Paganini Horror

This one has been hard to find for years (at least in semi-watchable form), so I'm happy to say I've finally seen it and it's ok. A dubbed Donald Pleasance plays a creepy music peddler or something who gives an all-girl pop band an old piece of sheet music that was apparently composed by a crazed composer who used human heartstrings for strings on his violin. They end up in a secluded country estate owned by Daria Nicolodi to shoot a music video for their newest hit and they end up opening up a portal to hell or something to that extent.

To be honest, this movie was confusing as all hell. I never knew what was going on or what the rules were, but it's a pretty short movie and there are some fun effects and sequences that kept my interest. It's definitely far from the worst horror movie I've ever seen, but it's hard to not see it as a missed opportunity. The ending has a fun twist, too.

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"

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.

Some musical broads decide to record an unpublished Paganini song which ends up opening a portal to hell or something. Paganini Horror is bad. The story is incoherent and idiotic. It's like I get where they were going with it but they just throw in random $#!+ all over the place that doesn't make sense to the story. Some of the killing sequences were fun and bloody but this is one of those rare occurrences to where the bad acting was actually a lot more entertaining than the violence. I literally almost crapped blood with laughter from it. It also has some pacing issues like two music sequences of some rocks songs (one of them, a deliberate rip off of a Bon Jovi song) some may or may not like but at least you get to see a chick in tight pink spandex revealing the curvature of her succulent buttock so that counts for something. Plus the effects are poorly shot and looks r·tarded. In the end... (sigh) I think it's a genuine $#!+show masterpiece of unintentional humor and weirdness. I struck gold with this one. Loved it.

"Paganini Horror" isn't a masterpiece,but it is a solid horror flick that will keep almost all horror fans entertained.The acting,apart from Daria Nicolodi("Deep Red","Tenebre")and Donald Pleasance("Phenomena","Halloween"),is pretty bad and the rock music is extremely cheesy and annoying.Director Luigi Cozzi("Il Gatto Nero")desperately tries to create some spooky atmosphere and,in my opinion,he partially succeeds.The film is full of rich,glowing colors,and the gore effects are pretty well-done(for example nasty head explosion,violin stabbings etc).All in all I really enjoyed this one,so check it out for yourself.