Pretty Good

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

A troupe of struggling stage actors is rehearsing for a small-town production of a play. Everything seems to be as it should until one of the cast members turns up dead. In a panic, the others try to get out, only to find they are now locked in the theater with the owl- masked killer.The gore starts off dry for the first hour or so, but gets extremely brutal as the movie goes on. Axe through a mouth, 2 stabbings, drilled stomach, body ripped in half, chainsaw hacking x2, beheading, gun shot. At first it seems like it won't deliver any gore, but makes up for it easily in the last half hour.Barbara Cupisti played the lead Alicia pretty perfectly. She didn't really speak much but the way she acted was perfect for this type of slasher. David Brandon played the jerk director pretty flawlessly as well. The acting overall was superb, but a few bad lines here and there hurt a couple of scenes.I wish Soavi would have gone all out with the direction. Every time Soavi tried to get artsy and creative the scenes were absolutely amazing. He was an understudy of Argento and it shows throughout the film. The shots were extremely creative, and they used lots of out of focus and moving shots. The atmosphere was the main attraction for me...it was great. The score was somewhat distracting when it was really upbeat, but most of the time it was extremely effective in setting up the mood. Final Thoughts: The feel and atmosphere was really genuine and pulls the viewer into the film right away. Although it starts off pretty slow and dry, Soavi kicks it up a notch and it's action packed towards the second half. I'm not a big fan of the giallo genre, but this re-affirmed that I need to check more out before I pass judgment.

The flick deals with a theatre of death in which a maniacal serial killer attempts to cover his trail by joining the cast (David Brandon , Barbara Cupisti , Mary Sellers , among others) of a play about mass murder . There happens several bloody murders and gruesome executions . A troupe of struggling cast members is rehearsing for a small-town production of a play. Everything seems to be as it should until one of the stage actors appears dead. In a panic, the others attempt to get out, only to find they are now locked in the theater with the murderous. As the other players soon have more to worry about than remembering their lines . Michele Soavi's first great success is compellingly directed with startling visual content . This frightening movie is plenty of thrills, chills, high body-count and glimmer color in lurid pastel with phenomenal results . This is a classic slasher where the intrigue, tension, suspense appear threatening and lurking in every room, corridors and stage interior and exterior . Interesting screenplay was written by 'Lew Cooper', one of numerous pseudonyms that writer/actor George Eastman uses , in actuality Eastman's real name is Luigi Montefiore . The thrilling of the story is to find out which one of them committed the murder, and who will get out alive.The movie belongs to Italian Giallo genre , Mario Bava (¨Planet of vampires¨, ¨House of exorcism¨) along with Riccardo Freda (¨Secret of Dr. Hitchcock¨ , ¨Il Vampiri¨) are the fundamental creators . These Giallo movies are characterized by usual zooms and utilization of images-shock with magenta shades of ochre and overblown use of color in shining red blood , translucently pale turquoises and deep orange-red . Later on , there appears Dario Argento (¨Deep red¨, ¨Suspiria¨,¨Inferno¨), another essential filmmaker of classic Latino terror films and finally Michele Soavi . Soavi was given a chance as an assistant director by director Aristide Massaccesi (aka: Joe D'Amato). In their first film, Soavi acted in an uncredited part, and was the assistant director. Over four more films with Massaccesi, Soavi served as a bit part actor, screenwriter and personal assistant . As Soavi, wanting to get on his own, turned to his previous mentor Aristide Massaccesi to show off his work where the filmmaker offered Soavi a chance to direct his first movie, and finally made this ¨Aquarius¨ or ¨Stagefright¨(1987) , produced by the prolific Joe D'Amato , a typical low-grade terror , even his his second big film project called La Chiesa (1988) had a budget three to four times the budget of ¨Stagefright¨ , with Argento as the producer . Although ¨Aquarius¨ was a box-office flop in Italy, it was a success abroad . Despite the low budget , equivalent to under $1 million U.S. dollars, and low-production values, the picture turns out to be a passable slasher , including some exciting surprises . This genuinely mysterious story is well photographed by Tafuri, though being necessary a right remastering . Furthermore , includes a poor editing involving the soundtrack by means of synthesizer , however resulting to be sometimes atmospheric and frightening musical score composed by Simon Boswell, among others . The motion picture was well directed by Michael Soavi , remembered to this day as one of the many masters of Italian Horror cinema as a director, screenwriter, actor, and assistant director. Soavi first met writer/director Dario Argento in 1979 where the director took Soavi under his wing after learning of their same tastes with film making. Argento made Soavi the second assistant director for the movie Tenebre (1982) with Lamberto Bava as the first assistant director. Pleased with his work, Bava hired Soavi as his assistant director for the mystery-thriller A Blade in the Dark (1983) with Soavi in a supporting role. Afterwards, Argento brought back Soavi to work as his assistant director in Phenomena (1985) with Soavi acting in a small role. Argento rewarded Soavi by giving him his first assignment as director of a music video "The Valley" featuring music by Bill Wyman for the movie Phenomena, plus as director for a documentary on Argento's films. Soavi worked again for Lamberto Bava as assistant director in Demoni (1985) in which Soavi also appeared. Soavi began to look elsewhere for work where he was hired as an assistant director and cameraman for British actor/director Terry Gilliam with The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). With new skills, Soavi returned to Argento as a supervisor for special effects in Ópera (1987) where Argento offered him to direct another film, a horror flick titled La Chiesa (1988) and filmed on location in Budapest . The international success of The Church inspired Soavi to direct another film, The Sect (1990). Soavi worked on a number of screenplays, and directed the horror-comedy Cemetery Man (1994) which was a huge hit in the USA. Afterwards, Soavi took a break from working to spend time with his wife and family. Recently, he returned to filmmaking with two made-for-Italian-TV dramas . Aquarius rating : Good, this is an imaginative and acceptable picture in which the camera stalks in sinister style throughout a story with magnificent visual skills.

Michele Soavi's directorial debut StageFright: Aquarius is simply excellent, a slasher film on par with Halloween, Black Christmas and Scream. The plot itself isn't fantastic, a psychotic actor, now serial killer, escapes from a psychiatric hospital and hitches a ride with two actresses to a theatre, where a group of struggling thespians are working on new production. Once there the actors are locked in with the killer, who dons an owl mask from the costume room and wrecks havoc with various sharp objects. But when one looks at a slasher film the plot isn't important, it isn't why we watch a slasher film, if story is what we are after we would watch The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby or Psycho.StageFright is stylish, fast-paced and gory with a groovy soundtrack and some genuine scares. Soavi seems to take influence from various other Italian horror directors, including Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava. The setting is used to maximum effect, especially the main stage with its eerie blue lighting and the backstage corridors, dimly lit and claustrophobic. The killer's outfit is very simple, all black but with a giant owl's head, this sounds silly but is actually very creepy, with large glowing eyes it makes for a unique and entirely unforgettable villain.Soavi also knows how to stage some incredible scenes, two of particular note include a character trying to pry a key from underneath the killer and the killer appearing during a rehearsal and being mistaken for an actor, and when told to kill by the director does just that. These scenes are so well crafted it is hard to believe this is Soavi's first film. This being a slasher one would expect gory deaths and this film does not disappoint, with power drills, axes and chainsaws being used to dispatch our cast.The film maintains a serious, dark tone up until the very end in which the director pokes fun at slasher conventions in a rather amusing, if not out of place way. Ignoring this change in tone in the last five minutes StageFright is basically a perfect slasher film, expertly crafted and although not entirely original, is definitely unforgettable.5/5

A group of actors is locked inside a theater after one of their crew members is killed. Unknown to them, the killer is inside the building and the first one to die has the only key outside hidden. This could be their last night alive.Michele Soavi has made one of the greatest horror films of all time with "Dellamorte Dellamore", and this one -- his first feature -- is not far behind. The acting is superb, the directing keen, and while the slasher genre is riddled with plenty of bland entries, particularly by the time this came out, Soavi keeps it fresh and new here. I have the utmost respect for his work, and the slasher genre in general... could this be the ultimate slasher? Italian horror critic Jim Harper calls this film "a well-constructed and visually impressive film that stands out as one of the highlights of Italian horror in the late 1980s." I could not agree more. Horror, and Italian horror specifically, has more misses than hits... and by the end of the 1980s was a dying subgenre. Soavi kept the fire alive, at least for a few more years than it would have survived on its own (Argento, as great as he his, cannot bear the entire burden of Italian cinema alone). The "visually impressive" part is quite true, as Soavi uses colors to his advantage throughout this one... a technique he likely picked up from Argento.Fans will recognize actor John Morghen, whom Harper calls "waspish", the darling of the Italian horror world. Sadly, unlike past performances, Morghen dies off relatively early in the film and is not given the on-screen death he deserves. (Interestingly, I read an interview with Morghen where he has trashed the horror film and its fans... one wonders why he has made so many and why he shows up at conventions throughout America.) I have to give credence to Simon Boswell's rocking 1980s score. Some reviewers look back now, and knock Boswell for his inclusion of heavy metal into this and other films (such as "Phenomena" or the "Demons" films). Let's be clear, this is not Boswell's doing. The directors at the time did this. I don't really know why. But unlike the others, I don't mind it... it really gives a pumping rhythm to what could otherwise be a slower-feeling film.Fans of horror, slashers, Italian films, Soavi, etc. all need to put this on their list. And if it doesn't already exist, there needs to be a demand for a special edition disc. To my knowledge, there really isn't such a thing yet, and that's a shame. Soavi is often forgotten behind his predecessors, but he is much greater than generally perceived.