageFright’ is a mixed bag that shows off the promise of the talented Soavi
who would go on to make a much loved genre classic with his trip into
zombieland with ‘Cemetery Man’ (1994). The reason I chose not to ruin any of
the tight taut suspense and eye-popping kills for any genre fans who have yet
to see the film is that it is well worth watching just for those very reasons
if you appreciate the slasher sub-genre. With some lovely visuals to boot, it
is at least worth a one-time investigation.
** out of ****
Dave J. Wilson
©2012 Cinematic Shocks, Dave J. Wilson - All work is the property of the credited author and may not be reprinted or reproduced elsewhere without permission.
Wow I have to say this is the first of your reviews that I disagree with you on. I loved the campiness of Stage Fright and thought the lack of plot sensibility goes right along with other Italian horror works (Inferno, Suspiria, Pieces, Bay of Blood, etc). I thought it was a well directed horror romp that is one of the perfect "popcorn" horror flicks that you can watch and yell at the characters not to do stupid things.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a truly terrible film and I can watch it as a guilty pleasure for all the positives that I described. I think it fails to be a satirical play on the slasher formula for not letting the audience in on the joke explicitly coming across as more po-faced in its stupidity. Soavi also fails to replicate the giallo with zero mystery. Except for the final girl, I couldn’t root for any of the characters to avoid all the usual mistakes that come hand in hand with the sub-genre as they are all very unlikable and I couldn’t have cared less about them.
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