Paganini Horror (1988)

Luigi Cozzi’s classical music/punk rock horror film Paganini Horror was released in 1988.

There was a minor outbreak of Paganini Fever in European cinema in the 1980s. Klaus Kinski had been obsessed by the idea of a Paganini movie for years and had found the money to direct it himself. Kinski in the early 80s was a major international star and his film was eagerly awaited. It was expected to be huge. Ever eager for a bandwagon to jump on an Italian producer decided that what the world needed was an immediate Paganini rip-off. Luigi Cozzi was commissioned to write a script for Paganini Horror which was intended to be a fairly lavish production.

It didn’t pan out that way. Kinski’s film flopped, Paganini Fever dissipated and Paganini Horror ended up being a very low budget production.

Making a Paganini movie was in fact a great idea. Niccolò Paganini (1782-1840) may have been the greatest violinist of all time. He wrote pieces for the violin which nobody else could play - they just could not match his technical virtuosity. A rumour spread that his talent was a result of a pact he made with the Devil, selling his soul in return for undying fame.

Paganini Horror itself is a sound enough idea. An all-girl punk band fronted by Kate (Jasmine Maimone) is all washed up. They need a hit and Kate’s songwriting skills have dried up. Then her friend Daniel comes up with a brilliant idea. He buys a manuscript of a hitherto unknown Paganini composition from the mysterious Mr Pickett (Donald Pleasence). This will be the basis for the band’s next single, Paganini Horror.

They’ll need a video to go with it and they will need a spooky setting. A decrepit old mansion owned by Sylvia (Daria Nicolodi) will be perfect. Famous horror movie director Mark Singer is hired to direct the blood-soaked horror-themed video. The song is sure to be a hit.

The band, along with Mark, take up temporary residence in Sylvia’s house to shoot the video.

But has Kate, like Paganini, unwittingly sold her soul to the Devil in return for fame and success?

People start disappearing, or dying messily.

The plot is a bit incoherent but since when has plot mattered in a European horror movie? The ideas are there. Ideas on which to hang some reasonably effective visual set-pieces, And, considering the very low budget, the visuals are mostly extremely effective and atmospheric. The makeup effects are good.

The special however effects are a definite problem. They’re just a bit too cheesy.

There’s some gore but apparently the producers would have gone for a lot more gore had the budget stretched far enough. The gore is done well, if you like that sort of thing.

Daria Nicolodi stars and co-wrote the screenplay but she was very unhappy with the movie. If she’d hoped this film would get her career back on track she was destined to be disappointed which may be why her feelings about it are so negative.

The acting in general is quite passable.

Luigi Cozzi had worked quite a bit with Dario Argento but his own career as a director never really took off. He did make a couple of interesting movies including the completely insane (but in a good way) Hercules in 1983.

The biggest problem with Paganini Horror was the timing. By the late 80s Italian popular cinema was well and truly on the ropes. The audience had collapsed and financing was very very difficult to come by. Budgets were very tight, at a time when audiences were expecting spectacular special effects. Genre film-making and the audiences for such films was pretty much ceasing to exist in other European markets as well. Ten years earlier Paganini Horror might have done reasonably well. Fifteen years earlier it might have been a hit. But in 1988 it more or less vanished without trace.

It’s actually by no means a bad movie. As mentioned earlier the visuals are good, the ideas are cool (although there are perhaps too many ideas for one movie), the pacing is excellent, there are fine horror moments and it’s consistently entertaining once you stop worrying about whether it makes sense or not.

The British Blu-Ray from 88 Films offers a good transfer given that the movie probably never looked fantastic in the first place. There are various extras including an audio commentary by Troy Howarth. The commentary is worthwhile although he spends an inordinate amount of time talking about Dario Argento.

Paganini Horror really is worth a look. It has major flaws but it’s always enjoyable. Recommended.