Michele Soavi

Michele Soavi is an Italian filmmaker who developed his career working with directors including Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Lamberto Bava. He made his feature directing debut with StageFright in 1987, a horror film set around a theatrical company stalked by a killer wearing an owl mask.

His subsequent films include The Church, The Sect and Dellamorte Dellamore. The Sect, co-written and produced by Argento, screened at the BFI London Film Festival in 1991. Soavi's work helped carry Italian horror into a later generation, combining elaborate visual staging with supernatural and psychological unease.