Product Details

• Actors: Richard Barkeley, David Brandon (II), Barbara Cupisti, Domenico Fiore, Robert Gligorov
• Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• DVD Release Date: February 19, 2002
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005RYLB
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,089 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Stage Fright" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shocking thriller from the director of Cemetery Man..., February 24, 2002

By 

jeffrey e mcgivney (Ridgewood, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stage Fright (DVD)

This is the debut film of Michele Soavi, director of the classic Cemetery Man. Soavi, who worked as assistant director to Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava among others, has crafted an intense and stylish slasher about an escaped homicidal maniac stalking the cast and crew of a musical that have decided to base their play on him. With brutally gory scares and an overpowering claustrophobic atmosphere, this has some stunning sequences that outshine many of its American counterparts that came out in the 80's (especially in a scene where one of the castmembers must retrieve a key, in order to escape, from underneath the killers feet!). Look for John Morghen (Gates Of Hell, Make Them Die Slowly) in a small role. This release from Anchor Bay is a great transfer (restored from original Rome vault materials) and is totally uncut.
On a side note- Director Terry Gilliam met Soavi at the Brussels Fantasy Film Festival where Stagefright was being shown.He liked this film so much that he made Soavi a 2nd unit director on his next film-The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary,suspenseful, and fun!, April 20, 2002

By 

Nate (IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stage Fright (DVD)

Stage Fright is one of the scariest slasher films ever that almost matches up with Halloween and Psycho. The plot is simple:
Alicia, who is working on a play that is about a psycho killer dressed as an owl, hurts her ankle on set and then her costume lady named Betty sneaks her out of rehearsal and takes her to the nearest hospital. But it isn't just a hospital, it ends up being a mental institution! Still, the doctor there agrees to look at Alicia's ankle. Staying at that hospital is Irving Wallace, a beserk actor who took 16 people and "cut them into little pieces!". He is staying there because the court is reviewing his trial. Betty and Alicia go back to the theater when they're done, but they end up bringing Irving Wallace back with them because they forgot to lock the door to the car!
*Spoiler Warining* Soon after Alicia is fired for sneaking out by the director of the play named Peter, who needed her while she was gone. Betty goes back out to her car because she left her lights on and is then murdered by Irving Wallace (I won't say how, it's pretty creative). After the police come and take away her body, Peter tells Newspaper Journalist Mr. Ferrari that he will take Betty's murder as an advertisement and pull opening night back a week to encourage more people to come.
Peter asks 8 people in the production to stay and rehearse all night. They are actors Brett, Laurel, Cibil, Corrine, Danny, Alicia, assistant director Mark, and journalist Farrari. Peter asks Corrine to lock all the doors to the theater and hide the key so nobody will be able to get out and they will have to rehearse all night. Unfortunatly, Irving Wallace gets locked in along with them, and steals Brett's owl costume and walks around the theater with it. Soon after, Brett dissapears and during rehearsal on stage in front of everyone's eyes, Irving Wallace murders Corrine. Corrine was the only one who knew where the key was, and Irving pulled out the wires to the telephones, so they are trapped in there and they have to find the hiddent key to get out to the 2 policeman outside in a car. Irving Wallace starts murdering them one by one in gruesome fashion.
This movie is stunning. The soundtrack is great, the music loud and suspenseful. The gore level is high and the special effects are great. The cinematography is outstanding, especially during the fish tank scene and a certain scene at the end that will definatly have you on the edge of your seat.
Stage Fright is one of the best slasher films ever. Definatly comes close to Halloween and Psycho. Director Soavi is a great director for this film. This is highly recommended to horror film fans, even recammended to people who don't like horror films.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars HALL -OWL- WEEN, March 21, 2002

By 

Daniel S. "Daniel" (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stage Fright (DVD)

The first fiction movie of Michele Soavi is a very good surprise for the amateur of horror flicks. I mean of good horror flicks because, believe me or not, those movies exist but you must have a strong stomach and a lot of patience to discover them amidst the vast choice available. STAGE FRIGHT belongs to the peculiar sub-genre of the psycho-thriller, a genre directly inspired by Agatha Christie's AND THEN THEY WERE NONE. Take a dozen innocent victims and a madman with a mask and that's it.

From these premises on, directors reveal their peculiar skills or interests : some are, to speak frankly, would-be surgeons and like to fill the screen with gallons of blood during 90 minutes, some are more interested in the possibility to discover new ways of killing and the others seem to have accepted the job only in order to pay their taxes. Those directors are of no interest to me so I just skip them.

But Michele Soavi's STAGE FRIGHT reveals an authentic filmmaker. Locked in a theater, nine actors and a director must defend themselves against a madman who's just escaped from the local asylum. Like Jason or HALLOWEEN's Michael Myers, this madman wears a mask, the mask of an owl. And that's really innovative and scary. But completely stupid as the audience knows from the beginning of the movie on that the killer is Irving Wallace (not a spoiler), a serial killer.

So, from the moment one understands that the director's purpose is not to revolutionize the genre but rather to pay an homage to his colleagues and to the best scenes presented so far - in 1987 - , the movie stops being only a scary flick and becomes a wonderful journey through the annals of the cinema of horror. I've particularly liked the homage to THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, a scene filled with a visual poesy one rarely finds in such movies.

Of course, Soavi didn't have an enormous budget to spend, certain characters don't have much to say and the actors are a little amateurish at times but who cares after all, STAGE FRIGHT delivering a subtle pleasure that blockbusters unfortunately can't give anymore nowadays.

Superb transfer from Anchor Bay, a trailer and a biography of the director as bonus pictures.

A DVD zone screaming room.