Spoilers I'm not a big fan of the slasher sub-genre; there's too many samey films clogging up the genre and seeing a man with a knife hacking topless babes to bits can be a bit tiresome after a while, believe it or not. This one, however, is a cut above (no pun intended) the majority of other slashers.
Stagefright features an abundance of overly gory and creative death scenes. This, of course, is no bad thing. No bad thing at all. The film's first death scene sees the wardrobe assistant take a pick axe in the face, and that death scene alone beats any of the rather dull methods of death featured in other 80's slashers such as Friday the 13th and The Burning single handed; and it gets better than that...one actress is stabbed to death in front of her director and the rest of the cast; power drills, chainsaws, axes and fire also feature in the movie's vast weapon repertoire. On the subject of the chainsaw; it surely has to be the most under-utilised weapon in horror film history. The tool just cries out to be used to maul and saw up victims, and yet it hasn't had a great deal of screen time over the years considering it's potential. This movie, however, has a lovely chainsaw section which sees limbs get lopped, bodies carved up and an incredible death scene in which the victim has the lower half of her body removed while being rescued from falling down a trapdoor.
This film's main downfall according to some people will be it's characters, script and acting. The characters are paper thin, the script, at times, is badly written (although not throughout) and the acting is wooden to say the least. However, as one doesn't go into an 80's slasher movie expecting Oscar winning performances, Oscar winning scriptwriting and great characters; one can forgive these things. What this movie does have lots of though, is style and atmosphere. It's easy to see the influence that master director Dario Argento has had on his understudy Michele Soavi. Soavi, who would later go on to direct his masterpiece, "Dellamorte Dellamore", piles on the style in this movie. The style is very reminiscent of the sublime, 'Opera', actually, which also came out in the great year that was 1987. One scene in particular, involving the main character hiding out in the shower while one of her co-stars is killed in the next booth is very Opera-esque indeed. The creepy atmosphere in the movie comes mostly as a result of the claustrophobic setting, which is made more claustrophobic when you consider the fact that the characters are locked in with the madman. The creepy atmosphere comes into play again towards the end of the movie when the 'slasher trademark' victim has her final duel with the killer; Soavi is able to build up tension through a series of scenes, including one very suspenseful sequence in particular which the key to building is wrenched out of the stage floorboards in front of the killer. The suspense in the build up the killer's downfall is not wasted, as, unlike so many other films, Soavi is able to build the movie up to a satisfying and exciting conclusion.
Stagefright is an underrated gem, and more than deserves the praise that lesser entries in the slasher sub genre, such as Friday the 13th receive. A creepy exhibition of atmosphere and creative gore; Stagefright comes with the highest recommendation from me.
Stagefright features an abundance of overly gory and creative death scenes. This, of course, is no bad thing. No bad thing at all. The film's first death scene sees the wardrobe assistant take a pick axe in the face, and that death scene alone beats any of the rather dull methods of death featured in other 80's slashers such as Friday the 13th and The Burning single handed; and it gets better than that...one actress is stabbed to death in front of her director and the rest of the cast; power drills, chainsaws, axes and fire also feature in the movie's vast weapon repertoire. On the subject of the chainsaw; it surely has to be the most under-utilised weapon in horror film history. The tool just cries out to be used to maul and saw up victims, and yet it hasn't had a great deal of screen time over the years considering it's potential. This movie, however, has a lovely chainsaw section which sees limbs get lopped, bodies carved up and an incredible death scene in which the victim has the lower half of her body removed while being rescued from falling down a trapdoor.
This film's main downfall according to some people will be it's characters, script and acting. The characters are paper thin, the script, at times, is badly written (although not throughout) and the acting is wooden to say the least. However, as one doesn't go into an 80's slasher movie expecting Oscar winning performances, Oscar winning scriptwriting and great characters; one can forgive these things. What this movie does have lots of though, is style and atmosphere. It's easy to see the influence that master director Dario Argento has had on his understudy Michele Soavi. Soavi, who would later go on to direct his masterpiece, "Dellamorte Dellamore", piles on the style in this movie. The style is very reminiscent of the sublime, 'Opera', actually, which also came out in the great year that was 1987. One scene in particular, involving the main character hiding out in the shower while one of her co-stars is killed in the next booth is very Opera-esque indeed. The creepy atmosphere in the movie comes mostly as a result of the claustrophobic setting, which is made more claustrophobic when you consider the fact that the characters are locked in with the madman. The creepy atmosphere comes into play again towards the end of the movie when the 'slasher trademark' victim has her final duel with the killer; Soavi is able to build up tension through a series of scenes, including one very suspenseful sequence in particular which the key to building is wrenched out of the stage floorboards in front of the killer. The suspense in the build up the killer's downfall is not wasted, as, unlike so many other films, Soavi is able to build the movie up to a satisfying and exciting conclusion.
Stagefright is an underrated gem, and more than deserves the praise that lesser entries in the slasher sub genre, such as Friday the 13th receive. A creepy exhibition of atmosphere and creative gore; Stagefright comes with the highest recommendation from me.