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StageFright

StageFright is a 1987 film from Italy, directed by Michele Soavi, running 90 minutes. reelscum files it under giallo and slasher.

Poster for StageFright
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Year
1987 · 1980s films
Country
Italy
Runtime
90 min
Director
Michele Soavi
Updated
10 Aug 2026
Obscurity
known (33/100)
Also known as
Bloody Bird · Stage Fright · Deliria: Aquarius · StageFright: Aquarius · Sound Stage Massacre

Defined in the glossary: Giallo, Slasher

A killer in a giant owl mask, a locked theatre, and Soavi announcing himself.

Michele Soavi came off Argento's crew and made his debut with a theatre troupe rehearsing a musical about a mass murderer, locked into the building overnight with a real one who has pulled on the show's giant owl-head costume. The one-set siege and the closing tableau of a feather-strewn stage under a single work light are staged with far more control than the late-Eighties slasher had any right to. Often called the last great Italian slasher, and you can see the case.

Argento's gloss without the plot holes, plus an owl.

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The cycle in depth

  • The giallo, 1963 to 1976

    A line of yellow paperbacks, a killer in black gloves, and Mario Bava building the American slasher a decade before Hollywood cashed the cheque.

Filed alongside

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