I'm not as skeptical and negative towards the combination "horror + musical" as most people, or at least I 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 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" 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) is running a summer camp for aspiring teenage musical singers (without much financial success) 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 its nowadays homage films.
The answer somewhat bounces back and forth between yes and no. "Stage Fright" 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) is running a summer camp for aspiring teenage musical singers (without much financial success) 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 its nowadays homage films.