Stage Fright

Stage Fright (Deliria, 1987) is an Italian slasher directed by Michele Soavi — his debut feature — available to watch online on iFILM. A theatre company rehearses a musical built around the story of a serial killer. While they're locked inside for the night, an actual psychopath escapes from the psychiatric facility next door and finds his way in.

Soavi trained under Dario Argento, and it shows. The kills are staged as theatrical set pieces — geometric lighting, long shadows, and a giant owl mask that somehow never looks ridiculous. Barbara Cupisti plays the actress who figures out what is happening while everyone else is too deep in rehearsal mode to notice. The film never bothers with motive or backstory; it is entirely interested in the architecture of a locked space and how long it takes panic to set in.

For Italian genre cinema of the 1980s, it is one of the tighter entries — no mid-act drift, no padding, and a conclusion that does not oversell itself. Stream Stage Fright (1987) on iFILM.