It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Arriving at a special summer camp, a musically-inclined teen finds that the chance to reprise the last role her mother played has now earmarked her for death when a vicious serial killer begins targeting the others at the cast, forcing her to unmask the killer before it's too late.This one wasn't all that bad of a slasher effort. What really makes this one work nicely is the interplay between the musical numbers and the more slasher movie aesthetics. Due to the vast majority of the first half being built around the setup for the initial play, complete with all the traditional backstabbing and drama that occurs in such productions, this one really piles on the musical attributes by not only providing plenty of solid musical interludes to carry this one along. That way, when the film moves into the slasher aspects in the second half, this one has quite the steady background to build off of which generates some really enjoyable slasher set- pieces. The first attack, where the killer emerges from behind the video-screen and launches an attack on the lone figure on the stage of the theater, gives this a strong start to lead into the scenes of him backstage during the performance killing them off in a series of solid ambushes in the coatroom, a fine bashing in a steam-filled shower and a brutal brawl in the kitchen which is all rather fun overall. That really leads into the rather fun finale where the series of battles back-and- forth across the camp give this a nice bit of action while also managing to feature the fun performance being played during this chase backstage that gives this some dual action scenes with some comedy and a nice bit of action with some solid gory kills thrown in. Alongside the somewhat zippy songs being sung that aren't so terrible, these all hold off the film's somewhat minor if rather problematic issues. The biggest factor holding this one down is the issue of the musically-inclined first half that really keeps the slashing to a real low-point. Hardly anyone is offed much less attacked during the first forty-five minutes or so, and it does manage to really feel it with the extraneous scenes of the groups' backstage politics and backstabbing that carries so much of these scenes without really featuring any of the more traditional slasher sequences beyond knowing that a killer is present. This can make for a somewhat challenging start here for some who aren't expecting that kind of layoff for a slasher film and it does make the film a struggle to get through. The other issue here is the fact that there's such a low body-count here that it never really develops a chance to make the killer threatening by keeping him on the sidelines for such much of the film and then rushing through the finale. While some might not enjoy the musical aspect of a horror film that much, beyond these issues, the film doesn't really come off that badly.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and a mild sex scene.

A horror comedy slasher musical might not sound that great for many but I found it to be rather entertaining.For the record it's not non-stop singing although there is a lot of it so if you're allergic to musical numbers then perhaps this is not for you.It's pretty cool though that the killer sings heavy metal songs while slashing people up, and yes it gets real bloody at times which looks real neat and make it more fun.The acting is fine, nothing amazing but they do what their characters asks of them to do... Minnie Driver who has top-billing here is only in it or about 13 minutes so if you want to see it just for the sake of her, well don't expect too much of her... Meat Loaf is in it more, which is fine cause he is a pretty good actor other than that the cast is fairly unknown, Douglas Smith some might recognise from 'Big Love' and he's good too.A little drawn out here and there and some songs are better than others but overall amusing movie that I would watch again.

I didn't know what to expect going into this; I figured it was going to be either really fun or really bad. Fortunately, it was the former. I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to campy movies and horror, although I prefer more emphasis on horror, creepiness, action, or weirdness, and less on the humor (which has more potential to grate on me). I can get turned off by movies that try too hard to be funny or quirky-- Kevin Smith's Tusk is a good example of a failure of both. But this movie doesn't take itself seriously for a second.People are labeling this as "horror musical," a very small subgenre with only a handful of films as far as I know (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Little Shop of Horrors, Cannibal: The Musical are the best known). But it's more like a good horror comedy, like Shaun of the Dead or Housebound than it is like Rocky Horror Picture Show--more likely to appeal to horror fans than to musical or theater fans (who don't otherwise enjoy horror). It's a twist on the slasher genre, and as such, it's got more teeth and violence, even though, like most horror comedies, it's not really scary or creepy.I'm not a fan of show tunes, even show tunes mocking show tunes, but somehow I didn't mind it here--you don't have to know much about musical theater to get most of the jokes or to find the songs funny. They play on the stereotypes of the self-important, sleep-with-me-to-get-the-part director, ego-driven prima donnas (actors and actresses--not sure if there are separate names), flamboyantly gay men as part of the biz, and musical actors in general being dorks and outcasts. It might be a bit cliché, but it's done in a way that's not overkill, and it segues from the musical part to the horror part at just the right time, in terms of pacing.The masked killer's hatred for musicals reflects in more than just the act of killing; the death scenes get spiked with heavy metal guitar wailing, and the killer even throws in some high-pitch maniacal singing. As a fan of metal, this was a treat, but the contrast just made it all the more hilarious and ridiculous.None of the characters are especially memorable, and the protagonist Camilla (aptly played by the sweetly innocent Allie MacDonald) is not much more than your average virginal damsel in distress, but all the roles seem to play off each other well, and the plot has enough twists and turns to keep things interesting. One worthy mention is Roger, played by none other than Meatloaf. He added an extra special layer of sloppy joe camp.There's tons of allusions to both musicals and horror throughout (Les Miserables, Carrie, Hellraiser, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and of course, The Phantom of the Opera, to name a few). And with this movie being about the production of a Phantom of the Opera-style musical, the homages made the meta-level all the more apparent. It's perhaps the Scream (or better yet, Peeping Tom) of horror musicals.Honestly, I'm not entirely sure why the movie amused me so much, it just did. I even watched/listened through the credits, because the faux-heavy metal band covers some of the musical numbers from the movie, and goes on to directly address the viewer, with entertaining results. Just give it a chance--you won't find many other movies like it.

There haven't been many horror/musical mash-ups in the film world. So when I saw Stage Fright available to watch, I thought I'd give it a shot. Much to my surprise, this was a well shot film. It walks a fine line of self parody with the musical numbers, but the horror elements all feel straight laced. The final result is an odd mix that I feel that I wanted to like a lot more than I eventually did.Broadway star Kylie Swanson opened the musical The Haunting of the Opera, an obvious spin on Phantom of the Opera. That same night she was murdered, the killer never found. Ten years later, her two kids help her old manager run an theatre camp for kids. The manager decides to bring back The Haunting of the Opera in an effort to be back on top. Once the rehearsals start, so do the killings.That Broadway star is played by Minnie Driver and her scene is in the opening of this film, that's all. The manager is played by Meat Loaf, his voice isn't the same as if Rocky Horror Picture Show days. The rest of the cast is made up by no name Canadian stars. Yes, this is another Canadian film. The deaths are somewhat creative. The killer seems to like ROCK and ROLL and absolutely HATE theatre musicals. There are a few scenes where they have fun with some red herrings, but not enough in my opinion. If you don't know who the killer is before the reveal, then you don't watch many films. The laughs are few and far between, as are the deaths. It honestly felt like they gave up on the musicals numbers for 2/3's of the film. This attempt at this mash-up tells me one thing. It's not ready yet.