string of sexy thrillers slowly 
transforming into outrageous, slasher-inspired extravaganzas under the guidance of second-generation maestros like Dario Argento and Lamberto Bava. Offering the genre an unexpected shot in the arm was a low-budget offering seemingly borne out of nowhere: StageFright, also released as Deliria and Aquarius. The film marked the directorial debut of Michele Soavi, an actor who started cutting his teeth behind the camera working as an assistant director on Tenebrae, Demons, and even The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. With this film he proved that he had not only absorbed some of his mentors' best tricks but had more than a few stunning new flourishes of own, delivering a wildly entertaining, stylish rollercoaster of a film that still packs a punch today.
to 
capitalize on the crime and turn the play's nameless killer into Wallace himself. Of course, the madman is already inside with them, and,sporting the eerie owl mask from the play, he stabs one actress to death on stage in front of the stunned onlookers. With the sole key to their escape hidden away, they fight to survive as Wallace turns to a number of power tools and other vicious implements to pick them off one by one. 
representation of the Dolby Stereo English mix heard in 35mm screenings, including the cat meowing over the main titles moving 
around dramatically between the audio channels. Not surprisingly, the film has had a healthy life on DVD since the early '00s including a solid a/v presentation from Anchor Bay, later ported over to Blue Underground (with the theatrical trailer and a Soavi text bio as the sole extras). The 2014 Blue Underground revisit outfits the film as the special edition it truly deserves, in both Blu-ray and DVD versions. The Blu-ray is obviously the way to go as it features a welcome uptick in detail across the board and also reveals far less print damage than the older transfer; colors also look solid with very red blood and lots of moody shades of blue, a scheme also found in Dario Argento's nearly simultaneous and not dissimilar Opera (on which Soavi also worked). The framing is very close to the earlier transfer, adding a slightly extra bit of info on the sides while repositioning the vertical framing a tiny notch. Audio is presented in English DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0, sounding heftier but directionally very similar to the same mono mixes heard on the older DVDs. (It's also very, very slightly out of sync either way, but given the nature of the dub the majority of viewers probably won't notice.) Subtitles are offered in English, French or Spanish. 
Gilliam, the creation of that giant key seen in the climax, and much more. Interestingly, no attention is given to Soavi's later films 
(most notably The Church, The Sect, and Dellamorte Dellamore), so we can only hope those will get the same treatment somewhere down the road. Things get significantly crazier with "Head of the Company" (11m40s) (in HD), a chat with David Brandon. The Irish-born actor talks about D'Amato, Soavi, several of his co-stars (including some pretty unexpected samples of fellow actor Robert Gligorov's photographic work that might ruffle a few viewers' feathers), and his other colorful roles including one hilarious incognito bit behind a fake beard. The always entertaining Radice gets his turn next with "Blood on the Stage Floor" (14m) (also SD) in which he talks about appearing with Soavi in City of the Living Dead, doing some tweaking to the film's screenplay, the difficulty of shooting animal guts without air conditioning, the reason he nicknamed Soavi "Peter Pan," and some of his later films they made together for producer Dario Argento. "The Owl Murders" (11m21s) (HD) features makeup effects artist Pietro Tenoglio covering the challenges of the locale, the camaraderie of the low-budget shooting conditions, the plaster required to pull off a decapitation, and the advantages of improvising gore effects in your own garage. "The Sound of Aquarius" (18m2s) with composer Simon Boswell plays like something of a companion piece to his equally excellent interview on Synapse's Demons 2 release, though here you get some fantastic early video footage of him performing on stage along with lots of memories about Argento, the odd collisions of rock music and soundtrack work, the contributions of Mainetti, and a peculiar 
project about Pope John Paul II. Finally the disc rounds out with the theatrical trailer and a gallery of stills and poster art. 
on the heels of the Blue Underground release came another 2014 edition in the U.K. from the very short-lived Exposure Cinema, taken from the same master. However, it's been opened up a bit to 1.78:1 versus the Blue Underground's 1.85:1 and benefits from the extra breathing room; the compression is a tad dodgier but it still looks quite nice for the most part. Here you just get an LPCM 2.0 English audio track that is, again, that old mono mix. "A Bloodstained Featherstorm" (28m3s) is an exclusive featurette with Soavi, Cupisti, Sellers, and Eastman reminiscing about the film, followed by "Giovanni's Method" (20m45s) with Radice covering his career path up to this film touching on other major ones like House on the Edge of the Park as well and the "sluggish" nature of Italian cinema in the '80s. "Alan Jones: The Critic's Take" (28m1s) features the film journalist giving more background about the film and Soavi's contributions to the substantially altered Eastman script, followed by the horror-oriented iteration of the Joe D'Amato: Totally Uncut documentary (54m43s) and a "Revenge of the Video Cassette" (25m12s) look at the unexpected 
resurgence of VHS in the 21st century. Also included are a gallery (7m54s) of video and promotional art and photos, the English trailer, and a comparison (1m38s) to the previous cut U.K. 
VHS.
translated English subtitles) is very well done itself and plays well if you don't mind departing 
from the familiar English version.Shameless Screen Entertainment (Blu-ray)
Blue Underground (Blu-ray)
Exposure Cinema (Blu-ray)
