Stage Fright (2014)

Touches You

The Worst Film Ever

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I remember hearing about this some time ago and thinking that the idea of mixing musical theatre and slasher could be quite interesting, even though it doesn't sound that intriguing, but I was willing to give it a shot and the results were actually pretty good, but overall pretty much a mixed bag.The opening of this starts off quite promising where you think you've seen a murder, but then pulls away and turns out to be a performance, which worked , and then later the real murder happens which was full of tension and thrills and I was genuinely excited to see what was to come next. But while most of this movie was interesting and the leading characters were decent, it just doesn't quite reach its full potential, as for one thing after the first murder, no more happen for quite a while and the rest of time is more like a teen filled drama with a bunch of unmemorable musical numbers thrown in to pad out the running time. But when the murders do happen, that's when things really get going and highly enjoyable. But another thing that fails to work is the mystery element of the killer which was sadly disappointing and way too predictable, and to be honest when the killer started singing, I just found that way too stupid.The performances though do make this work the main girl Allie MacDonald was pretty good and convincing in her performance. Douglas Smith also gives a standout as her brother and very likable and even Meat Loaf was fun and wonderfully over the top as the owner of the camp. Then Minnie Driver was wonderfully fine in her brief but memorable role at the beginning of the movie, which really did set the tone for the rest of the movie.All in all Stage Fright is a decent effort that tries something different with mixing two genres, but doesn't quite succeed , but with good performances and good kills it's still a entertaining watch.

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.

Imagine if you took Disney's High School Musical series, threw in some stoned-looking teenagers, gay bashing comments, cursing and bad singing, along with a cliché story about an unoriginal slasher movie killer. Well, if that's your thing, then here you go! The acting was terrible, especially from the girl (main protagonist). She is a ditz, a bimbo and she dresses like a twelve-year-old, not to mention she looks like she's on something. For some unknown reason the singer Meat Loaf was in the cast, no idea why he's there. Perhaps the script writers were very drunk, or had gotten into the Windex in the custodian's closet of the film studio, I don't know. I think it's supposed to be a black comedy movie but I just didn't find the humor in it.The singing (yes it's a slasher musical), was weird and awful. Take several cats and chuck them in a dishwasher and you'll get a similar melody. The plot is weird and the movie seems aimed at kids ages 12 to 18 rather than the usual 18+ audiences of horror. Every character was shallow, there's even a girl who offers sex to a nerdy guy so he'll rig the voting for the lead actress in the theater camp's play.All in all this was pretty bad, no nicer way of putting it. I don't even want to know what the producers were thinking coming up with something like this.

The film starts with Minnie Driver being stabbed in the throat several times after a performance of Haunting At The Opera.Flash forward several years, and her two children are still traumatised by the act, but they are at performing school, which is being run by Meatloaf, and guess what the production is this year? Yep, it's Haunting, but with an oriental twist......It's like Glee meeting Friday the 13th by way of Repo! And its a pretty good attempt at something different, albeit very, very odd at times.But it's been done before, thanks to Repo! And the music was a lot better in that movie, so this, because its trying so hard to be different, seems so old because that film did it six years earlier.But it's still fun, and its retro feel gives more of a nod to Sleepaway Camp, and Slaughter High, rather than Elm Street an other well known slasher flicks.The big reveal isn't much of a twist. And the gore isn't a problem, but it's well acted, and never outstays its welcome.