User Reviews

I told some friends that there was a comedy-horror-musical mash-up at the Sydney Film Festival and was politely relegated to seeing this one on my own. 'Stage Fright' is an acquired taste, a film one could relish for one or more of three reasons and otherwise better avoided at the peril of a confusing, disjointed genre mash-up which can best be described as a combination of Phantom of the Opera, Scary Movie and Glee.

Camilla Swanson (Allie MacDonald) and her brother are young kitchen-hands at a musical theatre camp where every year hordes of pretentious children come together to stage a musical. Their boss/guardian Roger McCall (Meatloaf) took them in ten years earlier after their mother (Minnie Driver) was stabbed to death by a mysterious masked phantom on the opening night of 'Haunting of the Opera.' The kids decide to stage a revival of the musical when a mysterious rock 'n roll specter begins to haunt the camp and pick off nasty students while the survivors, including star Camilla, prep for opening night.

It's what it sounds, and there's three reasons to go see it, or not.

A. Genre Mash-up

For those who like original experimental productions this may be just the thing for you with a relatively unique combination of genres prevalent throughout the film. In something reminiscent of Dr Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog (or for any who had the good fortune to see the staged version of Re-animator: The Musical) 'Stage Fright' blends gory themes and action with hoppy music to alleviate the tension of macabre acts of butchery like seeing someone repeatedly stabbed in the face. It makes strong violence, something that would otherwise seem excessive and gratuitous, an act of comic terror and delight. It helps when the guy committing these heinous acts does so to progressive 80′s rock on a six-string topped with a steak knife between the frets ready to go.

It is graphic and there are genuinely frightening moments but 'Stage Fright' is more akin to the second half of Cabin in the Woods where everyone has kind of cottoned on to the joke and you can sit back and enjoy yourself.

B. Pretentious wannabe Idina Menzels

If you've ever worked on a staged production, or a musical, or even a short film, you have likely encountered them. You know who I'm talking about, whether its actors, creative, crew, whomever, there are many who believe that they are not so much better and more eclectically talented than their peers but that the very production is graced to have them and their radiant genius shine on the tattered mess that was this play before they arrived.

'Stage Fright' really plays this up; the Director of the show envisions in no uncertain terms that a postmodern version of 'Haunting of the Opera' set in feudal Japan will really bring out the truth of the characters. Camp ringleader (who while having a character name is perhaps best referred to as Veruca Salt) undermines Camilla at every turn including attempting a fateful Carrie-esque red paint incident to ensure she gets the lead role in the production.

The Stage Manager takes his job way to seriously and if like me you've been involved in production crews or revues or theatre of any kind you're going to appreciate the none too subtle competition between the characters and all-enveloping personalities of the most obnoxious children. There is a scene where they debate whether it is right to cancel the play following the death of a key crew member; for those who have experienced the drama before an opening night this barely registers as parody.

C. Meatloaf is in a film. Seriously.

I am a Meatloaf fan, and I am not alone. I saw him when he came to Sydney in 2011, my friends wanted to cancel their tickets along with many others after they heard him sing at the AFL Grand Final, but I convinced them to come along with me. And we had fun, there's nothing like 10,000 people screaming out Bat out of Hell being lead on by the man himself.

For those of you who are Meatloaf fans and stuck it out with the aging artist you will thoroughly enjoy seeing him in a feature role. Even if his voice has diminished and his singing scenes are few, it is a pleasure to watch the man perform.

I would recommend you see 'Stage Fright' if you can tick at least two of the three boxes, otherwise you will be very frustrated and in a perpetual state of confusion, much like the characters in this film. This movie doesn't go by the traditional ABCs of film-making, it makes its own, and if you're like me and tick all three boxes then go and have some toe-tapping fun.

With a strong cast this "Movie/Movie" style parody of the Camp Rock and classic slasher films is not quite as bad as it could have been. While I really didn't Enjoy this movie more than a little bit, there is still something unique, and slightly entertaining going on that just might keep your mind off of other stuff. The singing is not all cheese surprisingly, there is some really good music, and some of the songs can be funny. Meat Loaf, and Minnie Driver are among a minority of adults, and they are surrounded by some young actors who are really committed. I can recommend this movie to families who watch Horror together, or people really tired of summer camp movies, but that still long for a sing along. Mostly though I think this movie is not nearly good enough, but it's really not terrible either.

Bought this a while back on DVD but never got around to watching till just now.

The film follows a group of upcoming Theatre Musical Stars at a Camp Site Holiday Park who are taking part in a Broadway Musical for Judges to watch & potentially make them big & famous. But a killer is on the loose to make sure the show never sees the light of day as one by one, the cast members get killed off.

I found the film to be pretty dumb, I didn't expect it to be a musical which I then rolled my eyes at as soon as the cast members started to sing, however I did find the song for the opening of the Camp Site amusing! The deaths while gory, were somewhat dumb & campy themselves. Reminiscent to Friday 13th, Hellraiser & Halloween, this film does make some good references.

The story-line was thin & the villain was boring. Both lacked impact to say the least. The twist at the end wasn't all that great in either. The musical side of the film just didn't help & took away from the seriousness as with the campiness of the film itself. The eye candy from the actresses was great especially the lead & her rival.

Overall, not a great film at all. If you like campy horrors that are dumb, this'll be for you. However, if you want a serious horror with a good story-line, high body counts & serious gore, you'll be disappointed with this one for sure.

2/10.

If you love slasher movies and hate musicals.. then this film is not for you. But if you LOVE slashers and don't mind some musicals with horror aspects such as 'Sweeney Todd' or 'Rocky Horror' you will love this. The killer is done in a way if the writers mixed Ghostface with Freddy Krueger's humor and puns, then made the killer wear a mask with a similar design to Billy from Saw. The movie contains great actors such as Good will hunting's Minnie Driver and musician Meat Loaf, with songs in the style of an old 'Annie' theater feel and then makes the movie step up to the horror game when the killer has his music moments; singing in the style of an Ozzy Osbourne song.

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.

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.

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.