Horror Movie Odyssey: Day 6 - Stagefright
by delaythesun
Alicia is a bit down on her luck. She is barely scraping by as an actress and a role in some sleazy stage production is her only chance to make rent this month. Worse yet, she managed to twist her ankle and everybody knows that ankles are very important for acting. One night she decides to duck out of rehearsal and head down to the local mental institution to have her ankle checked out because...
Alicia is a bit down on her luck. She is barely scraping by as an actress and a role in some sleazy stage production is her only chance to make rent this month. Worse yet, she managed to twist her ankle and everybody knows that ankles are very important for acting. One night she decides to duck out of rehearsal and head down to the local mental institution to have her ankle checked out because “psychiatrists are doctors too!” The shrink is happy to grope her leg for a while, but he can’t do a whole lot so she eventually heads back to work with a deranged murderer in her back seat.
The killer’s first victim is the poor costume lady clearly signaling his contempt for the working class. After her body is discovered, things go a bit sideways. The director feels that the entire play should now be reworked to feature the real life murderer who just killed his employee (literally 5 minutes ago). What could be better than a show about a real killer who actually killed a member of the production, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want to go see that masterpiece? At no point during the formulation of this master plan does anyone actually bother to check and see whether the killer left or not. As a result, the rest of the cast becomes locked in the theater with him and forced to fight for their lives.
Michael Soavi was Argento’s protege for a time and Stagefright has many qualities that made Argento’s stuff so good. Part of it it is the way that the dub never quite matches up with the performance. And part of it are the soundtracks that leave these movies end up feeling like 90 minute Whitesnake videos. The rock music is hilarious and starts blasting at the weirdest moments. For example, nothing calls for bad ass guitar licks quite like walking down the hallway to your own dressing room. BRRAAWWR!!! The killer also wears an over sized owl mask and everyone knows that owls are the most hardcore of all birds.
If the film has one fatal flaw, it is that the killer is never given any real motivation. Why does he kill people? Because he is a fucking crazy person, that’s why. He is so crazy that merely killing folks isn’t enough. He has to go and pose them and sit around chilling out to butt metal and petting this cat named Lucifer that hangs around the place for no particular reason. So. Goddamn. Metal.
The killer’s first victim is the poor costume lady clearly signaling his contempt for the working class. After her body is discovered, things go a bit sideways. The director feels that the entire play should now be reworked to feature the real life murderer who just killed his employee (literally 5 minutes ago). What could be better than a show about a real killer who actually killed a member of the production, right? I mean, who wouldn’t want to go see that masterpiece? At no point during the formulation of this master plan does anyone actually bother to check and see whether the killer left or not. As a result, the rest of the cast becomes locked in the theater with him and forced to fight for their lives.
Michael Soavi was Argento’s protege for a time and Stagefright has many qualities that made Argento’s stuff so good. Part of it it is the way that the dub never quite matches up with the performance. And part of it are the soundtracks that leave these movies end up feeling like 90 minute Whitesnake videos. The rock music is hilarious and starts blasting at the weirdest moments. For example, nothing calls for bad ass guitar licks quite like walking down the hallway to your own dressing room. BRRAAWWR!!! The killer also wears an over sized owl mask and everyone knows that owls are the most hardcore of all birds.
If the film has one fatal flaw, it is that the killer is never given any real motivation. Why does he kill people? Because he is a fucking crazy person, that’s why. He is so crazy that merely killing folks isn’t enough. He has to go and pose them and sit around chilling out to butt metal and petting this cat named Lucifer that hangs around the place for no particular reason. So. Goddamn. Metal.