I was disappointed. It wasn't that scary or smart. Most of the victims had no personality and there's no explanation for the killer escaping the mental hospital and doing this. It had some cool camera techniques. The killer didn't look dead in the final frames. His eyes and mouth moved slightly.

There was a moment two minutes into this movie, when a slasher like scene turned into a Cats-like play, that my mind was blown. And there was a moment halfway through where a body was torn in two that I jumped off my couch, screaming, "Soavi, I love you!"There's no other way to say it — this movie is completely crazy. Is it because of Michael Soavi's (The Sect, Cemetery Man) direction? Or the script from George Eastman (better known Nikos Karamanlis from Antropophagus and, well, kinda sorta Nikos in Absurd, a movie so brutal that it inspired a murderous black metal band)? Why ask questions? Why not just sit back and enjoy the mayhem?The entire movie takes place in a theater, where actors and a crew are creating a musical about the Night Owl, a mass murderer. Alicia (Barbara Cupisti, The Church, Cemetery Man) sprains her ankle, so she and Betty sneak out to a mental hospital to get some help. While there, they see Irving Wallace, a former actor who went on a murder spree, which has continued in the insane asylum. He uses a syringe to kill an attendant and hides in Betty's car.Because Alicia left, the director fires her while Betty is killed with a pickaxe outside. Alicia finds the body and calls the police (one of them is Soavi, who spends an extended scene asking if he looks like James Dean), who lock them inside the theater and guard the premises. Because, you know, that's the way the police handle these things.The director is inspired — the play will now be about Irving Wallace and everyone must stay the night to rehearse, even the rehired Alicia. While rehearsing the first scene, Wallace dons the killer's owl costume and strangles, then stabs one of the other actors in front of everyone.Then, Wallace cuts the phone and starts killing one person at a time. It's at this point that this movie goes off the rails and does some rails. A power drill going through someone? Yep. Hacking someone up with an axe? Yep. A woman cut in half that sprays blood all over an entire room full of people? It's got that, too. A dude getting chainsawed until the saw runs out of gas and then getting decapitated? Oh yes.Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/10/16/stagefright-1987/

"StageFright" (released under varying titles such as "Deliria," "Aquarius," and "Bloody Bird") follows a group of stage actors who are working on an overnight rehearsal for an impending production about a serial killer. When the costume designer is killed in the parking lot that evening, the rehearsals must go on—police are enlisted to watch the building, and the cast and director lock themselves inside. Little do they know, they've also locked in a maniac who recently escaped from a mental institution.In many ways, "StageFright" is about as run-of-the-mill as it could get. The premise is not remarkably original or interesting, and the "escaped lunatic" archetype feels familiar and lazy. The set-up which contains the characters (who are themselves varied in personality) in the theater also seems a bit odd in context. In spite of this, "StageFright" is insanely fun, playfully creepy and chock full of suspenseful scenarios and clever murder sequences that are surprisingly visceral. The villain dons an oversized owl mask from the production, which is surprisingly sinister in appearance.The kills come in rapid succession until about midway through, until the final girl is left to her own accord, which makes for some of the film's most intense and clever scenes. Chase scenes through the rafters, down darkened hallways, and beneath the stage are colorful, well-shot, and well-choreographed. Accentuating the thrills is a jarring late-eighties metal score which does date the film and sound a bit silly at times, but it comes with the territory. The production values are high, which also elevates the proceedings.Overall, "StageFright" is a wildly entertaining slasher flick that is marked by well-managed suspense, brutal murder scenes, and competent direction. Original it is not, but Soavi and the cast hit their marks here. It is a generally clever, well-paced slasher flick; of the crop of them that appeared in the late eighties, it's among the best I've seen. 8/10.

Firstly, "Stagefright: Aquarius" is not a giallo film. Gialli were not just Italian slashers, they were murder mysteries that owed more to Agatha Christie than Wes Craven. There is literally no mystery in this movie. The identity of the killer is never revealed and isn't even treated as a question. The movie also uses that old slasher stand-by of the inescapable location. A group of people are trapped with a masked killer and have to survive long enough to find a way out. We're not surprised when inexplicably, police park outside the place and don't even try to get in.That aside, "Stagefright: Aquarius" is certainly a superior slasher. It's made with style, and even boasts a scene of actual suspense, which is more than I can say for all other slashers. It plays by the rules, as with a killer who you keep thinking might be dead but of course really isn't, but is just a lot better made than the typical US slasher movie.