Director Soavi, whose debut this was, is the last of the Italian maestros of Horror to arrive upon the scene – by which time Mario Bava, the greatest among them, was dead and virtually all the rest were already past their prime! For this reason, perhaps, his work has been given slightly more than its due attention: with this I mean that, while the film under review is miles ahead of what was being churned out during the last gasp of "Euro-Cult", it does not really elicit the same level of trashy fun that the Giallo subgenre was well capable of during its heyday (despite the fact that Soavi immediately showed his clout with expert use of the Steadicam throughout, not to mention a clever opening which has a suspenseful murder being revealed as merely part of the show, the relentless and loud synthesizer-based score – which places this firmly in the bland 1980s – is positively annoying)! Still, being the third of his efforts that I have watched (with THE SECT {1991} coming up), I can say that I was only really let down by THE CHURCH (1990) – while his bizarre take on the zombie subgenre CEMETERY MAN (1994) remains, by far, his most sustained outing. Anyway, the film has a gazillion alternate titles – such as BLOODY BIRD and SOUND STAGE MASSACRE but also two in Italian, namely AQUARIUS and DELIRIA; besides, having recently mentioned the 2 differing versions of THE NIGHT CHILD (1975) in my review of that picture, this one has too – with the English-language edition (the one I acquired) being the "Director's Cut", while the Italian release print was actually overseen by Soavi's prolific and versatile mentor i.e. cult figure Joe D'Amato!
The movie is basically a retread of Pete Walker's average THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW (1972) – complete with a deranged actor (named Irving Wallace!) behind the killing spree; convicted, he escapes from the asylum where he was incarcerated – the far-fetched premise being that the leading lady of a theatrical troupe went to a mental hospital to treat a sprained ankle, and the maniac chose just that moment to bolt (hiding in her car throughout the journey back to the venue where rehearsals are under way)! The first (and most outrageously disposed-of) victim, in fact, is the girl's companion who was somehow delayed in joining the others and summarily receives a pick-axe blow to the mouth! Typically, the atmosphere behind-the-scenes was already tense but, with the murder, things naturally escalate to fever-pitch: besides, the ruthless director (David Brandon) even takes advantage of the morbid situation by deciding to open earlier than expected since the public would flock to see a show from which a principal participant (even if the girl was nothing more than a wardrobe assistant!) had been offed! Soon, strange happenings inside the theater make it blatantly clear that someone else is in there with the troupe: by the way, another manipulative touch by the director of the musical being staged is to have the monster (a man in an owl suit seemingly derived from the incredible opening sequence of Georges Franju's JUDEX {1963}) in the show no longer be anonymous but is christened by the name of the real serial-killer so that the director of the movie obviously has him actually assume that role by abducting – he turns up behind the victim mimicking a celebrated scene from Dario Argento's TENEBRE (1982) – and hiding the body of the actor (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, from PHANTOM OF DEATH {1988}) playing him!
The stage is thus set for a bloodbath, with the troupe at the mercy of a maniac who, even if clearly outnumbered, always has the upper hand until the extended climax: one man is found tied upside down from the ceiling; another is perforated via a door and right though his chest with a driller (surely among the Horror genre's most popular killing tools!); about four different people are chopped-up with a chainsaw (ditto) – with Brandon having one arm torn off with it and then beheaded with an axe!; Radice is copped by the members of the troupe itself when, attired just like the killer, they mistake him for their pursuer! It is left to the very same girl (she had been left for dead by an envious colleague, whose own demise the heroine later witnesses) that 'liberated' him to eventually supply the murderer's come-uppance: while he is placing all the victims on the proscenium, with himself presiding over them, she is underneath them all trying to retrieve the all-important key to the main door (a Police car stationed outside, then, is completely oblivious to the massacre, thanks also to the pouring rain!). Anyway, he goes after her, she escapes atop a scaffolding and, when he tries to climb himself, she cuts the thick wire with an axe, dropping him to the ground. However, he rises again (incidentally, the killer remains very much a cipher throughout, in the mould of Michael Myers from the "Halloween" franchise) and is engulfed in flames but he is still not through as, when the heroine returns to the scene of the carnage, he attacks her one more time (why his body should have been left there, when all the others had been removed, is anybody's guess), only now she is saved by the timely intervention of the theatre's gun-toting black caretaker.
The movie is basically a retread of Pete Walker's average THE FLESH AND BLOOD SHOW (1972) – complete with a deranged actor (named Irving Wallace!) behind the killing spree; convicted, he escapes from the asylum where he was incarcerated – the far-fetched premise being that the leading lady of a theatrical troupe went to a mental hospital to treat a sprained ankle, and the maniac chose just that moment to bolt (hiding in her car throughout the journey back to the venue where rehearsals are under way)! The first (and most outrageously disposed-of) victim, in fact, is the girl's companion who was somehow delayed in joining the others and summarily receives a pick-axe blow to the mouth! Typically, the atmosphere behind-the-scenes was already tense but, with the murder, things naturally escalate to fever-pitch: besides, the ruthless director (David Brandon) even takes advantage of the morbid situation by deciding to open earlier than expected since the public would flock to see a show from which a principal participant (even if the girl was nothing more than a wardrobe assistant!) had been offed! Soon, strange happenings inside the theater make it blatantly clear that someone else is in there with the troupe: by the way, another manipulative touch by the director of the musical being staged is to have the monster (a man in an owl suit seemingly derived from the incredible opening sequence of Georges Franju's JUDEX {1963}) in the show no longer be anonymous but is christened by the name of the real serial-killer so that the director of the movie obviously has him actually assume that role by abducting – he turns up behind the victim mimicking a celebrated scene from Dario Argento's TENEBRE (1982) – and hiding the body of the actor (Giovanni Lombardo Radice, from PHANTOM OF DEATH {1988}) playing him!
The stage is thus set for a bloodbath, with the troupe at the mercy of a maniac who, even if clearly outnumbered, always has the upper hand until the extended climax: one man is found tied upside down from the ceiling; another is perforated via a door and right though his chest with a driller (surely among the Horror genre's most popular killing tools!); about four different people are chopped-up with a chainsaw (ditto) – with Brandon having one arm torn off with it and then beheaded with an axe!; Radice is copped by the members of the troupe itself when, attired just like the killer, they mistake him for their pursuer! It is left to the very same girl (she had been left for dead by an envious colleague, whose own demise the heroine later witnesses) that 'liberated' him to eventually supply the murderer's come-uppance: while he is placing all the victims on the proscenium, with himself presiding over them, she is underneath them all trying to retrieve the all-important key to the main door (a Police car stationed outside, then, is completely oblivious to the massacre, thanks also to the pouring rain!). Anyway, he goes after her, she escapes atop a scaffolding and, when he tries to climb himself, she cuts the thick wire with an axe, dropping him to the ground. However, he rises again (incidentally, the killer remains very much a cipher throughout, in the mould of Michael Myers from the "Halloween" franchise) and is engulfed in flames but he is still not through as, when the heroine returns to the scene of the carnage, he attacks her one more time (why his body should have been left there, when all the others had been removed, is anybody's guess), only now she is saved by the timely intervention of the theatre's gun-toting black caretaker.