When I catch the genius who made this headdress, I'm gonna make him eat it.
Since I got off on the wrong foot this month with Dario Argento's Dracula, it's only right that I should get back on the right foot with a film by his one-time protégé Michele Soavi. Released in 1987, StageFright was Soavi's debut feature and a frightfully clever cross between a classic giallo and a contemporary slasher. It's also the only film you're ever likely to see where the killer wears an owl head while he dispatches the poor saps that have the misfortune to be locked in a darkened theater with him.
Those "poor saps," incidentally, are a troupe of actors rehearsing a rape and murder-filled musical called The Night Owl under the direction of demanding despot David Brandon, who's as hungry for a hit as his cast is -- and that includes his star, the winsome Barbara Cupisti. That's why when their wardrobe mistress gets offed by a homicidal maniac she unwittingly picks up at a psychiatric hospital, Brandon resolves to capitalize on the tragedy and traps the show's principles so they can revise it accordingly. Unfortunately, they're also locked in with the maniac (Clain Parker), an actor who reportedly went berserk and killed 16 people. How considerate of Brandon to give him nine more potential victims. (If it weren't for the owl head thing, he could totally be the Square Number Killer.)
Unafraid to embrace any and all of the clichés of the genre, the bulk of StageFright's action takes place on the proverbial dark and stormy night, and Parker gets his jollies by also cutting the phone lines and the power. A bit more novel is the scene where he, having borrowed his costume from the stereotypically gay actor playing the Night Owl (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, who fills out his body stocking rather nicely), gets to strangle and knife an actress during a run-through while everyone watches -- and Brandon eggs him on -- not realizing until it's too late that he isn't playacting. Also of the note is the speed with which Parker thins out the cast, quickly leaving him with only Cupisti to play owl and mouse with. Like all good final girls, though, she's resourceful enough to pose a real challenge for him.