Despite all the positive reviews here, and being a fan of SOME slasher and giallo films, I found this to be a bit boring and poorly executed.
In a particularly ridiculous scene early on in the film we are introduced to the killer when a couple of the actresses from the theatre production go to a mental institution to see a doctor as one of them has hurt their ankle (!). By pure coincidence a mental guy breaks free from his shackles, murders a warden and somehow manages to escape trouble free into the back of the car the actresses came in (!).
In this type of film it's unfortunate for the audience to know who the killer is immediately as often that is half the fun. The fact that the killer decides to don a rather spooky owl mask for the rest of the film, and with the claustrophobic setting of the theatre that the group were locked in, it would have been a lot more fun to play 'guess the killer'.
The death scenes were OK by slasher standard but not really worth noting. Apart from a struggle between one of the actors and the murderer, and the girl they are fighting over gets torn in half! Although this happens off-screen, it is amusing when the guy falls over and the top-half of the girl lands on him.
There is pretty poor acting throughout and none of the characters were worth caring for. In fact, character development is so insignificant in this film that I didn't even realise the 'main character' was the main character until the end when she survived. This was also a rather ridiculous scene as the caretaker somehow manages to shoot the killer between the eyes despite being at an angle that from which it would have been impossible to do so, then (perhaps preparing for a sequel?) the killer wakes up! After being shot through the head! Very stupid.
Two scenes stuck in my mind. One was where a girl was was acting out being murdered as part of the theatre show, then as she is repeatedly stabbed it cuts to various members of the group as they realise she Really IS being murdered. You really got the sense that they didn't know what to do next. The second was a nice shot where the killer sat exhaustedly on stage between his victims as feathers blew around the theatre and an excellent piece of music played along. Apart from that, this film can pretty much be disregarded!
In a particularly ridiculous scene early on in the film we are introduced to the killer when a couple of the actresses from the theatre production go to a mental institution to see a doctor as one of them has hurt their ankle (!). By pure coincidence a mental guy breaks free from his shackles, murders a warden and somehow manages to escape trouble free into the back of the car the actresses came in (!).
In this type of film it's unfortunate for the audience to know who the killer is immediately as often that is half the fun. The fact that the killer decides to don a rather spooky owl mask for the rest of the film, and with the claustrophobic setting of the theatre that the group were locked in, it would have been a lot more fun to play 'guess the killer'.
The death scenes were OK by slasher standard but not really worth noting. Apart from a struggle between one of the actors and the murderer, and the girl they are fighting over gets torn in half! Although this happens off-screen, it is amusing when the guy falls over and the top-half of the girl lands on him.
There is pretty poor acting throughout and none of the characters were worth caring for. In fact, character development is so insignificant in this film that I didn't even realise the 'main character' was the main character until the end when she survived. This was also a rather ridiculous scene as the caretaker somehow manages to shoot the killer between the eyes despite being at an angle that from which it would have been impossible to do so, then (perhaps preparing for a sequel?) the killer wakes up! After being shot through the head! Very stupid.
Two scenes stuck in my mind. One was where a girl was was acting out being murdered as part of the theatre show, then as she is repeatedly stabbed it cuts to various members of the group as they realise she Really IS being murdered. You really got the sense that they didn't know what to do next. The second was a nice shot where the killer sat exhaustedly on stage between his victims as feathers blew around the theatre and an excellent piece of music played along. Apart from that, this film can pretty much be disregarded!