Tubi Thursday: Paganini Horror (1989)

 With everyone thinking about the 'return' of Donald Pleasance in the new Halloween, I might as well do a Film with him it.  This is...

A young girl plays the Violin before going into to chat with her Mother while she takes a bath.
Who hasn't been there?

She drops a hair dryer into the tub, killing her!

Some time later, we see a girl group playing for their Producer.  It goes about as well as it did in Pod People.

Their Manager says that they need something new and fresh.

What's a Singer to do when they can't write a hit song?

If you guessed, pay a guy to write it for them, you'd be right.

Well, not right in this case.  Just right in, you know, most real-life cases.

Instead, a friend of the group- what his relationship is to them is never quite clear- does the next best thing.

He buys an unproduced bit of music by famous Violinist Paganini (that's the guy's name from the Title!) from a reputable Donald Pleasance.

I should also note that this copy is 100% dubbed (not sure if there is a Subbed Version) and that includes Donald.

In one quick Scene, they set up everything with lots of coincidences at play.

They can use the Song, but need a Video.
They know a Horror Director (a la Thriller) to do it.
They need a House to shoot in.
One of them knows about a House.
A different person just happens to know the person that own the House (despite not knowing about the House initially).

Great!

You can guess where this is going (but probably not why).

The Horror Shoot- complete with a fake Paganini as a Killer- goes well until people start dying- see above.

They are also trapped in the House due to some sort of vague magic.

Is it me or do you get a Blade (from Puppet Master) vibe here?

Can they escape the House?  Can they break the curse?

To find out, stream it now.  It's on Tubi...in case you hadn't guessed.

A strange bit of filmmaking from one of my favorite weirdo Directors.  

Luigi Cozzi has plenty of reasons for why he thinks that this won't didn't work.  

In summary, two different Producers (one of whom quit the business before this started), rewritten Scripts and no Budget.  For what it's worth, the Film is kind of an odd, enjoyable mess.  Besides Cozzi, we have the late-great Daria Nicolodi both co-writing this and appearing as one of the Leads.  I don't think of her as a big Star Attraction- since she was mostly supporting Roles in Dario's Films- but you go ahead and give her top billing.  

Yes, she was the Lead in Beyond the Door.  

I'm not going to pretend that this all makes sense.  

One person is both the instigator for the incident, seems to be working for someone else and is then later revealed to actually be in charge.  Why was he pretending to be working for someone else when literally nobody was around then?  The Plot is all sorts of bonkers.  We have an evil Violinist, a cursed House, a Violin with a knife blade that pops out and more.  

At one point, a character is covered in weird fungus, which everyone can just identify as being found on Trees that are used to make Violins.  

As someone who knows random facts, that's still a random-ass fact to drop like its obvious!  Cozzi has made it clear over the years that he liked/likes Sci-Fi and prefers to do it.  

That said, Italy wanted Horror, so he'd give them some weird-ass Horror. 

 As far as his Films go, this wouldn't be my top one.  It meanders a bit in the middle and comes to a strange conclusion.  

That said, it's definitely a bit different and highlights a mostly Female Cast.  

It also has some good, '80s Music in it.  I enjoyed it.  

What about you, ladies?

A strange Film that is high-concept and sort of gets there.  Let's re-sell this idea to Blumhouse and see what happens, shall we?