As a lot of you may know, I am infatuated with the horror genre! Although, I find that a lot of horror films only get seen and make money these days if they are remakes, never-ending franchises, or filled with a cast of talentless hacks who often wind up on the cover of Us Weekly. It seems like it’s all about making a commercial product, rather than making inventive, scary, and creative films.
So I thought I would start a blog every week on my recommendations of horror films that deserve to be seen. Feel free to comment on your own suggestions!
I am a sucker for 80’s slashers and Italian horror giallos. If you mix the two, I am as blissful as a horror buff can be.
Although the renowned horror director Dario Argento is the master of Italian horror films today, it would be hard for me to just recommend ONE of his classic films over the other. So instead, I am going to recommend a more obscure Italian horror film that was inspired by Argento’s work from the late eighties’ called ‘Stage Fright.‘
Stage Fright is a movie known by many different names. (Bloody Bird, Delira, and Aquarius are just to name a few) It is also a horror film that has been embedded in my memory ever since I had first watched it.
The movie is about a group of cast and crew members for a horrifically absurd musical. (It’s about a man who rapes and kills women who then at the end gets raped and killed by one of his hooker victims. Need I say more?) They all end up locked inside the theatre the night before opening night by their crazy and overbearing director who desperately wants them to rehearse. Unfortunately for them, a psychopath (who has escaped a mental institution) has snuck into the theatre before the lockdown. Now everyone is trapped with the killer.
Sure the film’s hokey, ridiculous as hell and is full of the same standard cliches as many other slasher flicks, but what Michele Soavi (best known for directing cult fave, Dellamorte, Dellamore) does differently is that he goes out of his way to keep the plot simple as possible, because that’s not what he’s focused on with making the film. Like the great LL Cool J once said, “Simplicity provides a fine line between plainless and elegance.” (I can’t believe I just quoted him! lol) Michele Soavi wasn’t focused on providing the ever so popular boo scares. He was more interested in focusing on the lighting, the music, the tone and atmosphere, which in my opinion made the horror and the kills stick out far more and were much more disturbing than the standard slasher flick.
Stage Fright is a Italian slasher film that is full of blood, horror, and mayhem . Sure it doesn’t provide anything new in terms of horror, but it does provide for some lasting images. (Still can’t get the image of the killer wearing an OWL head and wielding a chainsaw out of my head.) It is one to be seen by any true fan of the Italian horror genre! Buy it today! ( You know you won’t find it this to rent at Blockbuster.)
