Stage Fright opens with blatant false advertising “Based on true events. The musical sequences are shot as they happened.” Well colour me vaguely intrigued.
Five minutes later and I realise that this is an actual musical, with songs, dancing, rounds and everything.
Intrigue levels… falling.
Just how many kids who were present at the bloody death of their actress singer mum, would opt for a life spent in musical theatre – even in the periphery as the cast’s kitchen hands? Not many I would venture, but Camilla and Buddy Swanson are cut from a different cloth. Camilla evens goes as far as to audition for the lead role in the new play, that made famous by her own mother on the very night of her murder.
While initially reticent, producer and music camp facilitator Roger permits the audition, so long as Camilla is treated no different to any other cast member. Apparently that means she must put up with the lecherous advances of the egotistical director of the play, as well as the resentment of Buddy, who must pull double duty while she skips the kitchen for rehearsal.
It’s funny, but I always thought that Glee would be a hundred times better if someone came in half way and murdered everyone in gratuitously bloody fashion. But when the violence finally befalls this all-too-camp camp it seems incongruous and forced. It’s hard enough putting up with the normal run of the mill teens in any slasher, it’s tortuous to have to put up with them singing their way to death.
And when the film actually tried to pull off the audience slow-clap thing near the end of the film, I shed a single, very theatrical, tear. Mainly for my last 80 misspent minutes.
Final Rating – 5 / 10. For anyone who ever wondered why no one thought to splice horror and musical genres together – here’s why.
