Strangely Compelling Stage Fright

Something about the featurette (below) for 'Stage Fright' gets under your skin (sorry). This movie has that knowing quality, which can't be faked, that you get in rare horror movies that attempt to bring life into focus for anxious teens every ten years or so -- like Friday the 13th, Halloween, Alien -- when the director and/or writer successfully taps, drills down into, what really worries young people. In this case, it's the stage, specifically musical theater. Kids will squirm in their seats whenever any character starts singing, or is about to go on stage. Really, the idea of performing, especially in a musical, is one of the true horrors in life for a lot of people. It just scares us, especially at that age. 

Few places could be more frightening to most teenagers than a camp (that's probably next to a creepy lake) out in the middle of the woods, where you go to practice the arts of song and dramatic presentation where, while you nervously await your turn under the spotlight, you eat and sleep and possibly even shower next to strangers for an entire summer. 

The milieu supports suspense and has a natural visual flair -- the costumes, make-up, bad actors delivering hammed-up dialogue, people wearing masks -- and this theatrical killer would be (too) hokey in a normal setting like, say, the average high school. Being at a music summer camp also makes it possible to get pop opera or Broadway-esque tunes into the mix -- a rare thing for the genre, unless the music is hip-hop, or the movie is about cut-throat dance teams one-upping each other, which makes for a strange brand of comic relief that's also scary, given that the audience will almost certainly be horrified by watching people actually sing. Well, the kids may wince at first but will end up loving the numbers, I'm sure.

















Plus, this has Minnie Driver and Meat Loaf -- a combination that brings with it a certain charm and curiosity -- and is directed by first-timer Jerome Sable, who also wrote the script and the songs.

This could become a rental cult fave, but it might get traction at the box office. I'm hooked.