**spoilers**
Normally it's my intent to only submit reviews of zombie films to IMDb, but given my user ID, when a friend suggested watching this film I couldn't refuse.
My goodness I wish I had.
Stagefright is an 80s slasher film (an ITALIAN 80s slasher film). And contains all the elements you would expect.
Unlikeable characters? check! Terrible synth/rock music? check! Killer who comes back to be disposed of one last time? check!
And don't forget that low, low budget...
However, Stagefright also adds into the mix a rare dose of arty pretentiousness, and even seems to be a movie with a message...
The story concerns an "intellectual musical" about a killer in an owlmask. When one of the stars seeks medical help for a hurt ankle at a local psychiactric hospital (good call!) she returns to the theatre with a psycho killer hiding in the back of the car. The rest pretty much writes itself.
After one crew member winds up on the wrong end of a nifty pickaxe to the face gag, the director decides to change the theme of the show to be about the escaped killer. The press he reasons, love a bit of death, and that should be good publicity for the show. He doesn't stop to think that perhaps punters may be PUT OFF going to see it as there's an escaped loony hanging around outside the theatre indulging his bloodlust on anyone who happens by.
Except of course, opening night will never come as the killer's still in the building, and after donning the owlmask (WHY????) sets about despatching everyone in the building.
During all this, 2 policemen wait outside, unaware of the carnage taking place inside. Savour their scenes, as the banter with the cops is pretty much the only entertainment you're going to get.
OK, maybe that's unfair. Some of the deaths are pleasingly gory, and the musical numbers are hilarious, but really this film is awful.
The dialogue is terrible enough to have you banging your head against the wall in frustration, the characters are all annoying, and their reactions to the deaths happening RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM are not only completely illogical, but also bafflingly slow..... v e r y s l o w...
By the time the show's obnoxious director drops to his knees screaming "NOOOOOOOOO!!!" at the site of another victim, you'll know exactly how he feels. (Mind you any film that actually has a character do this is worth seeing at least once)
At the end, when only one of the cast is alive (more by luck than heroism, as she happens to be unconscious while everyone else is getting chopped up), the killer - who despite being a mentally damaged murderer has an immediate knowledge of how to use all the theaters lighting and sound equipment - takes time to deck the stage out with a grim tableaux of body parts and mannequins, then sits among it to admire his handiwork (whilst stroking a cat and wearing the owlmask!).
Could the film be intended as a searing indictment of the media's exploitation of violence for profit?
Who cares! What's more important is that the ending of Stagefright is one of the most cack-handed and inept pieces of film-making I've ever seen.
In fact, this whole film is rubbish from beginning to end, not without it's amusement, but as a whole, it's incoherent, pretentious, pompous, stupid and doesn't even have a decent pay-off.
So bad in fact, that I may have to change my user name...
Normally it's my intent to only submit reviews of zombie films to IMDb, but given my user ID, when a friend suggested watching this film I couldn't refuse.
My goodness I wish I had.
Stagefright is an 80s slasher film (an ITALIAN 80s slasher film). And contains all the elements you would expect.
Unlikeable characters? check! Terrible synth/rock music? check! Killer who comes back to be disposed of one last time? check!
And don't forget that low, low budget...
However, Stagefright also adds into the mix a rare dose of arty pretentiousness, and even seems to be a movie with a message...
The story concerns an "intellectual musical" about a killer in an owlmask. When one of the stars seeks medical help for a hurt ankle at a local psychiactric hospital (good call!) she returns to the theatre with a psycho killer hiding in the back of the car. The rest pretty much writes itself.
After one crew member winds up on the wrong end of a nifty pickaxe to the face gag, the director decides to change the theme of the show to be about the escaped killer. The press he reasons, love a bit of death, and that should be good publicity for the show. He doesn't stop to think that perhaps punters may be PUT OFF going to see it as there's an escaped loony hanging around outside the theatre indulging his bloodlust on anyone who happens by.
Except of course, opening night will never come as the killer's still in the building, and after donning the owlmask (WHY????) sets about despatching everyone in the building.
During all this, 2 policemen wait outside, unaware of the carnage taking place inside. Savour their scenes, as the banter with the cops is pretty much the only entertainment you're going to get.
OK, maybe that's unfair. Some of the deaths are pleasingly gory, and the musical numbers are hilarious, but really this film is awful.
The dialogue is terrible enough to have you banging your head against the wall in frustration, the characters are all annoying, and their reactions to the deaths happening RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM are not only completely illogical, but also bafflingly slow..... v e r y s l o w...
By the time the show's obnoxious director drops to his knees screaming "NOOOOOOOOO!!!" at the site of another victim, you'll know exactly how he feels. (Mind you any film that actually has a character do this is worth seeing at least once)
At the end, when only one of the cast is alive (more by luck than heroism, as she happens to be unconscious while everyone else is getting chopped up), the killer - who despite being a mentally damaged murderer has an immediate knowledge of how to use all the theaters lighting and sound equipment - takes time to deck the stage out with a grim tableaux of body parts and mannequins, then sits among it to admire his handiwork (whilst stroking a cat and wearing the owlmask!).
Could the film be intended as a searing indictment of the media's exploitation of violence for profit?
Who cares! What's more important is that the ending of Stagefright is one of the most cack-handed and inept pieces of film-making I've ever seen.
In fact, this whole film is rubbish from beginning to end, not without it's amusement, but as a whole, it's incoherent, pretentious, pompous, stupid and doesn't even have a decent pay-off.
So bad in fact, that I may have to change my user name...