Disc Reviews
Stage Fright Blu-ray Review
There is a serial killer on the loose – and what better place for them to hide than in an old theatre with an acting troupe who are putting on a show about a serial killer on the loose. The group find themselves trapped in the building with the maniac and have to run from one area of the building to the next to evade the killer as he picks them off one by one.
It’s time like this that you feel glad to be a Blu-ray lover. You watch all the usual releases of films that came out in the cinema a few months previously – sometimes they have decent extras packages, sometimes not. More often than not the picture and sound is good as the film is new. It’s rare to get a truly awful looking and sounding new film on blu-ray (although they do exist).
But the true joy of an avid Blu-ray collector is when an older film gets a release. More to the point – when a classic gets a release in a version that has restored picture and sound to a high standard letting you view and hear the film like nothing before. And to boot – a vast array of extras ranging from feature length documentaries and commentaries to the marketing materials used at the time to sell the film.
It’s a joy then that Michele Soavi’s Italian Horror cult classic Stage Fright (Yes we know it has about five other titles Aquarius, Deleria, Blood Bird etc) is finally getting the upgrade it deserves.
Stagefright has had various releases on DVD and all too often the picture and sound has not been behaving it’s best. When news of a Blu-ray release came to us, it was via someone who contributed to the extras on the disc who claimed that this was for the special edition Blu-ray. Immediately our questions were aimed at what extras were going to be on the package. The thought of sound and picture restoration never entered our head as this was probably unlikely to have much of a budget thrown at it.
How wrong we were. Someone out there clearly loves Soavi and his work. The print has been colour timed and encoded to a high quality. Fans familiar with the film can now delight in a detail picture full of light and nicely focused surfaces without too much grain or fuzz to detract them from the visual pleases the film has to offer.
With a film that is largely dubbed there is only so much you can do to improve the sound, but it’s fair enough.
Looking at the extras of the disc, Exposure Cinema have done what they can for this getting interviews with the leading actresses and the director; although there isn’t enough focus on the making of the actual film itself. Often there is chatter about early careers and interest in the genre from Soavi which is interesting, but there isn’t enough actual delving into the production of the film from his part.
There is plenty of mention of the producer Joe D’Amato – and even a retro documentary on his work. There is also a short documentary about the VHS video tape.
UK Horror critic Alan Jones steps in for an almost half hour interview (Although we suspect the interview is at least half this time and is cut up with clips and edited montages). We expected a Commentary from Jones who has done similar work of various Argento releases, but sadly it is not to be here.
It’s worth mentioning that many of the interviews and features are in Italian with subtitles, but the content of what people say is worth the listen. Non Italian speakers will just have to read along for a bit.
Overall this is a good enough package. The extras aren’t always what you expect but there are at least some new content from the filmmakers looking back at a time long gone – not just in their careers but also in Italian cinema over all.
But when it comes down to it – it is the film that is going to do the heavy lifting in terms of selling discs and the time and effort put into upgrading will surely pay off. Stage Fright has never looked so good.
Steven Hurst