(Streamed via Plex)
Paganini Horror starts off with some of the worst/funniest scenes of terrible musicians performing awful rock n’ roll numbers since Pod People. The band’s manager is understandably upset and hates the song almost as much as the audience. “I know the difference between a hit and the mundane! We need another hit… not rehashed bullshit!”
Concerned, one of the band members gets in contact with a poorly dubbed Donald Pleasance who sells him an old parchment of a lost song by Paganini. To double down on the whole Paganini-Mania the kids obviously go gaga for nowadays, the band decides to film their music video in Paganini’s old villa (ran by Daria Nicolodi, who also wrote the flick). Here, we are treated to another hilarious/awful rock video segment where a guy in a gold mask stalks the band.
I’m sure you probably can guess that the real Paganini (who allegedly sold his soul to the devil for fame and fortune) comes to life and starts to make mincemeat out of the band and the video crew. You probably didn’t predict he would do so with a switchblade violin. (Then again, you might, if you saw it under its alternate title, The Killing Violin.)
In short, this is some of Luigi (Starcrash) Cozzi’s finest work. Although he can’t quite sustain the WTF momentum of the early scenes throughout the entire running time, Cozzi gives us enough face melting and flesh dissolving to make this a cut above your typical rock n’ roll horror flick. If the shoddy musical numbers didn’t endear Paganini Horror to you, or if the sight of Donald Pleasance throwing money from the top of tall buildings failed to make you smile, or if the brightly colored balls-out scene of horror didn’t leave an impression, then the dialogue will at least make you sit up and take notice. There are howlers aplenty here. I think my favorite line came when the band gets the idea to film their horror-themed music video and one of the gals says, “No one has ever done anything remotely like it before! Except for Michael Jackson and his fantastic Thriller video clip!”
AKA: The Killing Violin.
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