Deliria

Plot synopsis:
Late at night inside a theater, a troupe of actors are rehearsing a musical about a mass murderer known as the Night Owl. When the show's leading lady Alicia sprains her ankle, she and the wardrobe mistress Betty sneaks out of the rehearsal for medical assistance in which the closest medical facility is a mental hospital. When speaking to the psychiatrist, Betty notices a imprisoned patient who is revealed to be Irving Wallace, a former actor who went insane and committed a killing spree. Unbeknownst to any of them, Wallace killed one of the attendants with a syringe and sneaked out of the asylum, hiding in the back of Betty's car. Once they arrive back at the theater, the director Peter fires Betty for leaving during rehearsal. As she packs her things and gets ready to leave, Betty returns to the car only for Wallace to murder her with a pickaxe. Moments later, Alicia then emerges from the theater upon the discovery of her friend's corpse. Later, police officers arrive to remove the scene and stations two officers in the parking lot to keep an eye on the premises.Meanwhile, the director creates an idea by altering the play's script; he renames the show's antagonist to Irving Wallace instead of an ambiguous killer, and insists that everyone stay the night to begin immediate rehearsals with the new material, resulting one of his actresses Corinne hide the theater's key so nobody can leave. With the promise of additional cash, the group reluctantly agrees. Inside the dressing room, Laurel feels someone's inside and locks the door; she then screams when someone tries opening it and calls the group to her assistance. Peter accuses Brett as the culprit, but he refuses to accept.Unbeknownst to the group, Wallace himself has donned the theater's owl costume. While Alicia keeps searching for the key, Wallace arrives (with Peter thinking it's Brett) for the scene and strangles Corrine before stabbing her. Without the key's whereabouts, the group begins to panic and tries to contract the outside policemen. Wallace then disconnects the power source and telephone lines the power source and the telephone lines in addition for no escape. The group finds an escape route, but Ferrari gets separated. On the stage, Wallace sees Ferrari who begs and pleased to give him the money, but Wallace refuses and stabs him, later hanging his body upon the group's discovery. Peter and Danny leave Alicia, Mark, Sybil, and Laurel inside a room and searches for Wallace. Laurel notices Wallace outside opening the door and with the assistance of Mark, Alicia, and Lauel, barricades the door. When Wallace breaks the window and grabs Mark, he kills him with a power drill through the door, gaining the attention of Peter and Danny. They plan that everyone must defend themselves and to stick together. Peter notices someone walking on the attic, causing him to head upstairs where Alice and Laurel follow as well. In the process, Alicia is accidentally knocked unconscious after Laurel pushes her down. Arriving at the attic, Peter arrives with an felling axe and instead accidentally hacks up Brett, tied up with the costume on. Suddenly, a standing Sybil is pulled down by Wallace. Despite the help, she is killed by disembowelment. Danny immediately goes down before getting killed by Wallace with a chainsaw. During the escape, Peter accidentally pushes Laurel into Wallace's chainsaw and wounds her. Wallace severs Peters arm before his chainsaw runs out of fuel. Taking the axe, Wallace then decapitates Peter.Alicia wakes up and finds a wounded Laurel. They both hide in the shower room as Wallace approaches near them, before Laurel is stabbed by Wallace. Finding an exit, she arms herself with a pistol and searches for the key, only to see Wallace sitting with the group's corpses placed around the stage. Underneath the stage, she successfully finds the key (catching Wallace's attention) before getting attacked by Wallace. With the pistol having no ammunition, she stabs a screwdriver into Wallace's eye and runs to the door. Nearly missing his attacks, she heads up the attic catwalks where she reaches a dead end as Wallace corners her. After spraying a fire extinguisher at Wallace, he climbs up a dangling cord where Alicia servers the cord with his axe, causing Wallace to fall. She makes her way to the door, where Wallace attacks her before she dumps a burning bin to him, burning him. She successfully escapes the theater via unlocking upon the police assisting her. While being interviewed, she then sees her deceased friends being delivered outside.The next morning, Alicia returns to the theater and finds her missing watch, which was lost during the fight with Wallace. Finding out that eight bodies instead of nine were recovered, a burnt Wallace appears and attacks her with his axe before getting shot by Willy. As the credits roll, Alicia leaves the theater, unknown to her that Wallace has survived his gunshot and smiles to the camera.

Tags: cruelty, murder, cult, horror, violence, romantic, sadist

Review:
Then he begins to systematically kill all the actors on the play in some really gruesome ways.Well its no secret that Soavi was Argentos pupil and I think that out of all of Soavis horror films that I have seen Stagefright is the one in which this is most evident.
Her final scenes with the killer are very effective indeed; her fearfulness make her vulnerable, her vulnerability draws us to her, and in drawing us to her, we submit to the relentless onslaught the killer pursues.This is a film where the viewer/audience surely knows the outcome, but the satisfaction comes from the execution - literally - of the route that the filmmaker takes.I now have this film on a budget UK DVD which reveals little - I am playing it back on a 16:9 TV, and am very pleased with the quality of the sound (mono) and the visuals, plus some of the unusual, though rare basic extras..
Viewers weaned on a diet of bland Hollywood 'horrors' may not succumb immediately to the film's wayward plot developments (including the central device of an off-off-Broadway stage musical which celebrates the very same serial killer who winds up massacring most of the cast!), but once the basic premise has been established, the narrative assumes a near-demonic life of its own.Beginning with a frankly horrific sequence in which the masked killer is mistaken for an actor during rehearsals and encouraged to 'kill' a female co-star (only to commit the bloody deed for real!), Soavi's direction is razor-sharp and visually appealing.
D'Amato gave Soavi pretty much freedom to do this film and he did the right thing by trusting this young talent: the result is fantastic piece of slasher cinema.A group of stage play actors and crew members are practicing their newest number, a horror musical which seems and sounds by the way pretty interesting.
Four films might be too little to judge, but I think Michele Soavi is the best Italian horror director since Mario Bava.
Michele Soavi's debute film was this wonderful Italian horror film that's simply one of the best slasher films ever made!Cast and crew of a stage production find themselves locked inside their theater with an escaped homicidal maniac!Stylish and colorful direction highlight this excellent giallo film.
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 .
Yes it does not have naked bodies, the characters are not drug inducing menaces and there is a lack of foul language but so what – this is far better than a lot of other slashers that came out in the 80's because it is just so fun and we can thank Soavi's style for that.Whilst the movie is completely silly it's still entertaining, especially for the eyes.
If someone is into violent slashers then this is perhaps the film you've been looking for though the movie isn't overflowing with gore and eye cringing kills which can be a letdown for gore fanatics.Stagefright is typically predictable like one would find in any slasher, but it offers something quite unique – it's artistic cinematic elements are fantastic, the music is a thrill ride to listen to, it's easy to watch, the characters are all wearing eccentric 80's fashion like you'd expect from a metropolis stage performer in that era and its environment is at least not a camp, beach, cemetery, small town, or anything you've seen one hundred times before in a film which requires the protagonist to take of their clothes.
In Michele Soavi's classy 80s slasher Stagefright, a troupe of struggling actors are trapped overnight in a theatre; one by one they are bumped off by an escaped mental patient sporting an owl mask and wielding a nifty selection of sharp implements and power tools.Soavi gives us a brilliantly tense movie that makes maximum use of its locale, using lighting, theatre sets and shadowy areas to great effect.
Fans of Italian horror might notice some similarities in style between this movie and some of Dario Argento's giallo films; this should come as no surprise, since Soavi worked as an assistant to Argento, and obviously learnt a thing or two about shooting a great murder scene.
He even uses synth maestro Simon Boswell, who worked on Argento's Phenomena, to create the atmospheric score.There are one or two moments which stop this film from being perfect (in particular, an unnecessary prologue with a 'shock' ending), but Stagefight still manages to impress with its splattery death scenes and stylish direction..
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 director really focuses on style and atmosphere, rather than making the murders the focal point of the film, like so many slasher movies from the 80's did.
"Stagefright" is one of the best giallos and slashers around.**SPOILERS**Rehearsing for a new play, Alicia, (Barbara Cupisti) Betty, (Ulrike Schwerk) Danny, (Robert Gligorov) Corrine, (Loredana Perrella) Brett, (Giovanni Lamberto Radice) Laurel, (Mary Sellers) and Sybil, (Jo Ann Smith) are all displeased to learn director Peter Carter, (David Brandon) isn't happy with their performances.
The result is a stylish effort that is not so much a giallo as an Italian-style slasher.Written by notable actor Luigi Montefiori (aka George Eastman), the story is about an escaped maniac who ends up on the loose in a theatre where a horror themed musical is being rehearsed by a drama group; in true slasher style, the killer starts picking them off one by one.
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.
For this reason, perhaps, his work has been given slightly more than its due attention: with this I mean that, while the film under review is miles ahead of what was being churned out during the last gasp of "Euro-Cult", it does not really elicit the same level of trashy fun that the Giallo subgenre was well capable of during its heyday (despite the fact that Soavi immediately showed his clout with expert use of the Steadicam throughout, not to mention a clever opening which has a suspenseful murder being revealed as merely part of the show, the relentless and loud synthesizer-based score – which places this firmly in the bland 1980s – is positively annoying)!
Anyway, the film has a gazillion alternate titles – such as BLOODY BIRD and SOUND STAGE MASSACRE but also two in Italian, namely AQUARIUS and DELIRIA; besides, having recently mentioned the 2 differing versions of THE NIGHT CHILD (1975) in my review of that picture, this one has too – with the English-language edition (the one I acquired) being the "Director's Cut", while the Italian release print was actually overseen by Soavi's prolific and versatile mentor i.e. cult figure Joe D'Amato!The movie is basically a retread of Pete Walker's average THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW (1972) – complete with a deranged actor (named Irving Wallace!) behind the killing spree; convicted, he escapes from the asylum where he was incarcerated – the far-fetched premise being that the leading lady of a theatrical troupe went to a mental hospital to treat a sprained ankle, and the maniac chose just that moment to bolt (hiding in her car throughout the journey back to the venue where rehearsals are under way)!
Soon, strange happenings inside the theater make it blatantly clear that someone else is in there with the troupe: by the way, another manipulative touch by the director of the musical being staged is to have the monster (a man in an owl suit seemingly derived from the incredible opening sequence of Georges Franju's JUDEX {1963}) in the show no longer be anonymous but is christened by the name of the real serial-killerso that the director of the movie obviously has him actually assume that role by abducting – he turns up behind the victim mimicking a celebrated scene from Dario Argento's TENEBRE (1982) – and hiding the body of the actor (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, from PHANTOM OF DEATH {1988}) playing him!
The stage is thus set for a bloodbath, with the troupe at the mercy of a maniac who, even if clearly outnumbered, always has the upper hand until the extended climax: one man is found tied upside down from the ceiling; another is perforated via a door and right though his chest with a driller (surely among the Horror genre's most popular killing tools!); about four different people are chopped-up with a chainsaw (ditto) – with Brandon having one arm torn off with it and then beheaded with an axe!; Radice is copped by the members of the troupe itself when, attired just like the killer, they mistake him for their pursuer!
Rehearsals are in progress for a new play when,nearby,a crazy ex-actor escapes from the asylum.He enters the theater,and the actors start showing up dead.Michele Soavi's "Deliria" surely belongs to my list of all time favourite horror films.This extremely violent and stylish slasher is actually one of the most intense movies ever made.The gore is pretty extreme with Soavi showing in graphic detail power drills being shoved through bodies,bloody axe decapitations,severed torsos etc.Still,the film is incredibly suspenseful with some striking visuals.Soavi perfectly blends the suspense with the illusion of the stage,like one sequence where the director directs the killer in the play how to kill an actress unaware that he is directing the killer who really is killing the actress.10 out of 10.If you liked this one check out also obscure British slasher "The Flesh and Blood Show"(1972),which always reminds me "Deliria"!.
And once Soavi has gotten his string of victims out of the way he develops the film into a vividly drawn-out series of suspense sequences - in one scene the heroine is hiding in a shower cubicle as a friend is stabbed by the killer in the adjoining cubicle and she must do all she can to stop her friend crying out for help and giving her presence away; or where a cat trips a fan blowing away a pile of feathers revealing the key embedded in the cracks of the stage and the heroine's suspenseful crawl under the stage to try and get it while the killer sits directly above.Go buy a tub of popcorn and a pepsi, this movie is great..
Directed by Dario Argento's protege Michele Soavi, the film is about a group of actors making a horror-musical(don't ask!).
Cue some great scenes of suspense and violence, great soundtrack and cinematography, above average acting and a neat little twist at the end, and fans of this genre should definitely not be disappointed.It's one of those movies where everybody (almost!) get picked off one after each other and in some sick way you appreciate it for this upfront, 'everyone is dead' attitude.All in all, I give this an 8 as I really enjoyed it and if you like a good, suspenseful horror / thriller which never has a slow point throughout, then I definitely recommend you see this!.
Michele Soavi is the best Italian horror director since Dario Argento, and he even turns in a funny cameo as a cop in this, his directorial debut (if you discount his documentary on Argento).Plus, after many disappointing, silly endings in other slasher movies, we finally get one that really delivers.
Well, thank you very much, Soavi fans, for wasting an hour and a half of my life.Honestly, there is not one single element of this movie that is even tolerable, let alone "good" or "great." The acting is unbearably bad, even for an Italian slasher.
(*** out of *****)Dario Argento understudy Michele Soavi's first film is a slasher gorefest about an escaped mental patient who locks himself up in a theatre with a group of actors rehearsing overnight for an avant-garde musical based on the very same serial killer who's stalking them.
"Opera" is much better in my opinion, but this ambitious little slasher flick is a good start for Soavi.HIGHLIGHT:  Trapped underneath the stage, heroine Alicia (Barbara Cupisti -- also in "Opera") has to work the key to the front door loose from a floor board directly underneath the unsuspecting killer's feet..
I really wonder why so many users get so much excited by this mediocre horror movie.Even if we did not know Soavi was a Argento's protégé,how could we doubt when we see "deliria " aka "stage fright" (not to be mistaken with Hitchcock's work)?This is the same show off,the same gory scenes but there is a very strong difference:Argento's best works did have A SCREENPLAY.His peak "the bird with the crystal plumage" had a labyrinthine story,which encompassed Hitchcock's influence ("rear window" "psycho") but featured a very personal approach.In "deliria" -a tribute to "suspiria",with the actors replacing the ballerinas?-,there's not even the ghost of a tale.It's the umpteenth version of the  Jason style killer,a "chamber" "Friday the 13th"(Well ...
look...who's going to die know?and who'll die the worst death of them all?)The killer dressed as a giant bird might be the only touch originality although it owns a great deal to Argento.The scene with the killer on stage surrounded by his victims as feathers are falling down all over the place could fill us with enthusiasm,but it's really purely formal and displays no necessity other than gratuitous estheticism.Besides,Mario Bava had already done a similar scene in "la casa dell esorcismo" (1975)but this director was eventually betrayed by his producers and hios movie died commercial and artistical death.Even the ending apes "Friday the thirteen" and all its offsprings that throve in the wake of Jason in the eighties :of course it's not over when you think it is.And even when it's over,it might not be over,well you get the picture .The performances consist of screaming (for the girls) and swearing (for the boys).The "suspense" scenes have been seen at least one hundred times or more by the average viewer.Stick with Argento..
StageFright: Aquarius is the result of a man who has worked closely with the forerunners of Italian horror.The story opens with a dramatic theatre scene that's cut short by the play's director, Brandon.
The creepy atmosphere comes into play again towards the end of the movie when the 'slasher trademark' victim has her final duel with the killer; Soavi is able to build up tension through a series of scenes, including one very suspenseful sequence in particular which the key to building is wrenched out of the stage floorboards in front of the killer.
Italian director Michele Soavi directed this artistic and gory slasher movie.
No one who has seen this film will forget the bizarre owl mask donned by the killer (an image that would not be out of place in Franju's Judex), and the scene of him sitting on stage with the posed bodies of his victims, tranquilly stroking a cat as feathers descend on them like snowflakes, is one of the most indelible in the whole of Italian horror.
I can't help but wonder if this is a tongue-in-cheek criticism of the phony-looking blood in most Italian horror films.The cast is quite strong: Barbara Cupisti is a sympathetic heroine, David Brandon is brilliant as the temperamental director (perhaps Soavi was drawing on his experiences with Argento here), and Giovanni Lombardo Radice is pretty amusing as a flamboyantly gay actor.
I remember buying this movie 3 years ago for £5 along with the brilliant "A Blade In The Dark" along with the lackluster "The Drom That Dripped Blood (UK titled Pranks)" and the incredibly dull "Drive In Massacre" and I have to say I was very pleased with this one, I thought this movie was fun and cheesy.Firstly the plot a group of actors rehearsing for a what seems a bad horror like musical end up being trapped in a theatre with an escaped mental patient who was also once an actor whose hell bent on murder as they all do in these types of movies along with his weird and cheesy owl mask teaching these actors the true meaning of the word Stagefright.Although this movie is far from original well what Slasher is, but Stagefright never disappoints.
Well, Soavi is known for his bizarre endings.All in all, really enjoyable movie that I can recommend to any slasher/gore fans out there.Stagefright AKA Deliria gets 8 owl masks out of 10.Peace, Rob. I don't like slasher films, but I loved this..
The fact that the killer decides to don a rather spooky owl mask for the rest of the film, and with the claustrophobic setting of the theatre that the group were locked in, it would have been a lot more fun to play 'guess the killer'.The death scenes were OK by slasher standard but not really worth noting.
In fact maybe the killer Wallace was murdering everyone because he saw them rehearse the play & discovered they were such bad actors?Deliria isn't a classic from the Italian horror genre, it's too routine & predictable for that but it ain't half bad & slasher fans should like it at least.