Paganini Horror - Der Blutgeiger von Venedig

The female rock and roll band formed by Kate (Jasmine Main), Elena (Michel Klippstein) and Rita (Luana Ravegnini) want to release a new album, but their producer Lavinia (Maria Cristina Mastrangeli) refuses since their songs are very poor. Their friend Daniel (Pascal Persiano) buys a piece of music from a stranger called Mr. Pickett (Donald Pleasence) that explains that the music was written by Paganini himself and never released. Lavinia believes that the music will become a hit and she hires the filmmaker Mark Singer (Pietro Genuardi) to make a videoclip in a manor she has hired from her acquaintance Sylvia Hackett (Daria Nicolodi). Soon Rita and Daniel disappear and the floor collapses beneath Kate that also vanishes in the hole. The survivors try to flee from the real state but they discover that they are trapped in hell.

"Paganini Horror" is a trash so lame and ridiculous that becomes funny. The awful story and screenplay associated to ham performances with a cast that overacts most of the time, highlighted by the dreadful dubbing in English and terrible cinematography make this movie a classic of the trash genre. There is no explanation why the members of the band are doomed to hell. I do not understand why Daria Nicolodi and Donald Pleasence accepted to include this film in their filmographies. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Paganini Horror"

I really enjoyed this trashy 80's Italian horror from director Luigi Cozzi, once on the DPP video nasty list for his film Contamination (1980). This film is more silly and nonsensical than nasty, in fact it's quite fun with some bad over the top acting, except for Donald Pleasance and Daria Nicolodi, with some nice bits of gore, colourful imagery and dodgy special effects.

A female rock band practice their music in an old mansion once owned by the famous classical Italian composer who supposedly sold his soul to the Devil 200 years ago. When they play an unpublished piece of his music they accidentally open up a portal to hell and reawaken the maestro.

Italian horror movies have a certain style and ambience to them, sometimes indulgent but usually entertaining enough with some interesting ideas and bravura set pieces to hold the attention and, of course, bad dubbing. They even saw fit to dub English actor Donald Pleasance who has an uncharacteristically deep voice here and makes a guest appearance rather than having a starring role. Nicolodi comes off best, a Dario Argento regular, who co-wrote the script with Cozzi.

Once Paganini is awakened he returns as a mad slasher complete with a knife wielding violin who sets out to kill everyone and drag them to hell. There are plenty of unintentional funny moments and a few intentional ones too, especially the last scene after Paganini gets exposed to sunlight.

Cozzi tries to create some atmosphere but the loud rock music gets in the way so it's not as scary as it could have been but the moments of colourful gore make up for it.

It is pretty terrible and rather a shame. Paganini was born in 1782 and he became such a great player that he was known as 'The Devil's Violinist' which it seems it was believed to be a gift from the devil. It was a great idea that Luigi Cozzi supposedly discovers some lost music and turns it into an 80s girl band so they can have a hit song. They rather make a sad noise with big hair and then run around and screaming because one after the other is lost. And that is about it with some blood but not much and then some small scenes with Donald Pleasence and the splendid Daria Nicolodi is sadly rather running around with the others and holding hands, and screaming.

A mainly female rock band film their latest music video "Paganini Horror" at the former home of the famous composer but in doing so open a portal to Hell.I had been tempted to buy this on blu ray but instead opted to watch it online and I am glad that I did because this is an awful movie. Having seen other reviews I kept my hopes low but hoped that there may be some redemption in the form of sex, blood and cheesiness. Sadly this wasn't the case. Our female musicians all look like models, but the characters are very annoying and get to keep their clothes on. Horror legend Donald Pleasence has a small part yet in the English language version he has been dubbed - BADLY! It sounds like somebody trying but failing miserably to do a Pleasence impersonation. As a fan of his I found this to be an abomination and unforgivable.The film is has 1980's cheese but not in a good way. The gore is pretty minimal, some sets are strangely draped in curtains (I think they were trying to mimic the look of Suspiria) and as already mentioned zero nudity. One of the few good points is Italian Scream Queen Daria Nicoldi among the female cast. Italian horror movies had nosedived by the late 1980's, this being a prime example

Bad. But not bad enough to be good.

The acting is definitely below average. The one exception is Donald Pleasence, but he's only in like 3 scenes.

The characters are much dumber than the average dumb horror movie character. However, this creates a fun random quality. The film is quite unpredictable - this is its main strength. You have no idea what will happen next. And some of these random moments are pretty great. There's an underground secret passage and flesh melting fungus. But the film does not save the best for last. It's ending is underwhelming compared to the chaos that came before it.

But my biggest problem with this film is the music and sound design are simply not good enough. The premise of the film is a haunted song and selling your soul to the devil for fame. Nailing the music is an absolute must, and they did not deliver.