Stage Fright (1987) - Movie Review
Michael Meyers made Halloween terrifying, Jason haunted the summer, Freddy Krueger made sleep unthinkable, and Irving Wallace brought terror to the stage.
What? You’ve never heard of Irving Wallace?
Are you sure? He wears a big owl mask, kills actors you’ve never heard of in a stage rehearsal set slasher?
You’re not alone. This film directed by the protege of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, Michele Soavi, was hard to come by in the US for many years. Now, thanks to new distribution deals with European film houses, you can view this “classic” for yourself. Not that I would recommend it. I feel like Soavi watched Halloween, Labyrinth, and a Chorus Line on the same weekend and said:
“Yep, I can do that.”
The story is flimsy, but here we go. A theater troupe is performing a late night rehearsal of a new musical that centers around the murders of a fictional villain named the Night Owl. So named due to his choice of a Barn Owl mask worn during his killings. The troupe is run ragged by their coked up director, Peter, played by a scenery chewing David Brandon. Brandon is over the top in his role and is by far a more terrifying villain than the killer himself. Having been in stage acting for almost two decades of my life, I can say that every stage director is exactly like this portrayal.
Stay with me…
The musical’s stare Alicia, played by the stunning Barbara Cupisti, sprains her ankle. Peter, being the director that he is, refuses to let her leave to get medical aid. Which forces the actress along with her best friend Betty, the makeup artist of the production, to sneak out of the theater. For some reason the only hospital nearby is a mental institution. They don’t serve the public in an emergency capacity, but Alicia is so beautiful that the doctor decides to wrap her ankle and cop a feel. He also shows the girls a serial killer that is incapacitated in a cot. The man is Irving Wallace, an actor turned slasher. As soon as the women step out of frame, Wallace wakes and makes his escape. His escape is pretty much the exact same as every Michael Meyers scene ever made as he finds his way to the theater in the backseat of the women’s car. Once inside the theater, he dawns the gigantic and cumbersome owl mask and starts with the killin’.
There’s no rhyme or reason to it. There’s also no explanation or logic to Alicia being the final girl. She just is. Wallace is a silent killer, but don’t think that makes him stealthy. He literally just walks into the dress rehearsal and murders two people on stage in the middle of the group and walks away. Why didn’t the cast and crew run out of the theater and escape you may ask? Well, the director had a PA hide the key. The PA was the girl killed on stage a few seconds ago. It’s lazy writing. The entire film feels lazy save for the famous shot of the killer sitting amongst the dead cast and crew, having staged their bodies like a Salvador Dali painting. The shot is beautiful, I only wish there was a decent movie to go along with it.
This film does nothing new or groundbreaking, outside of placing the action backstage of a play. It’s a stale dance of stereotyping, violence, and attempted dreamlike imagery. It’s obvious that Soavi was attempting to merge the styles of his two mentors. The music tries to hook you into set-piece kills like Argento and utilizes the brutal violence and over the top gore of Fulci. I think this is the first problem with the film. The characters are dumb, offensive, and 100% unlikable. This is fine in a Friday the 13th movie, because you can root for Jason due to his story and mythology. There is nothing about Irving Wallace that gives you that fallback. He’s just a killer. There’s no empathetic element to latch onto. Barbara Cupisti is breathtaking, but there’s nothing about her character that makes you root for her either.
I think Soavi’s legacy will be that his films signaled the end of the golden age of Giallo pictures. Don’t misunderstand, this film is not a Giallo. It is the farthest thing from it. This is a hack attempted to make the Suspiria of slasher pictures. The problem is that Suspiria is the Suspiria of slasher pictures. I feel like this film could have been great if it had played up the meta elements. However, in pure Italian fashion, story, and writing for that matter, is never a consideration. It’s all about the fashion and being cheap.
While the image of the killer in the oversized owl mask is cool, I can’t recommend watching this film.
Watch Tenebrae or the House by the Cemetery instead.
