STAGE FRIGHT is a fun homage to the slasher movies of the 1980s as it is an enjoyable horror musical mixed with a dash of comedy.   The film revolves around Camilla Swanson (Allie MacDonald), a teenager with dreams of stardom to follow in her mother‘s footsteps, and the goings on at a performing arts camp run by her step father (Meat Loaf Aday).  She sneaks into audition for the part her mother played ten years ago in a new version of The Haunting of the Opera (a parody of The Phantom of the Opera) done in kabuki, but soon someone wants to stop the play from happening. Camilla’s brother Buddy wants to get out of the camp and start a restaurant with Camilla, but Camilla will not have it because she wants to pursue her theater acting dreams.  

 

The first half of the movie is great with its nice blend of comedy, musical, and slasher genres, but it starts to get a little repetitive in the second act and seems to lose some steam in the third act.  The reveal of the masked heavy metal slasher makes sense, but STAGE FRIGHT really seems to drag its feet after that where the ending coda almost makes up for it.  I wish they showed more of the opening night of the play and that is where the film gets into trouble as it can’t make up its mind to be a slasher film, a musical comedy, or both.  It sadly doesn’t recover from it and that prevents STAGE FRIGHT from being more than just a fun good homage mix of genres instead of a cult classic it could have been.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio Commentary with Writer/ Director/ Co-Composer Jerome Sable and Co-Composer Eli Batalion

 

THE MAKING OF STAGE FRIGHT- a ten minute making-of featurette that has interviews with cast and crew about this movie filmed in Ontario.

 

Two deleted scenes which I think should have been left in the film that includes a scene that takes place after the last scene in the film.

IN MEMORY OF A FALLEN CAMPER has two minutes of deleted bits from a minor character named Bethany (who thinks she is Liza).

 

Interview with Writer/ Director/ Co-Composer Jerome Sable and Co-Composer Eli Batalion

THE EVOLUTION OF SET DESIGN- a moving slide show of production art of the movie

AXS TV: A LOOK AT STAGE FRIGHT- a three minute promotional fluff piece

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  STAGE FRIGHT is a great horror musical that will be fan of 1980s horror films and horror fans that are looking for something different, but the missteps in the third act prevent it from being a cult classic. 

 

This blu-ray review is ©7-8-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

Like Enterline Media on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/enterlinemediaweb and follow on tumblr at http://enterlinemedia.tumblr.com