Director: Michele Soavi
Year: 1987
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Deliria; StageFright: Aquarius; Bloody Bird
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
Rehearsing for a new play, a group of actors and actresses find themselves trapped inside an abandoned theater by a driving thunderstorm as they continue their mission, but when they learn an escaped mental patient has snuck inside with them, they must fight off the masked madman.
Review:
This is one of the best Italian slashers around. One of the better features of the film is the fun, simplistic setup that manages to bring about not just a strong starting point but also generate a solid atmospheric environment. The main story here is entirely one-note, involving the struggling theater troop stuck in the theater during the night and finding themselves stalked by a sadistic killer who escaped from a local insane asylum, but it manages to do quite a lot with this one. The characters and their background are handled well enough while also letting the background on the killer emerge as a fun twist on the genre convention of trying to sort out the identity of the killer, since we know who the individual is from the start, so that the setting can be milked for maximum effect. The building is incredible, with several great stalking areas, long hallways, a huge stage for the production, and so much more going on that there's a really great feel coming from the location. This all ends up creating a great air about it, one that feels perfectly comfortable being such a film.
There's also a whole lot to enjoy from this one due to how much it plays by the slasher rules. That means that it puts in appearances for almost everything the genre has to offer, and it makes the film seem that much more important because of it. This one also becomes more entertaining when it moves into the slasher territory, since the stalking is among the best in the genre, as every single one is tense, exciting, and wholly interesting, which is exactly what a stalking sequence should be. This one gets more points for several scenes. It doesn't seem obvious as to what's going to happen, and that is a fantastic skill to have in a film, much less several times within the same sequence. Even though the mask is a little weird, it's unique enough to make it original and memorable, which fits in with everything that's going on and gives the film a sense of separation from the others out there by moving away from the traditional black coat and fedora look associated with the genre.
When this one gets down and dirty with being a traditional slasher film, there's even more to like. The first murder is a highly enjoyable suspense scene with the ridiculously suspenseful build up to the nearly invisible cover the pouring rain provides to the false shocks, and the final one delivers huge. Another rather huge one is killing the actress on the stage in front of everyone, simply because they never show the switch on-screen, and when the play starts, the reversal is glorious. The chase up into the rafters is beyond great as there's a long battle to get there, followed by several extended stalking scenes and even a couple of particularly brutal kills as well. A later scene where the killer attacks a group of victims who have locked themselves inside a small room is another standout scene, as the visuals and intensity create a lot to like. None, though, can top the suspense bestowed upon the real highlight of the film, where the killer is perched on a stage with a victim below, trying to get a key stuck in the floor without them noticing it. This is just unbearably suspenseful and is just nerve-wrangling to the extreme, and contains so many great moments that it just becomes all the better.
This one also offers up many great moments from its blood and gore. The kills here are out-and-out graphic, where one is pulled into view from below, sawed in half at the waist with a chainsaw, repeatedly hacked with an ax, decapitated with an ax, drilled through the stomach with an electric drill, set on fire, and stabbed in the stomach, among so much more. These all make it that much more fun, as this only has one flaw in it, which is the ending. This here doesn't feel at all like an effective ending, coming across more as a prologue to a sequel, even with the killer losing the fight. This really should've ended with her being carted away by the authorities, and doesn't fit in well with the rest of the movie, with it coming off with way too many false endings that wouldn't have been the perfect amount for a slasher. Still, though, this was not enough to deter the full effect of the film.
Overview: *****/5
With a lot to really love about this one and only an incredibly useless flaw, this is one of the best of the genre, which comes off incredibly well for what it is. This is highly recommended to all Italian or giallo fans, as well as those into the late 80s slasher scene, while those who aren't that into any are urged to use this as a starting point for how great the scenes are.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
Comments
Post a Comment