Hootloose

Stagefright (Michele Soavi, 1987)

Listing all the classic gems from '87 in a previous post had me wanting to revisit what's personally one of the best slashher of that year. Not Prom Night II: Hello Mary Lou, although I dig the hell out of it, nor A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, I'm talking about Michele Soavi's debut feature film, Stagefright. This film has a bunch of alternate titles like Stage Fright, Deliria, Aquarius and Bloody Bird. For the record there are three films with the title Stage Fright that this blog officially recognises: Hitchcock's 1950 film noir, starring Marlene Dietrich; the entertainingly trashy Australian slasher better known as Nightmares (1980); and of course Soavi's classic eighties slasher. We don't talk about that horrible musical travesty with Mimi Driver here. Ever!

With the popularity of slashers going the supernatural route, what's instantly apparent about Soavi's film is it's back-to-basics approach. A minimalistic concept; a theatre production cast and crew are locked inside a stage theatre with an escaped homicidal maniac slaughtering them. What's all the better is it does away with the usual excess baggage of teenage characters with angsts and woes I couldn't give a shit about, and substitutes them with artsy fartsy twenty-somethings there for the bodycount. The stripped down approach of not burdening itself with unneccessary exposition and focusing on character actions, motivations and logic, adds another string to the film's bow. The film delivers the requirements I'm always after when viewing a slasher film: dread, suspense, tension, blood and gore.

The film works for me, since it adheres to the simple formula of the golden age slasher while still achieving relevancy, after Wes Craven took it to the next level and ushered in the silver age era with A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984). All the recognisable archtypes are there, but given a noticable twist in some departments. Chiefly, Barbara Cupisti's Alicia; a stage actress cast as a prostitue character. Once she is injured, she's dropped from the production and reverts to the familiar virginal maiden template, which grants her the status as the film's final girl.

Soavi had the title of Aquarius in mind as he likened the concept of people trapped inside the eerie blue backdrop of the theatre as that of a fish tank. Forshadowing from an early scene in the film where a lionfish eats a smaller fish in an aquarium, exemplifies the predator and prey enclosed in a claustrophobic space. The gantry and bathroom scenes are notable examples. It's also a reason why Soavi was adamant to have a unique look for his masked killer, that of a feathery owl mask. Soavi rejected obvious favourites like the hockey or clown mask and opted for the owl mask based on his inspiration from German dadaist and surrealist artist, Max Ernst's birdman illustrations. The heart shaped face and big eyes of the owl's head make it deceptively innocent in appearance to other birds of prey:

The biggest surprise would be that the film's plot was written by Luigi Montefiori, aka George Eastman (not the same bloke that founded the Eastman Kodak Company, bruv); a veteran Italian actor from multiple film genres, but better known as the cannibal from the infamous video nasty, Anthropophagus (1980). Also, Montefiori's director collaborator, Aristide Massaccesi, aka Joe D'Amato, dubbed The Italian Ed Wood, would serve as Stagefright's producer. It's somewhat shocking that these two names from some of the trashiest and sleaziest entries in Italian horror would be credited in what's arguably one of the best and neglected slasher films of all time.

Although set somewhere in the U.S, it's hard not to notice all the hallmarks of its Italian heritage. The very European cast are a dead giveaway. The most noticable of the bunch is Giovanni Lombardo Radice, aka John Morghen. Proclaimed as "Italy's Whipping Boy", since his characters usually come to incredibly gruesome endings, Radice would wind up to be the poster child of Italian horror and exploitation cinema. My favourite character would have to be the cruel theatre director, played by David Brandon. Enjoyed seeing his character arc go from douchebag to brief proactive leader, before reverting to a douchebag again. Fair play to Soavi for casting Barbara Cupisti as Alicia the final girl, simply because he fancied her. Don't blame him since she looked like a dead ringer for Margot Kidder back in the day. That would explain why she was cast in the majority of his movies.

Soavi worked as both an actor and second unit director in a bunch of famous Italian horror titles; notably, Lamberto Bava's giallo A Blade In The Dark (1983). Hailed as the prodigal son of Dario Argento, Soavi hit the ground running with Stagefright for his debut directorial feature. He also appears in this film as the donut eating cop, who thinks he looks like James Dean, outside the theatre. Got to give him props for actually donning the owl mask too while doing the rope climb scene. That's a man who is definitely commited to his craft, right there. It's too bad the end was nigh for Italian horror, however. There were only a few years left, but the scene was already heading into decline after Demons (1985) was released. Still, he did leave us with four wonderful films, two of which I consider classic Italian horror films - this and Dellamorte Dellamore (1994), before the unfortunate demise of the industry.

Simon Boswell's soundtrack is a combination of eighties excess. Mainly moody synths on the majority of the tracks and an unforgettable saxophone blaring away for the main theme. My favourite joint would have to be Sharp Groove, although it's been renamed to Drama Queen on a more recent issue of the soundtrack album. Have always been a staunch believer in synths and classical symphony being the only musical accompaniment for a slasher film. However, the sounds of what sound like Rick Rubin tinkering on a sampler with Funky Drummer looped for an eternity works remarkably well during the chase sequence scene.

Simon Boswell - Drama Queen

(Stagefright Soundtrack, 1987)

First discovered this film while surfing the channels one late night in the early nineties. It was love at first sight. Had missed the first few minutes so I was completely clueless as to the film's title, as there was no information about it on hand. Taking into account the internet was still in its relative infancy, the name of the film alluded me until the following decade. I wound up spotting the sight of our Owl headed maniac when I chanced upon the DVD artwork of him over at Xploited Cinema (R.I.P.). Needless to say, I copped the film pronto. To this day, I make a note of watching it at least once a year whenever I'm lamenting over the insurmountable bad slasher films we have nowadays.

Stagefright (Trailer)

(Michele Soavi, 1987)