Here is a real gem from the mid 80's.
It is a straight up slasher flick, pretends to be nothing else but that, but is carried out in such a way this film scared the hell out of me when i was a kid and gave me nightmares for weeks.

It's great!

OK, it is an Italian flick, so the dubbing on some parts is desirable to say the least, it is directed by Lomberta Bava, the producer of some of Dario Argento's flicks.
This is from the guy that gave us "DEMONS 1 and 2", and although i'm not too keen on the gore fest they both usually combine to give us, this has some genuine shocks that bring a real refreshment to a genre that was going throught the motions.

The plot is simple enough. We have a bunch of actors in a theatre preparing for a new show, the directior is an egoistic psycho in his own right and an escaped mental patient who has just a massive grudge against actors.

Thus why he is in an insane asylum for killing 13 people recently.

As luck would have it, Irving Wallace, the escaped nut, manages to get inside the theatre just as the director decides to change the whole script and do a show on Irving Wallace to capitilze on the recent publicity.

So the next hour or so goes by in typical slasher fashion, people being sliced and diced by drills, cut in half, axes, all sorts. The violence is high, the gore very high but the suspence is great, this the key.

The music and the cinematography is brilliant, as Irving Wallace dons a giant owl mask and carries out his work Michale Myers like, never mutering a word.

This film will definitly appeal to fans of the slasher genre. It is a perfect homage to "HALLOWEEN" and "FRIDAY THE 13TH", if you can get over the bad dialouge you will really enjoy this one.

However, ARGENTO had little to do with this movie... it was his under study MICHELL SOAVI.

With that said, SOAVI is king... He's brilliant! I've always said this and I'll always say this.  From the mind who brought us CEMETERY MAN, came this flick here, also dubbed "THE AQUARIUS and THE BLOODY BIRD" STAGE FRIGHT is one of my all time favorite horror films...

This movie moves you with its incredible sense of style and eerie music composition that screams broadway play, yet, even more subtle at times. The plot is very low key and almost non existant until about 30 minutes into it, give it that long and you'll look back at it as a whole and be wowed by it.

The killer is a giant owl, or so to speak, a man in an owl mask... who locks a group of "Stage preformers" into a theater "ala" DEMONS... and has his way with them bit by bit and piece by piece.  

I laugh cause I'd almost swear that the drummer for U2, Larry Mullin Jr was in this movie, had I not known better anyways... but go figure. Watch the movie and you'll see what I mean. It's a riot and I'm sure if he's seen it, he'd say the same.

Anyways, on with the on...

STAGE FRIGHT will scare you the 1st time out... it will. I remember watching this with my ex not to long ago, back in September maybe and she was pretty shook up over it. Great watching movies like this one, good horror movies, with people who get into them.

I always knew a good horror movie from a bad one with her... new horror movies didn't scare her at all, she could watch all of them and laugh, you pop in some of the fucked up ones I've got and they'll give you nightmares for a week.  

STAGE FRIGHT, is a movie everyone must own in there colleciton, if you are into horror. You at least have to see this movie. It's brilliant in so so many ways.

the drill thru the door
the chainsaw in half
the chase scene at the end
the pick ax to the mouth

c'mon, this movie was brilliant!

Balt...

Could not have said it better, this film is a must see.

Cheers for the SOAVI tip, I got the name completly wrong.

I recently saw this one. I didn't actually like the music at all. It was too loud, like every two minutes there would be a "DUMMMMMMMMM!!!". Thought it detracted from the film a bit and sometimes killed the suspense. It sounded like some bad 80s disco music sometimes lol. The music that The Owl puts on it very effective though, like in the scene where all the bodies have been displayed on the stage.

There's a lot to like about this one. The kills are great (my favourite being the girl who falls through the trap door and comes back half the woman she used to be lol), very gory, and there are some great edge of your seat moments (I wasn't disappointed by the infamous "retrieving the key" sequence that everyone had been raving about). Some moments are really creepy as well, like when you see the killer running through the rain in the distance through the windshield while the woman has her back turned, and the murder on the stage that happens right in front of everyone (which brings about the problem with the key, which I love because it's so well set up).

The ending is kind of weird in a cool way (I think some people don't get it!) except for that guy repeating the line "Right between the eyes! Just like I said!" UGH!! I swear he says it like ten effing times!!!

All in all, a cool slasher film and definitely one of the better ones. Gotta love this exchange of dialogue as well:

Guy - Stop bitching honey, you can always go back to micro-waving chilli at Mexico Joe's.
Girl - Yeah? And you can go back to selling your ass in the men’s room at the bus station.

Lol.

Ian