Sam Panico There was a moment two minutes into this movie, when a slasher like scene turned into a Cats-like play, that my mind was blown. And there was a moment halfway through where a body was torn in two that I jumped off my couch, screaming, "Soavi, I love you!"There's no other way to say it — this movie is completely crazy. Is it because of Michael Soavi's (The Sect, Cemetery Man) direction? Or the script from George Eastman (better known Nikos Karamanlis from Antropophagus and, well, kinda sorta Nikos in Absurd, a movie so brutal that it inspired a murderous black metal band)? Why ask questions? Why not just sit back and enjoy the mayhem?The entire movie takes place in a theater, where actors and a crew are creating a musical about the Night Owl, a mass murderer. Alicia (Barbara Cupisti, The Church, Cemetery Man) sprains her ankle, so she and Betty sneak out to a mental hospital to get some help. While there, they see Irving Wallace, a former actor who went on a murder spree, which has continued in the insane asylum. He uses a syringe to kill an attendant and hides in Betty's car.Because Alicia left, the director fires her while Betty is killed with a pickaxe outside. Alicia finds the body and calls the police (one of them is Soavi, who spends an extended scene asking if he looks like James Dean), who lock them inside the theater and guard the premises. Because, you know, that's the way the police handle these things.The director is inspired — the play will now be about Irving Wallace and everyone must stay the night to rehearse, even the rehired Alicia. While rehearsing the first scene, Wallace dons the killer's owl costume and strangles, then stabs one of the other actors in front of everyone.Then, Wallace cuts the phone and starts killing one person at a time. It's at this point that this movie goes off the rails and does some rails. A power drill going through someone? Yep. Hacking someone up with an axe? Yep. A woman cut in half that sprays blood all over an entire room full of people? It's got that, too. A dude getting chainsawed until the saw runs out of gas and then getting decapitated? Oh yes.Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/10/16/stagefright-1987/

Red-Barracuda Stagefright is the debut film from director Michele Soavi. Before it he had been assistant director to the likes of Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava, as well as appearing as an actor in various films. He went on to contribute three other horror films over the subsequent seven years. He was effectively the premier Italian horror director in those years and his final film in this sequence, Cemetery Man, feels like the final worthwhile Italian horror film, give or take a few Argento's in the years since. For whatever reason, Soavi has never returned to the genre since, which needless to say is extremely unfortunate. Credit has to be given to exploitation director Joe D'Amato who acted as producer for Stagefright. He seems to have given Soavi free reign to make his film, so long as it met certain commercial genre specifications. The result is a stylish effort that is not so much a giallo as an Italian-style slasher.Written by notable actor Luigi Montefiori (aka George Eastman), the story is about an escaped maniac who ends up on the loose in a theatre where a horror themed musical is being rehearsed by a drama group; in true slasher style, the killer starts picking them off one by one. The events encompass one night, where the rain lashes down constantly outside. Truthfully, the story is utterly by-the-numbers and not the selling point. What makes this one good is the considerable style and freshness Soavi brings to the well-worn slasher genre. The killer wears a large owl mask and the setting is a theatre. This gives the film a somewhat over-the-top operatic aspect, which not only ties it in with Italian culture in general but also makes it a twin of sorts to Argento's giallo Opera, also released in the same year. For a debut feature, this is very assured stuff from Soavi. There's plenty of inventive camera work, nice use of colour and some very well handled tension. Of the latter, a real standout is the scene where the heroine attempts to retrieve a key from under a feather covered stage where the maniac has arranged all his victims in a grim tableaux. Its inspired moments like this one that sets Stagefright apart from standard slasher fare. But Soavi never forgets to supply the bread and butter of this genre as well; to that end there are a plethora of varied gory murders. This mix of generic material with a distinctive and stylish approach means that Stagefright remains one of the better slasher films out there.

ma-cortes The flick deals with a theatre of death in which a maniacal serial killer attempts to cover his trail by joining the cast (David Brandon , Barbara Cupisti , Mary Sellers , among others) of a play about mass murder . There happens several bloody murders and gruesome executions . A troupe of struggling cast members is rehearsing for a small-town production of a play. Everything seems to be as it should until one of the stage actors appears dead. In a panic, the others attempt to get out, only to find they are now locked in the theater with the murderous. As the other players soon have more to worry about than remembering their lines . Michele Soavi's first great success is compellingly directed with startling visual content . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills, chills, high body-count and glimmer color in lurid pastel with phenomenal results . This is a classic slasher where the intrigue, tension, suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room, corridors and stage interior and exterior . Interesting screenplay was written by 'Lew Cooper', one of numerous pseudonyms that writer/actor George Eastman uses , in actuality Eastman's real name is Luigi Montefiore . The thrilling of the story is to find out which one of them committed the murder, and who will get out alive.The movie belongs to Italian Giallo genre , Mario Bava (¨Planet of vampires¨, ¨House of exorcism¨) along with Riccardo Freda (¨Secret of Dr. Hitchcock¨ , ¨Il Vampiri¨) are the fundamental creators . These Giallo movies are characterized by usual zooms and utilization of images-shock with magenta shades of ochre and overblown use of color in shining red blood , translucently pale turquoises and deep orange-red . Later on , there appears Dario Argento (¨Deep red¨, ¨Suspiria¨,¨Inferno¨), another essential filmmaker of classic Latino terror films and finally Michele Soavi . Soavi was given a chance as an assistant director by director Aristide Massaccesi (aka: Joe D'Amato). In their first film, Soavi acted in an uncredited part, and was the assistant director. Over four more films with Massaccesi, Soavi served as a bit part actor, screenwriter and personal assistant . As Soavi, wanting to get on his own, turned to his previous mentor Aristide Massaccesi to show off his work where the filmmaker offered Soavi a chance to direct his first movie, and finally made this ¨Aquarius¨ or ¨Stagefright¨(1987) , produced by the prolific Joe D'Amato , a typical low-grade terror , even his his second big film project called La Chiesa (1988) had a budget three to four times the budget of ¨Stagefright¨ , with Argento as the producer . Although ¨Aquarius¨ was a box-office flop in Italy, it was a success abroad . Despite the low budget , equivalent to under $1 million U.S. dollars, and low-production values, the picture turns out to be a passable slasher , including some exciting surprises . This genuinely mysterious story is well photographed by Tafuri, though being necessary a right remastering . Furthermore , includes a poor editing involving the soundtrack by means of synthesizer , however resulting to be sometimes atmospheric and frightening musical score composed by Simon Boswell, among others . The motion picture was well directed by Michael Soavi , remembered to this day as one of the many masters of Italian Horror cinema as a director, screenwriter, actor, and assistant director. Soavi first met writer/director Dario Argento in 1979 where the director took Soavi under his wing after learning of their same tastes with film making. Argento made Soavi the second assistant director for the movie Tenebre (1982) with Lamberto Bava as the first assistant director. Pleased with his work, Bava hired Soavi as his assistant director for the mystery-thriller A Blade in the Dark (1983) with Soavi in a supporting role. Afterwards, Argento brought back Soavi to work as his assistant director in Phenomena (1985) with Soavi acting in a small role. Argento rewarded Soavi by giving him his first assignment as director of a music video "The Valley" featuring music by Bill Wyman for the movie Phenomena, plus as director for a documentary on Argento's films. Soavi worked again for Lamberto Bava as assistant director in Demoni (1985) in which Soavi also appeared. Soavi began to look elsewhere for work where he was hired as an assistant director and cameraman for British actor/director Terry Gilliam with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). With new skills, Soavi returned to Argento as a supervisor for special effects in Ópera (1987) where Argento offered him to direct another film, a horror flick titled La Chiesa (1988) and filmed on location in Budapest . The international success of The Church inspired Soavi to direct another film, The Sect (1990). Soavi worked on a number of screenplays, and directed the horror-comedy Cemetery Man (1994) which was a huge hit in the USA. Afterwards, Soavi took a break from working to spend time with his wife and family. Recently, he returned to filmmaking with two made-for-Italian-TV dramas . Aquarius rating : Good, this is an imaginative and acceptable picture in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills.

MARIO GAUCI Director Soavi, whose debut this was, is the last of the Italian maestros of Horror to arrive upon the scene – by which time Mario Bava, the greatest among them, was dead and virtually all the rest were already past their prime! For this reason, perhaps, his work has been given slightly more than its due attention: with this I mean that, while the film under review is miles ahead of what was being churned out during the last gasp of "Euro-Cult", it does not really elicit the same level of trashy fun that the Giallo subgenre was well capable of during its heyday (despite the fact that Soavi immediately showed his clout with expert use of the Steadicam throughout, not to mention a clever opening which has a suspenseful murder being revealed as merely part of the show, the relentless and loud synthesizer-based score – which places this firmly in the bland 1980s – is positively annoying)! Still, being the third of his efforts that I have watched (with THE SECT {1991} coming up), I can say that I was only really let down by THE CHURCH (1990) – while his bizarre take on the zombie subgenre CEMETERY MAN (1994) remains, by far, his most sustained outing. Anyway, the film has a gazillion alternate titles – such as BLOODY BIRD and SOUND STAGE MASSACRE but also two in Italian, namely AQUARIUS and DELIRIA; besides, having recently mentioned the 2 differing versions of THE NIGHT CHILD (1975) in my review of that picture, this one has too – with the English-language edition (the one I acquired) being the "Director's Cut", while the Italian release print was actually overseen by Soavi's prolific and versatile mentor i.e. cult figure Joe D'Amato!The movie is basically a retread of Pete Walker's average THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW (1972) – complete with a deranged actor (named Irving Wallace!) behind the killing spree; convicted, he escapes from the asylum where he was incarcerated – the far-fetched premise being that the leading lady of a theatrical troupe went to a mental hospital to treat a sprained ankle, and the maniac chose just that moment to bolt (hiding in her car throughout the journey back to the venue where rehearsals are under way)! The first (and most outrageously disposed-of) victim, in fact, is the girl's companion who was somehow delayed in joining the others and summarily receives a pick-axe blow to the mouth! Typically, the atmosphere behind-the-scenes was already tense but, with the murder, things naturally escalate to fever-pitch: besides, the ruthless director (David Brandon) even takes advantage of the morbid situation by deciding to open earlier than expected since the public would flock to see a show from which a principal participant (even if the girl was nothing more than a wardrobe assistant!) had been offed! Soon, strange happenings inside the theater make it blatantly clear that someone else is in there with the troupe: by the way, another manipulative touch by the director of the musical being staged is to have the monster (a man in an owl suit seemingly derived from the incredible opening sequence of Georges Franju's JUDEX {1963}) in the show no longer be anonymous but is christened by the name of the real serial-killer…so that the director of the movie obviously has him actually assume that role by abducting – he turns up behind the victim mimicking a celebrated scene from Dario Argento's TENEBRE (1982) – and hiding the body of the actor (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, from PHANTOM OF DEATH {1988}) playing him! The stage is thus set for a bloodbath, with the troupe at the mercy of a maniac who, even if clearly outnumbered, always has the upper hand until the extended climax: one man is found tied upside down from the ceiling; another is perforated via a door and right though his chest with a driller (surely among the Horror genre's most popular killing tools!); about four different people are chopped-up with a chainsaw (ditto) – with Brandon having one arm torn off with it and then beheaded with an axe!; Radice is copped by the members of the troupe itself when, attired just like the killer, they mistake him for their pursuer! It is left to the very same girl (she had been left for dead by an envious colleague, whose own demise the heroine later witnesses) that 'liberated' him to eventually supply the murderer's come-uppance: while he is placing all the victims on the proscenium, with himself presiding over them, she is underneath them all trying to retrieve the all-important key to the main door (a Police car stationed outside, then, is completely oblivious to the massacre, thanks also to the pouring rain!). Anyway, he goes after her, she escapes atop a scaffolding and, when he tries to climb himself, she cuts the thick wire with an axe, dropping him to the ground. However, he rises again (incidentally, the killer remains very much a cipher throughout, in the mould of Michael Myers from the "Halloween" franchise) and is engulfed in flames…but he is still not through as, when the heroine returns to the scene of the carnage, he attacks her one more time (why his body should have been left there, when all the others had been removed, is anybody's guess), only now she is saved by the timely intervention of the theatre's gun-toting black caretaker.