Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Mjeteconer Just perfect...

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Mr_Ectoplasma "StageFright" (released under varying titles such as "Deliria," "Aquarius," and "Bloody Bird") follows a group of stage actors who are working on an overnight rehearsal for an impending production about a serial killer. When the costume designer is killed in the parking lot that evening, the rehearsals must go on—police are enlisted to watch the building, and the cast and director lock themselves inside. Little do they know, they've also locked in a maniac who recently escaped from a mental institution.In many ways, "StageFright" is about as run-of-the-mill as it could get. The premise is not remarkably original or interesting, and the "escaped lunatic" archetype feels familiar and lazy. The set-up which contains the characters (who are themselves varied in personality) in the theater also seems a bit odd in context. In spite of this, "StageFright" is insanely fun, playfully creepy and chock full of suspenseful scenarios and clever murder sequences that are surprisingly visceral. The villain dons an oversized owl mask from the production, which is surprisingly sinister in appearance.The kills come in rapid succession until about midway through, until the final girl is left to her own accord, which makes for some of the film's most intense and clever scenes. Chase scenes through the rafters, down darkened hallways, and beneath the stage are colorful, well-shot, and well-choreographed. Accentuating the thrills is a jarring late-eighties metal score which does date the film and sound a bit silly at times, but it comes with the territory. The production values are high, which also elevates the proceedings.Overall, "StageFright" is a wildly entertaining slasher flick that is marked by well-managed suspense, brutal murder scenes, and competent direction. Original it is not, but Soavi and the cast hit their marks here. It is a generally clever, well-paced slasher flick; of the crop of them that appeared in the late eighties, it's among the best I've seen. 8/10.

jadavix Firstly, "Stagefright: Aquarius" is not a giallo film. Gialli were not just Italian slashers, they were murder mysteries that owed more to Agatha Christie than Wes Craven. There is literally no mystery in this movie. The identity of the killer is never revealed and isn't even treated as a question. The movie also uses that old slasher stand-by of the inescapable location. A group of people are trapped with a masked killer and have to survive long enough to find a way out. We're not surprised when inexplicably, police park outside the place and don't even try to get in.That aside, "Stagefright: Aquarius" is certainly a superior slasher. It's made with style, and even boasts a scene of actual suspense, which is more than I can say for all other slashers. It plays by the rules, as with a killer who you keep thinking might be dead but of course really isn't, but is just a lot better made than the typical US slasher movie.

Eumenides_0 I don't like slasher movies. I don't see any appeal in the formula. A psychopath goes around killing teenagers, sometimes for several days, before someone puts two and two together and realises that the murders are committed by the same killer. And they usually happen in public places like colleges, which only demonstrates the police's worthlessness. And once enough people have died to fill a feature-length movie, a sole survivor, usually a young woman, defeats the killer. And then he comes back in the sequel.I don't like slasher movies, but as a film viewer I try not to go out of my way to watch movies I'll hate. Life is too short, the movies are too many, so I only watch movies I think (hope) I'll enjoy. Stage Fright had been on my radar for a while as a rare exception that I'd probably enjoy watching, and indeed I did. In fact it's a pretty awesome horror movie, a pure cinematic experience. But before I extol its virtues, a few words about the director, Michele Soavi.Michele Soavi, Italian filmmaker, got involved in horror early in his career; before becoming a director, he worked as an assistant for several famous horror directors: Lamberto Bava, Joe D'Amato and the great Dario Argento, who made Soavi his protégé. He hasn't had a prolific career and his fame rests largely on the 1994 cult movie Cemetery Man. Stage Fright was his directorial debut and it was a pretty good start.On a stormy night, a group of awful thespians, badly in need of money, rehearse a play called The Nite Owl inside a creepy theatre. Alicia, the main actress (Barbara Cupisti), hurting from a sprained ankle, sneaks out against the orders of the dictatorial Peter, the stage director (David Brandon), and goes to a mental clinic to see if they can give her something to ease the pain. There a lunatic escapes, hides in her car and follows her into the theatre. In a situation worthy of classic suspense movies, the actors unknowingly lock themselves in with the killer and then lose the key. From here on the movie follows the formula to its predictable conclusion. But Soavi, with ingenuity and unusual camera angles, turns it into a unique experience.Where to start with my love for this movie? Let's start with the play within the movie. It's about a killer in an owlhead mask killing women. It's sensationalist (victims seducing their own killer), gory and sexy, like slasher movies. But the actual movie isn't. Soavi surprisingly keeps the nudity to a minimum, moving the characters away from irresponsible horny teenagers who are punished for being teenagers to working-class people with bills to pay. By making an artistic setting integral to the plot also seems like Soavi is saying that the genre can be more ambitious without losing its identity. His mentor, Argento, had already shown a propensity for protagonists involved with the arts – musicians, novelists, etc.Next the killer is memorable. He has zero personality, he's not charismatic, he doesn't talk. But once you see him you won't forget him. He's a mixture of the creatures we see in our bizarre nightmares and mythology; dressed in an owlhead mask, we quickly forget we're watching a man and not some evil spirit beyond human reason.Although the dialogue is poor, the movie has its share of twisted, original scenes. In one of my favourites, the actors are rehearsing a scene where the owlhead killer murders one of his victims. The runaway lunatic enters the stage, dressed in the mask. Peter, thinking he's the actor, urges him to kill the victim, which he easily does, and no one realises what has just happened until a few moments later. Here the movie pokes some fun at horror fans' morbidity. I forgot to say gallows humor is part of the movie's charm too.The camera work and sound take this movie up another notch. Soavi is no Argento, but you can clearly see the latter's influence in his use of colors and the attention given to the sets and lighting (perhaps at the expanse of the actors) The movie takes most of its place inside a theatre and Soavi fills it with strange objects and films it from several angles to accentuate its strangeness. The music, mostly diegetic, is cleverly used here, sometimes by the killer to taunt his victims, and in one of the tensest scenes noise to distract him while Alicia tries to get the theatre door's key.Although it's pretty low-key, I'm prepared to say that Stage Fright uses the art of cinema better than many so-called serious movies. It may not have complex characters, emotionally-engaging stories or powerful messages, but there are many movies out there that are little more than animated novels, that prefer to do things that novels and plays can do too instead of using the uniqueness of cinema to their advantage. Stage Fright may not have a lot of food for thought but it's unmistakably a movie in love with its medium; the effect it has on the viewer comes from a clever manipulation and mixture of sound, image and movement. Many moments of awe and terror exist in this movie that couldn't be reproduced by any other medium. I can't pay a movie a finer compliment.

generichorrorfreak Stage Fright is surprising in how reminiscent it is of Dario Argento's style. Most notably when it gets suspenseful and The Goblins-type music starts playing instead of something more typically suspenseful (classical music). Since the plot takes place in a theater, filled with actors who happen to be in costume, of course it is also bright and colorful and almost artsy just as Argento films tend to be. But moving on.The story's pretty simple. There is a serial killer locked inside a theater with a group of actors. They die off one by one (what else did you expect). Simple enough. But what makes this movie so GOOD? The characters are all, as they say, a character. Animosity exists among the actors but then the killer is out there and so they are a collective group of victims at the same time. They all meet their makers in different way, for the killer, (who creepily enough wears a mask from the play the actors are starring in), doesn't have an attachment to any one tool. He will use what he can when he can and you never know what it may be. The lead victim, Alicia, is easy to empathize with. She's on the quiet side but you don't want her to die and you know if someone gets the killer, it will have to be her. The gore is nice, as usual some realistic and some not, but all of it is somewhat classy.Here's something to think about. The play within the movie goes as so: a man goes around raping and killing at night. He wears a mask. Later in the movie, for reasons I won't spoil, the director wants the killer in the play to be portrayed as the real life killer. Later in the movie (and this is all still early on), the real life killer puts on the original mask from the play and goes around killing like so. Now how's that for cool? You don't find weird stuff like this in every movie.The general 80's and Broadway-ish scenery for Stage Fright is pretty cool too. I was reluctant to watch this because what do I want to see a bunch of actors in some play get slaughtered for? I think Scream ruined that for all of us, right? Well I was wrong. This movie is excellent. It all comes together very nicely. It's good to watch in and of itself and it's got a good soundtrack. Plus the story itself, which while not the most intricate, helps make for an overall excellent movie.