Deliria (1987)

Director:

Michele Soavi

Writers:

George Eastman (writer)
Sheila Goldberg (dialogue)

Release Date:

8 February 1987 (Australia)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

The theatre of death

Plot:

A troupe of struggling stage actors is rehearsing for a small-town production of a play. Everything...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Panic | Theater | Play | Covered In Blood

Awards:

1 win

Cast

David Brandon	...	Peter
Barbara Cupisti	...	Alicia
Domenico Fiore	...	Police Chief (as Dom Fiore)
Robert Gligorov	...	Danny
Mickey Knox	...	Old Cop
Giovanni Lombardo Radice	...	Brett (as John Morghen)
Clain Parker	...	Irving Wallace
Loredana Parrella	...	Corinne (as Lori Parrel)
Martin Philips	...	Mark
James Sampson	...	Willy (as James E.R. Sampson)
Ulrike Schwerk	...	Betty
Mary Sellers	...	Laurel
Jo Ann Smith	...	Sybil
Piero Vida	...	Ferrari
Richard Barkeley	...	Dr. Porter

Also Known As:

Bloody Bird
Sound Stage Massacre
Stage Fright
StageFright: Aquarius (International: English title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Norway:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | France:-12 | UK:18 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:18 | Italy:VM14 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

DMV Distribuzione

Trivia:

The screenplay was written by 'Lew Cooper', one of numerous pseudonyms that writer George Eastman uses. In actuality Eastman's real name is Luigi Montefiore.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the shower scene, after Alicia wakes up, the shower curtains are shown closing, but then they suddenly move; they are clearly two separate shots.

Quotes:

Ferrari: It's looking fine just the way it is, i think you've pushed the erotic angle about as far as you can.
Peter: the "Erotic Angle"? Mr Ferrari, where have you been all these years?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Death Is Beautiful: Michele Soavi Directs Dellamorte Dellamore (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

Mystery Rouge

Good Slasher Film From Michel Soavi...

STAGE FRIGHT is another original take on a common theme by Italian director, Michel Soavi. Typically working with common genres, Soavi infuses his own stylish take on horror films which is a welcome change over many of the dull, derivative "knock-offs" that are usually done. Soavi did the same thing with DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE (another great film...) where he took the zombie genre and stood it on it's head, taking common themes and elements and transforming them into something new and refreshing. Although STAGE FRIGHT isn't a "unique" film in terms of the slasher genre, Soavi makes it more fun and interesting with his own unique twists...

The story is about an escaped mental patient who terrorizes a dance troupe who are locked in their rehearsal studio. Being that this is a slasher film at least partly in the "classical" sense, the members of the troupe are knocked off one-by-one in pretty original fashion.

One of the main strengths in STAGE FRIGHT are Soavi's obviously intelligent and competent direction. The film has pretty high production value, and the uncut DVD is transferred beautifully. My main gripe is in the sound level settings, where a good bit of the dialog is very quiet, and then when music plays it's exponentially louder than the dialog tracks. Not a big deal, but I had to constantly adjust the volume to hear the dialog during the dialog scenes, and then turn it down so that I didn't blow my ears out during scenes that had music. Speaking of the music, the score is typical early 80's Italian, with weird rock/synth instrumentals that sound like a weird, watered-down Billy Idol song. Not my favorite choice as far as scores go, but not a big deal either, and pretty typical of Italian horror films of that era. The plot in STAGE FRIGHT also had some decent twists, and the gore, although not extremely heavy, is far better than your average U.S.theatrical release. Overall, one of the better of the slasher films, highly recommended for fans of the genre - 8.5/10