Although Stage Fright shares the same type of killer as John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) (a masked escaped mental patient and a high body count), the similarities pretty much end there. All of the action, apart from one scene, takes place in one location; a theatre. A group of actors are rehearsing a play/art piece (and a weird one, at that). The director is stereotypical: arrogant, mean, controlling, and spiteful. He lays down the directive that no one is allowed to leave the theatre, no matter what, and takes pains to actually lock the doors and hide the key (yes, you know where that’s going, don’t you?).

The cast of actors/dancers features Giovanni Lombardo Radice AKA John Morghen, the journeyman of Italian extreme cinema. If you’ve watched any Italian horror from the 1980s, you’ll recognize him instantly. In the piece being rehearsed, Morghen is the person wearing the ever-present Owl mask. Or is he? We get little back stories on everyone (even if it’s only one or two lines to tell us who they are): the shy costumer, the put-upon stage manager, the pregnant couple, the beautiful lead actress who fucked the director and is now paying the price, etc. My husband says it’s one of the most accurate portrayals of what goes on backstage during rehearsals that he’s ever seen on film. Once the killer gains entrance into the locked theatre, the slaughter commences.