Stage Fright (1997) Review

In yesterday’s “The Fog” review I mentioned how it was one of the horror films I watched when I was younger that actually stayed with me, I also mentioned that there was one that stayed with me more. I trace back my love for horror to this film as it messed me up when I first watched it. I first watched this short when I was probably no older than 7, I was just watching Chicken Run on DVD when I noticed a plethora of special features. What followed was probably the reason I’m such a weird and odd person because if you’ve watched some of Aardman’s old stuff then you know it’s practically a clay-mation drug drip. Most notable of these features were the Sledgehammer Music Video and of course, Stage Fright...

Stage Fright is directed by Steve Box and stars Graham Fellows as the only voice of three characters, it’s only 11 minutes long and is about how the popularisation of film made once popular performers obsolete in a haunting satirical clay-mation short which went on to win the BAFTA Award for best Short Animated Film in 1998.

The animation by Aardman is, as always, fantastic. Smooth, unique and captivating to look at, it’s chilling visuals of a derelict theatre and creepily brilliant character design was a lot of why this film had such a great tone to it. Dark but not realistic, surreal and dream-like, even after re-watching it hundreds of times I still feel like I only remember it in distant memory, making it feel even more cold and dethatched.

The contained space and tight group of only three characters had a very isolated feel to it, especially when no one on screen could stand up to the main antagonist the characters felt very vulnerable and alone which rubs off on the audience and this man who is no more worse than your average bully becomes a terrifying opponent. I’m agoraphobic personally but even so the tense claustrophobic feel of this film made my palms sweat. You don’t see any exterior for the entire film.

Its non-linear storytelling just makes the film even more off putting, when the time periods cut together it felt like two trains about to collide with each other and by the time you get to the end you feel relieved, not because the film is bad because it’s so uncomfortable and unnerving you want to look away but you can’t and that’s what’s so haunting about this film, the fact that 6 or 7 year old me watched this bad drug trip to the very end still stuns me, especially when the ending contained one of the most terrifying characters of my childhood, his voice and appearance still haunt me.

The only negatives I can think of is that since the woman is voiced by a man, the actor put on a silly voice that got processed and turned into a irritating mess, not only that but she narrates the couple of seconds of the film that gets narrated. My other complaint is the narration, it was only a few seconds but that just makes it even worse because it was so spoon feeding and irritating, it takes you out of the immersion and fear and it never returns thankfully. There was a bit of dodgy animation here and there, for example in the climax they had to run away from danger (as you do) only they weren’t running, they were walking, like they were having a stroll through the park, then they just stood and waited in the area of danger for a minute before they finally got round to getting to safety. My final complaint is that since I watched this no horror film has been able to scare me and haunt me the way Stage Fright has, it’s really a positive in disguise but when nothing scared me after that it did make me feel very frustrated, and to this day I am still searching for a film that will affect me in the same way Stage Fright did.

8.5/10