Stage Fright (2014)

Boring

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

There haven't been many horror/musical mash-ups in the film world. So when I saw Stage Fright available to watch, I thought I'd give it a shot. Much to my surprise, this was a well shot film. It walks a fine line of self parody with the musical numbers, but the horror elements all feel straight laced. The final result is an odd mix that I feel that I wanted to like a lot more than I eventually did.Broadway star Kylie Swanson opened the musical The Haunting of the Opera, an obvious spin on Phantom of the Opera. That same night she was murdered, the killer never found. Ten years later, her two kids help her old manager run an theatre camp for kids. The manager decides to bring back The Haunting of the Opera in an effort to be back on top. Once the rehearsals start, so do the killings.That Broadway star is played by Minnie Driver and her scene is in the opening of this film, that's all. The manager is played by Meat Loaf, his voice isn't the same as if Rocky Horror Picture Show days. The rest of the cast is made up by no name Canadian stars. Yes, this is another Canadian film. The deaths are somewhat creative. The killer seems to like ROCK and ROLL and absolutely HATE theatre musicals. There are a few scenes where they have fun with some red herrings, but not enough in my opinion. If you don't know who the killer is before the reveal, then you don't watch many films. The laughs are few and far between, as are the deaths. It honestly felt like they gave up on the musicals numbers for 2/3's of the film. This attempt at this mash-up tells me one thing. It's not ready yet.

I'm definitely not as skeptical and negative towards the combination "horror + musical" as most people are, or at least I like to think I'm not. In my humble opinion there exist a couple of terrific horror musicals - such as "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", "The Wicker Man", "Sweeney Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street", Dario Argento's "Opera" and "Repo! The Genetic Opera" – but the main question remains, of course, whether a modestly produced slasher like "Stage Fright" from an unknown and debuting director like Jerome Sable can be as good and memorable as any of the aforementioned titles (which are either genuine cult classics or directed by popular film makers). The answer somewhat bounces back and forth between yes and no. "Stage Fright" definitely contains a handful of imaginative ideas and mighty great sequences, but it also suffers from a couple of dreadfully dull parts and it occasionally goes too far over-the-top. The opening sequences of the film are inarguably fantastic and set the tone for what might become a truly barbaric and bloody slasher highlight. After another stellar performance in the acclaimed piece "Haunting of the Opera", musical starlet Kylie Swanson (the one and only Minnie Driver) is savagely stabbed to death by someone wearing the villain's mask, in the presence of her two young children Camilla and Buddy. Ten years later, Kylie's husband and producer Roger (Meat Loaf, oh yes) is running a summer camp for aspiring teenage musical singers – without much financial success, though – and her offspring works in the kitchen of this same camp. The new batch of singers arrives and the obnoxious art director decides that they will perform "Haunting of the Opera" at the end of summer camp. Camilla sees her chance to follow into the footsteps of her mother and auditions for the female lead role, much against the will of other girl campers and her own brother Buddy. Jealousy, treason, rivalry and sabotage ensue, but that's not all. The vicious killer pops up again as well, and expresses his/her hatred towards musicals by butchering people left and right. Okay, so the opening massacre is awesome. What else? Most the songs are actually very good and mix hysterical lyrics with nice rhythms and lovely singing voices. My personal favorite is the camp entrance song "Where we Belong", featuring lyrics like "I've got beaten up a dozen times for singing songs and sometimes rhymes. Those school bullies sound awful bad. What school buddies, that was just my dad!". The cast is terrific as well, with particularly the beautiful and sexy Allie MacDonald leaving a great impression, and the script contains numerous successful tongue-in-cheek references towards traditional slasher clichés (suspicious hillbilly janitor, anyone?) and summer camp classics. Negative elements include a few too many tedious sequences, notably during the musical premiere, and a too absurd maniacal killer character with Kabuki mask and a passion for metal music. The identity of the killer is so damn obvious, by the way, that I presume it's also part of the overall parody. Warmly recommended in case you like the slasher genre and all of its nowadays homage films, and also recommended of course if "you're gay but not in that way".

Let's start with country of origin.Lately the "smart" thing to do with Canadian movies is label them as US and hope no one notices. This is an attempt to remove Canadian films from the stigma of "for the money" productions which invariably results in some of the worst quality product in the history of the medium.(Here is an FYI -- the Canadian film industry was created by an eccentric "consultant" to a former Canadian parliamentary Secretary of State who worked for $1 a year and wrote the original white paper explaining how tax incentives could be used to kick start an industry. That was in the 1970s -- and the Canadian industry has been trying to hide from its crude origins ever since.) The movie is much much better than the reviews suggest. To start with, it takes brass balls (which BTW is a nautical term, look it up) to even attempt to combine a slasher film with a musical, and cast it (save for Driver and the irrepressible Meatloaf) with unknowns.But the ultimate test of any film is, and always will be, does it entertain?, does it connect?, and here the production is consistently of high quality and yes indeed it is a fun watch.This is also a "Lantos" pedigree film, which is meaningful only if you are student of Canadian cinema, a fact (as above) this film tries to hide.Recommended.In fact, if the film ever decides to come out of the closet, it is one of the most interesting Canadian efforts ever.

This film is excellent - but it may not be for you if you don't enjoy both irreverent musical comedies -and- slasher films of both the serious and guilty pleasure variety.So if you really enjoyed Pitch Perfect, Scream, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and have seen more than a few stage musicals, then this might just make your night.The only reason this doesn't have a better rating (its currently at a 5, which to me is a crime) is because viewers come to it expecting a slasher, and hate the musical comedy, OR they come to it expecting a musical comedy, and don't like the gore. Or they come to it to see meatloaf - who here plays and sings very much against type, and feel cheated.This is smart, amusing, and will tickle the right people in the right places.