Theatre of the absurd
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Stage Fright
Dir Michele Soavi, Italy 1987 Shameless Films, Blu-ray, £17.99
The debut feature from Dario Argento’s one-time protégé Michele Soavi, could have been the beginning of a new era for Italian horror cinema. Argento’s powers were starting to show signs of waning – 1985’s was especially poorly received – and the genre needed someone to step into the great man’s shoes. Soavi was an assistant director on that film and its predecessor ; in an interview on this Blu-ray release he states that being an AD for the great man Soavi was contacted by Aristide Massacessi (aka, among many other names, Joe D’Amato), the prolific director of Italian horror and porn films that can most kindly be described as workmanlike, who suggested Soavi direct a feature with Massacessi producing. Another Italian genre legend Luigi Montefiori (aka, among many other names, George Eastman) came up with a story idea and a script and shooting began.
