A cash-strapped avant-garde theatre group has locked itself in for a night of intense, last-minute rehearsals. Driven to exhaustion by the tyrannical director, one of the dancers – a motley collection of interchangeable stereotypes, including the obligatory flaming queen – falls and injures her leg and is taken to the nearby hospital for treatment…
Except this is no ordinary hospital. Rather, it's a top-security facility for the criminally insane. And, wouldn't you know it, one of the patients has just escaped and stowed away in the dancer's car.
The terpischoreans arrive back at the studio, unawares of the maniac behind them. He disposes of them, enters the theatre, locks the doors, dons a bird mask and proceeds to methodically slaughter his way through cast and crew…
Part US style slasher film, with asylum antics that seem straight out of Halloween , and part home grown giallo /horror combo, with one shot where a victim bends down to reveal the avian killer behind them seemingly lifted straight from Tenebre and the locked theatre setup heavily reminiscent of Demons – not coincidentally director Michele Soavi performed assistant/second unit duties on both films – Stagefright AKA Deliria AKA Bloody Bird is pretty much the epitome of check your brain at the door trash fun.
The dialogue is dire and the characterisation perfunctory. But this is the point: You want these people to die by the most horrible means imaginable, slowly and preferably with a modicum of style and suspense, which Soavi does his level best to supply despite the obvious budgetary constraints.
True, many of the other styles – clothing, hair, decors, music – come from the 80s and thereby exists in that temporal limbo between contemporary and retro, now too distant to work as the former but not yet given adequate distance to work as enjoyable camp/kitsch in the manner of a 70s entry. But, give it time.
For now, there's always the pleasure of seeing John Morghen/Giovanni Lombardo Radice die yet another excruciating death and of knowing that even the director of the acclaimed Dellamorte Dellamore had to start somewhere…
Cult value is further added by Aristide Massaccesi/Joe D'Amato's and Luigi Montifiore/George Eastman's credits as producer and screenwriter respectively, while the equally prolific Simon Boswell provided the score.
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
Rating:
0.0 / 5
(0 votes)
|
3847 views
|
Previous
|
Next
|
Best prices on Stagefright
|
Print
|
Email page