Stagefright (Forbidden Worlds Film Festival: The Big Scream 2026)

Stagefright is coming to Bristol Megascreen on Saturday 24 October, starting at 19:00. It's the directorial debut of Michele Soavi, who trained under Dario Argento and Terry Gilliam and worked as Argento's assistant director before stepping behind the camera. In Italy, the film went out as Deliria.

The plot is a slasher with a theatrical twist: a masked killer infiltrates a group of actors rehearsing a musical about the fictional Night Owl killer, only to be joined by an insane actor who's escaped from a nearby mental hospital. It's known for graphic, over-the-top kills and Soavi's signature style; Starburst Magazine called it one of the most graphic and entertaining kills ever found in the slasher genre. Critics have described it as a hallucinatory stew of backstage paranoia, baroque bloodletting and Hitchcockian mischief, and a queasy little treasure chest of surface pleasures featuring bodies cleaved in two and an absolutely deranged final act.

The screening is part of Forbidden Worlds Film Festival: The Big Scream 2026, and Tara Judah will introduce it before it runs in the English dub. Tickets are £5.50, and it starts at 19:00 at Bristol Megascreen.