Stagefright (1987)/revisit

 

Leave it to a starving stage director to exploit a wardrobe mistress's murder for publicity as the acting talent lovingly bicker, insult, and poke fun at each other with lots of catty banter and mischief before a killer from a mental hospital cell goes on a rampage inside the theater house. That owl head is one of my favorite "masks" of 80s slashers and I dig Soavi's slight synth score...he has a little jazz tinge to it and a hint of erotica, along with how the initial play was supposed to be saucy and provocative. The director is a cad, the lead right in her mix of disgust, fear, and anxiety, and the remainder of the crew and cast sort of pulled into a night of terror. I have loved this film since I first was told about it in the early 2000s as I was discovering Italian horror. The director locking his people in the building was awfully bold and appalling. An actress stabbed to death while the director calls for the killer to do it, unknowingly encouraging the act because the actor who was supposed to be in costume was "replaced" has this really macabre irony. And that this actress is an understudy given the key to hide by the director makes the death even more inspired.

Even if some of the weapons of destruction are slasher bonafides, Soavi makes sure everything is done in a giallo style mixed with late 80s touches. Take advantage of every bit of the setting, really jazz up the works with a vigorous / inventive camera, smack us with outbursts of brutal violence, and give us a wacky final image before the sax credits. All as the rain pours hard outside during the long, dark night.

Personally I think the best scene may very well be when Alicia is hiding in the shower behind a curtain while a chainsaw injured Laurel is in the other shower looking at her before the owlhead killer sticks a knife in.