 Thank you for checking out this no spoilers movie review for the 1987 film stage fright, which is as I've seen it online categorized as a giallo, but I'm not 100% sure it is totally giallo and I'll talk about that during the review. Just wanted to say upfront, this is really funny because the way I'm picking a lot of these the ones that are on the shutter streaming service to do my reviews, I'm posting it in a Facebook group that is I forget specifically what it's called, but it's something like the Joe Bob Briggs Mutants Drive-In, I think it's Joe Bob Briggs Drive-In Mutants group on Facebook. So it's a bunch of people who have shutter obviously have been watching the Joe Bob show. So I keep putting polls in there to say here are three options for shutter films, films that are currently on shutter that I'll do a review for and I let people pick them by voting. People can add to it as well though. So there's been a string of these that people have always been picking giallo. And it's crazy and stage fright once again is technically one of the giallo. So I think it's been like four films in a row that were all giallo. So it's kind of funny. It was a deep red, blood and black lace, knife and heart and now stage fright. So you can check out all those reviews. But I will tell you right now the next one that has clearly already won in the poll is going to be Prince of Darkness, the John Carpenter film. So look forward to that review when I get that one out. Maybe in a week, maybe less. It depends on my timing because I don't do this full time. I don't make any money. So but anyway, let's get into the 1987 film stage fright, which is currently streaming on shutter. So the director of this film is Michel Suave. I don't know if I said that properly Italian. Like I said, this is technically categorized as a giallo. So it is an Italian slasher ish film. So Michel Suave has actually been an actor in a lot of films. He was directed a bunch, but he was in notable. He was an actor in notable films such as City of the Living Dead, phenomena by Dario Argento, Tenebrae by Dario Argento and Opera by Dario Argento, all giallo films. He was also in The New York Ripper and Argento's Demons, which I love, love, love that film. The other ones I've actually not seen, but I need to rectify that. So the very beginning of this film is like nuts. And like I said, no spoilers. So I won't I'm not spoiling anything. I'm talking generalities here. The beginning of this film is very much nuts. And it's it may it gives you this feel a little bit like Phantom of the Paradise, which I also did a review for you can check that out. But then the overall story kind of ties a little bit to Phantom of the Opera. Not quite, but it just gives you like these hints and like feelings of like I feel a little bit like Phantom of the Opera throughout it. But since it's a little more crazy over the top, it skews a little bit more towards Phantom of the Paradise, which is based on Phantom of the Opera, but crazier and more updated and you know, stuff like that. So stage fright just kind of gave me that feel. It's very nuts in the beginning like Phantom of the Paradise. And I guess it makes sense because it's set in a theatrical setting. And for that reason, some of the acting is actually not all that great. Actually some of the acting is just downright terrible. Well, OK, not quite that far. Just not good. I won't say downright terrible, just not good. Some of the acting is not good, but it kind of makes sense because with theatrical with a theatrical setting, theatrical acting is more over the top. It's more really emphasized emotion, really emphasized the words, the dialogue and all that stuff. And I feel like that is at play in this film at times. So if that bothers you, you're not going to dig it. But figure out for yourself if that's something. When I was watching it, though, like the very intro, I'm like, what is this? What is this? There's a saxophone solo in the beginning, a short one, but a saxophone solo. That will give you an idea of how weird the beginning is. But the other thing is that that gets to the music. The soundtrack of this film is all over the place. Some of the music feels like it matches. Some of it feels like it totally doesn't match. There are a bunch of different types of songs that are at play in this. So it feels weird. It's like a song salad of a soundtrack. You're like, pick something and go with it or just pick a few things and go with it because they are all over the place. And I even wrote down in my notes, man, they wail on those synths. There are some synth wailing like you never heard before. And it's over the top and you're just like, calm down, calm down on that synth, man. But yeah, the music in general is nuts like all over the place. There's some enjoyment in that, but there's also some annoyance in that as well. And I'm just like, I don't know. So I would have liked a much better soundtrack to it. Watching something like this and being like, this is a giallo. You really want something like a goblin score, but not everyone can have that. So you get what you get. So for me personally, when I was saying that this is technically a giallo, that's what online it's saying. It didn't feel totally giallo to me because it's a little too straightforward for that. And there are also some other aspects. It's not as stylish as you would think it is. It is Italian. So maybe people just put it in that in the giallo camp because it is Italian and it is it plays out the way it does. But to me, I don't know if people know, I'm sure a lot of people have heard it, but giallo basically informed what became the American slasher film. So the American slasher film is is a devolution in a sense of a giallo because giallo is more complex than slasher. Slashers are very straightforward. It's more of like the stalking killer that you see, you know, who they are and they're coming after people. And it's mainly about the deaths. It's not about unraveling a mystery so much. So for me, this film is actually in the middle. It feels actually a lot more like the bridge between the giallo and the slasher film, which is kind of interesting in itself. And I feel like if you watch it from that perspective, it's kind of a cool case study in how giallo went to slasher, like stage fright is the missing link in how that happened. So and it makes sense time wise because it's a 1987 film and most of the hardcore Italian giallo was done in like the 60s and 70s. So a little bit more in the 80s. But, you know, as you're going more towards the 90s, obviously in the 80s in America is when the slasher really hit. So, you know, 60s, 70s giallo slashers at the very, very end of the 70s. So like 80s and into the 90s and then for stage fright to be an 87. And that's kind of like one of those bridge films. It's just something interesting that occurred to me while I was watching it. So if you watch it, just think about that while you're watching it. I think it's it's neat. Here's another issue with sound. The audio is terrible with this because it fluctuates randomly, totally randomly. It'll be really high at one point to the point where you feel like you have to turn the volume down and then it'll be so low where you're like, I can't even hear what these people are saying. So the the fluctuation in the audio is really bad and it's distracting as well. So that's a big criticism. It seems like a really predictable film. Like I was saying, it's it's relatively straightforward. That's that's not to say that there isn't stuff to enjoy in this. There certainly is. There are actually some really good kill scenes in it, but it's a total mixed bag when it comes to the kill scenes. It's it's just this weird thing where it's like you'll see some of these kills and be like, whoa, that's cool. I've not seen that before. That's very creative. It's inventive. It's interesting. And then it's balanced out by some kills that are just like really quick and totally uninspired and you feel like they they didn't even script it like they just came up with that kill at in the moment where they were just like, oh, we need to kill a character here, but we didn't figure out how to do it. So just like, I don't know, just insinuate that he got killed, you know, and cut away. And so it's weird because you have like these really creative inspired kills and then you have these other kills where it's just like we just needed to kill this character. So so I don't know. It's just kind of odd in my opinion. And I appreciate creative kills in slasher, G.A.L.O. films, whatever. So one of the things that really stood out to me is it really rides so hard. The what am I looking for? The stereotype of the jerk theater director. It rides that character so, so hard. It is beyond ridiculous how unrealistic that character is. Like he's in situations where you're like, even if you're a jerk, like a total jerk, you would not act this way in this situation. And it's, you know, so it's bad writing in that sense. It already talked about the family opera thing. There are some actually really cool like killer point of view shots in the film where it kind of like the camera is like going with it. And not just from the perspective of like, oh, the person doesn't see and it's coming up on him, but also from where they start the shot from. Like being behind some things and kind of like how they navigate through the stuff is very interesting and looks really good. So I really liked a bunch of those shots. And like I said, there's some good kills with the acting. I know I was saying that there's some not good acting in this. Quite a bit of not good acting. There's a lot of bad pauses with the acting, both before they start lines and after they start lines. And, you know, some people may be like, oh, well, maybe it's just because it's it's dubbed in English and it's just, you know, when the English picks up. No, because I was watching and their mouths don't start moving at all until they've waited for a little bit. So there's weird pauses in the acting where like it's like pause, dialogue, pause, and then they go to the next scene or the next person talks. And I don't know if that was a conscious choice or if that was just the actors doing it or what, but it's it doesn't play well. And it really messes up the flow of things, to be honest. You're just like, that's it's just weird. It's it comes off as really weird. And then the other thing is there's there's some positioning of things in the story that don't make sense. Like it messes up continuity with physically where people are and how they get places and where they end up. It just does not actually work. So continuity issues within it. It they're not horrible. They're not totally egregious. And honestly, if you're not like really, really paying attention to the film, you probably won't catch them. But for me, like really watching it with a keen eye, because I'm doing a review on it, it really stood out to me. And I'm just like, oh, that doesn't even make sense. How did this person get here and how did they get from here to here? There's no pathway. It just it's crazy. It's messed up. So that's all I have to say about it pretty much. I know people are like, oh, we hated this film. I didn't hate it. I didn't actually. There's a lot of fun to be had with it, but there are also a lot of problems with it, too. And I think it kind of falls into one of those categories of like, it's an 80s film and people are just more forgiving when it comes to 80s films, because especially with 80s horror, it was just everything, including the kitchen sink, just like anything goes. People just know it was crazy. People know it was crazy. So they're just like, oh, yeah, it's an 80s horror film. That's it's just going to be that way. So they're more forgiving. So honestly, I would put this film at a out of five stars with half stars in play. I got to go with a I'll go with the three with a little bit of that 80s mindset playing into it. I'm going to go with the three. I was between a two and a half and a three, but I think a three because I ultimately I did enjoy it more than being indifferent to it because there are some good kill scenes in it. There there is an interesting story at at the heart of it. It's just there's a lot of other problems. So it's worth a watch, I would say. So check it out if you're if you're so inclined. Anyway, thank you, everyone, for checking this out. Please hit the subscribe. It means a lot for my channel and it can really help me out and encourages me as well. But watch for the review of Prince of Darkness. And thank you for checking this out. Until next time, keep it brutal.