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Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: September 23rd, 2014.
Director: Michele Soavi
Cast: Barbara Cupisti, David Brandon, Giovanni Lambardo Radice, Mary Sellers
Year: 1987
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The Movie:
Michele Soavi's feature directorial debut, Stagefright follows the eccentric cast and crew of a stage production called The Night Owl being directed by a temperamental man named Peter (David Brandon). The production runs into its first problem when an actress named Alicia (Barbara Cupisti) wrecks her ankle and convinces the wardrobe woman, Betty (Ulrike Schwerke), to accompany her to a nearby psychiatric hospital in hopes that there will be a doctor on sight who can check it out for her. What they don't anticipate is one of the patients covertly following them back to the set and murdering poor Betty in cold blood. The cops show up but can't find any trace of the killer and assume he has escaped.
Not the most considerate guy in the world, Peter sees this as a great way to publicize his new production and where most would delay things, he instead moves the opening date up a few weeks in order to cash in on all of the free press. The cast aren't happy about this but Peter gives them no choice, even going so far as to look everyone in the theater so that he can force them to continue with their rehearsals. Of course, the killer is still with them and is running around knocking people off wearing the owl master that was originally constructed for the play itself.
Alternately known as Deliria and Aquarius, this film owes as much to the American slasher film boom of the eighties as it does to the ultra-stylish Italian giallo cycle that came in the decades prior. In place of a black gloved killer we get a lunatic in an owl costume who seems to prefer power tools to simple blades but Soavi keeps things moving at a great pace and ensures that the movie is consistently both entertaining and stylish. He's also not afraid to dole out serious dollops of gory mayhem and does an interesting job of incorporating the killer's stalk and slash tactics into the onstage action that comprises the rehearsal procedures that the cast are all put through.
Soavi also scores top marks for assembling an interesting array of talent to appear in front of the camera. David Brandon really steals the show here as the slightly unhinged director who seems to have absolutely no problem whatsoever abusing and taking advantage of the cast and crew of The Night Owl. Sure he's under pressure from outside sources, namely the producer, but he seems to relish the opportunity for abuse and Brandon is a lot of fun to watch in the part. The rest of the cast do fine work here as well, almost all of them playing their characters with a lot of bitterness and outright nastiness towards one another. Giovanni Lambardo Radice stands out as one of the highlights, playing an actor named Brett as a completely catty primadonna type very effectively.
There isn't much of a mystery here in regards to who the killer is or why he's out doing what he's doing and the influence of Dario Argento is all over the film but Stagefright, if not particularly original outside of its antagonist's wardrobe, is slick and entertaining stuff. Production values are strong and the score from composer Simon Boswell works very well. Soavi would go on to make better and far more interesting films than this one but the picture remains a solid debut and a really entertaining slasher/giallo mashup.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Blue Underground brings Stagefright to Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.85.1 widescreen. There are a few spots where the framing looks a little tight but for the most part the compositions look good here. Detail is increased quite noticeably over the past DVD release and colors are reproduced very nicely here. Black levels are solid and the image is in very nice shape showing no serious print damage, dirt or debris.
Audio options are provided in English only in your choice of DTS-HD 2.0 Stereo or DTS-HD 5.1 with optional subtitles provided in English, French and Spanish. Both tracks sound quite nice, no problems with any hiss or distortion, nicely balanced levels and nice directionality in the 5.1 mix in terms of how the score and effects are placed. The 2.0 track is a better choice for purists as there are some spots where the remix sounds a little thin but other than that, either option is a good one.
Extras start off with a nineteen-minute featurette entitled Theater Of Delirium which is essentially an interview with director Michele Soavi about the beginnings of his career, his early acting roles, some of the projects that he worked on with Joe D'Amato and Terry Gilliam and of course, the making of this particular film and where the inspiration and ideas behind it originated from. This doesn't cover any of his post-Stagefright directorial projects but it is a very nice career overview up to that point and it's quite an interesting piece.
This is followed by an eleven-minute piece called Head Of The Company which interviews actor David Brandon who gives us a nice overview of his career in the Italian film industry working not only for Soavi but for D'Amato as well. He also dishes up some dirt on some of the co-stars he worked alongside with over the years and shares his thoughts on some of the films he's participated in. Of course, no Stagefright special edition release would be complete without a Giovanni Lambardo Radice interview and he shows up in the fourteen-minute piece entitled Blood On The Stage Floor. He's always been an entertaining interview subject and this piece continues that trend as he talks about working with Soavi on Lucio Fulci's City Of The Living Dead, what it was like working with him on Stagefright and some of the difficulties he encountered on that production and then some of the later projects they collaborated on together. Pietro Tenoglio, the special makeup effects technician employed on the film, sits in front of the camera for the eleven-minute The Owl Murders to talk about his work on the film, sharing some interesting stories about the tactics he used to pull off what he pulled off without the aid of massive amounts of money, while composer Simon Boswell gets the spotlight for eighteen-minutes in The Sound Of Aquarius where he discusses the score, the people he worked with on this and other projects and a fair bit more. There's some great footage of him performing on stage here too.
Rounding out the extras is an extensive still gallery of promotional artwork, the film's original theatrical trailer, animated menus and chapter selection.
The Final Word:
Blue Underground's Blu-ray release of Stagefright is a good one, the transfer is a considerable improvement over the DVD release and the audio upgrade is strong as well. Throw in a nice selection of interesting and informative supplemental featurettes and this turns out to be a really well rounded release of a ridiculously entertaining giallo.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
