Stage Fright (1987 film)

Stage Fright original title Deliria is a 1987 horror film directed by Michele Soavi. The film stars Barbara Cupisti, David Brandon and Giovanni Lombardo Radice. Written by George Eastman writing as Lew Cooper, the story combines elements of the giallo and slasher film genres. The film follows a troupe of stage actors who are rehearsing for an smalltown musical production. They lock themselves in a theater to focus on rehearsing, unaware that a psychopathic actor who sneaked out of an asylum is locked in the theater with them and planning a murderous spree.

The film takes place in a theater late at night as a troupe of actors are rehearsing a musical about a mass murderer known as the Night Owl. When the shows leading lady, Alicia Cupisti, sprains her ankle, she and the wardrobe mistress, Betty Schwerk, sneaks out of the rehearsal to go to a doctor, in which the closest medical facility is a mental hospital. The psychiatrist on duty is happy to help, but the wardrobe mistress notices a restrained patient on a bed lying in a room behind bars. The doctor tells them that it is Irving Wallace Clain Parker, a former actor who went insane and murdered dozen of people. Unbeknownst to any of them, Wallace killed one of the attendants with a syringe and sneaked out of the asylum, hiding in the back of Bettys car.Once they arrive back at the theater the overbearing director Brandon fires Alicia for leaving during rehearsal. As she packs her things and gets ready to leave, Betty returns to the car. Sensing something amiss, she looks around, only to have a pickaxe slammed into her mouth. Alicia emerges from the theater a few moments later and makes the horrifying discovery of her friends corpse. ........

Source: Wikipedia