We start things off with a little girl named Cathy who has some, shall we say, "issues" about sex and intimacy. One rainy night, Cathy's in the backseat of a car and the man in the front seat gets too handsy with mom so Cathy freaks out, the car crashes, and mom shoots through the windshield. If you're playing along at home, this means Cathy's intimacy issues now get wrapped up with broken glass issues. Keep that in mind.
Flash forward years later to an aspiring actress named Helen. She gets cast in a new play where she meets a cute costar, a jerk of a director, and lots of even worse people. I didn't get that it was a secret that Cathy grew up to be Helen, but just in case it was supposed to be a secret, Helen is Cathy. And then people start to die by getting stabbed by broken glass. It's very easy to figure out the killer and then there's a "surprise" ending and then we're done.
Stage Fright aka Nightmares is listed as an early Ozsploitation slasher but it's really more like a late-period giallo, albeit one without any real mystery to it. The violence is pretty tame but the nudity is pretty graphic. It's not scary or even particularly interesting other than as a historical document if you're a slasher fan.
Flash forward years later to an aspiring actress named Helen. She gets cast in a new play where she meets a cute costar, a jerk of a director, and lots of even worse people. I didn't get that it was a secret that Cathy grew up to be Helen, but just in case it was supposed to be a secret, Helen is Cathy. And then people start to die by getting stabbed by broken glass. It's very easy to figure out the killer and then there's a "surprise" ending and then we're done.
Stage Fright aka Nightmares is listed as an early Ozsploitation slasher but it's really more like a late-period giallo, albeit one without any real mystery to it. The violence is pretty tame but the nudity is pretty graphic. It's not scary or even particularly interesting other than as a historical document if you're a slasher fan.