SparkMore
n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.
Chirphymium
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
spoogegod
While I cannot put into words how poor this movie is, I can try to put to right one thing not one reviewer so far has tried to do: Pagliani's "lost" sonata was actually a total ripoff of Electric Light Orchestra's "Twilight" from their album "Time", released in 1981 (it exists, Google it, and yes IMDb spellchecker, that IS a word).Which leads one to wonder, considering the quality of this movie and other horrors from Italy, can Italian directors make unique original films without stealing from others? Pod People was a direct ripoff of ET (even going so far as copying the logo), War of the Planets ripped off so many sci fi movies that they actually ripped themselves off in the sequel "War of the Robots", the list goes on and on!But a note for note clone of a popular album from a popular band from the early 80s? Really, Italy? You couldn't just use an actual obscure song from Paganini (or for that matter, anything that hasn't been played to death, we'd likely not notice)? You could have used Pagliacci and most wouldn't have noticed.
capkronos
Tacky, colorful, confusing, mildly-entertaining drivel seems to be the European answer to the short-lived North American 'heavy metal horror' subgenre; films that typically revolved around Lycra-clad, big-haired rock band members being terrorized by supernatural (usually Satanic) forces. Said subgenre included the titles ROCKTOBER BLOOD (1984), HARD ROCK ZOMBIES (1984), MONSTER DOG (1984), TRICK OR TREAT (1986), ROCK 'N' ROLL NIGHTMARE (1987), SLAUGHTERHOUSE ROCK (1987), BLACK ROSES (1988), HARD ROCK NIGHTMARE (1989), HEAVY METAL MASSACRE (1989; directed by David De Falco and so obscure it's currently not even listed on IMDb), DEAD GIRLS (1990), SHOCK 'EM DEAD (1990) and probably a few others I'm forgetting. This one, from the director of the usually-well-regarded giallo THE KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN (1975), the silly sci-fi adventure STARCRASH (1979) and the unofficial SUSPIRIA "sequel" THE BLACK CAT (1989) - amongst others - is neither the best nor the worst of the lot, though it's far from what most would consider good.A nearly all-female rock band headed by singer/songstress Kate (Jasmine Maimone) has hit a creative slump, as evidenced by their atrocious "You Give Love a Bad Name" opening rip-off number. To help matters, drummer Daniel (Pascal Persiano) purchases an unreleased composition written by famous Italian violinist Niccolo Paganini from Mr. Pickett (a diabolically dubbed and goofy acting Donald Pleasance). Upon hearing the track and learning of its origins, the band's bitchy, money-hungry producer Lavinia (Maria Cristina Mastrangeli) decides to hire famous horror film director Mark Singer (Pietro Genuardi) to shoot a horror-themed music video in Paganini's former home; the same place where the violinist reputedly sold his soul to Satan to become famous. It isn't long before most of the cast - which includes Daria Nicolodi as the current owner of Paganini's home and sexy guitarists Michel Klippstein and Luana Ravegnini - are facing various supernatural horrors. For starters, there's a ghostly, echo-voiced, gold masked killer lurking around who uses a gold violin with a retractable blade. There's also an underground tunnel which leads to an alternate dimension (?!), strange shrill noises that incapacitate people and an electric forcefield which surrounds the house (?!) and is able to blow up a car. Some of the death scenes are pretty bizarre. Someone is crushed by an invisible wall; another is mutated by some kind of infectuous tree fungus (!) Oh yeah, and one of the females may be a little girl who toasted her mum in the bathtub with a hair dryer years earlier. The final scene tries to tie all the loose ends together but only succeeds in making things even more confusing than they already were.There's some mild gore (fx are variable) and no less than three musical numbers, including a pretty funny music video. Everything is drenched in blue, red and green colors because the director is an Argento devotee (and had helped write a couple of Argento's earlier projects).
CantripZ
Amazingly entertaining and completely stupid Italian horror! A pop group purchase a mysterious unpublished Paganini melody from a mysterious old man. Turns out it's the evil melody he wrote to sell his soul to Satan! Or something. Anyway, when the band play their soft-rock-meets-synth-pop masterpiece "Paganini Horror" it's fated that Bad Things will happen!So along comes Paganini in a cool mask, with a gold switchblade violin and some infernal powers, to mess with the group and their manager because... well, because he feels like it. Or maybe because he really hates '80s Euro pop, which is understandable really.Then it turns out that the whole rigmarole has nothing to do with the group in a surprise ending which is partly surprising because of how little sense it makes (even for an Italian horror flick of the 80s!).The amazingly 80s music and costumes are rivalled only by the dialogue and dubbing in terms of entertainment value, so while Paganini Horror might not be the finest of horror films it's certainly among the funnest! OK, so not much happens, really – some running around, some screaming, some killing, all freed from the constraints of logic and storytelling – and it's both well-paced and fine to look at, while some of the gore effects are superb (and the others are, of course, superbly entertaining). The score is better than the band's songs allow the viewer to hope for, too, and the small, rather mismatched cast are somehow perfect for this sublime nonsense.The male drummer and video director are both completely ineffectual characters, the former played with some panache by Pascal Persiano, the latter portrayed in a flagrantly comedic style by Pietro Genuardi – but this movie's all about the women, and its the female cast who dominate from start to finish. Bonus! Two of the girls in the band are pretty hot (Maria Cristina Mastrangeli and Michele Klippstein), while the other one (Jasmine Maimone as singer/bandleader Kate) overacts with astonishing vigour, and Luana Ravegnini as their manager (less hot than the hot girls, but prettier and a better actor than Ms Maimone) alternates hilariously between being a hard-nosed boss-bitch and screaming along with the rest of the girls.The aforementioned twist ending is incredible, and made me marvel once more at the talents of the film's two big horror-genre names, top-billed Daria Niccolodi and guest star Donald Pleasance, for delivering such idiotic lines with such bravura seriousness.Pleasance is so gleefully sinister during his short screen time that his character comes across more charming than chilling (not surprising really!). Niccolodi's acting is as solid as ever, and she's sometimes lost amongst the screaming, overacting girls but it works because it's her character who delivers a lot of the important lines, and she's utterly pivotal to the greatness of the film's finalé.For all the wrong reasons, this is a classic of Italian horror!
HumanoidOfFlesh
"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.
