The show must go on. Classical music is an amazing parallel world with its wonders, laws and fierce competition - there are few places in the orchestra, there are even fewer works for performance, and there is only one place behind the conductor's console. There is room for mysticism and human passions. So in the "Curse of the piper" the conductor has a problem - an important concert is on the nose, and the creator of the brilliant symphony tragically died, and no one knows where the notes of the symphony are. A young and talented flutist from the orchestra undertakes to find a cursed melody, not knowing that it brings trouble to herself, and to the audience, and to her hearing-impaired daughter.
Perhaps the most famous horror work about the diabolical power of music is The Phantom of the Opera (there are many adaptations, and I like the version with Kruger-Inglund most of all), and from recent tapes you can recall the Sonata of 2018. All of them are built according to about one canon - the talented performer faces the machinations of colleagues and does not notice a much greater danger from otherworldly forces that come to life from the sounds of music. These stories differ only in the image of monsters in the shadows of the scenes and, in fact, music.
“The curse of the piper” diligently follows this scheme – there is a competition between the heroine and her rival in the orchestra, and the pressure of a conductor with the habits of a tyrant from “Obsession”, and financial problems (the daughter is sick, there is no insurance), and a passionate desire to succeed and fulfill herself. I can say little about the quality of music – it is not Mahler or even Webber, but it does not irritate or distract from the action. The authors skillfully weaved into history the legend of the Gamel Pied Piper (who suddenly does not know - the residents of the city hired a freelance piper to rid them of rats with magical music, but pinched the payment for services, because of which the freelancer took away not only rats but also the children of greedy citizens).
The film is almost bloodless (the main tragedy in the plot occurred half a century ago, and the heroes only remember about it), they are frightened by visions in the style of "The Call", and the main danger comes, it seems, not from the Pidochnik, but from the conductor-gaslighter. The image of the Piper is simple but effective (black robe, burning eyes, portals to another dimension at hand). The plot develops neither shaky nor roll, until in the last third suddenly explodes bright otherworldly vibes "Fantasma", where the characters and caught children are in the otherworldly dimension. The picture becomes more rigid, impressionable viewers are waiting for nauseating scenes with the appearance of the Piper directly from the inside of the victim’s body, with an ear piercing and with carnivorous rats, and the degree of interest in the film increases sharply.
The most powerful element of the film is by far Julian Sands. In the early nineties, he flashed in a dilogy about The Warlock (let us not recall the triquel), playing a charismatic, charming and terribly dangerous satanic son. In the acting profession and in horror, Sands stayed for a long time - for the rest of his life - but he did not age as "beautiful" as his more successful colleagues. In later films, in his battered, painful characters with disheveled hair, it is difficult to recognize the groomed handsome Warlock. But what you can’t take away from him is a huge internal energy. As an abusive conductor, Sands works out his “dark side” to the fullest – he presses, intimidates, promises, manipulates – in general, he is a villain cleaner than the Piper. To look at his character is both interesting and sad - after all, the horror "The Curse of the Piper" became one of his last films. In January 2023, Sands – an ardent fan of mountain tourism – disappeared without a trace in the California mountains of San Gabriel – some 80 kilometers from Los Angeles, so much so that his body was found only six months later. Little remains of him, so it took several days to identify the body, and the cause of death is still unknown. A real plot for horror and a sad ending for a talented actor. And, as is often the case with suddenly departed performers, the words of their characters in recent films take on a dark hidden meaning. For example, in The Curse of the Piper, his character talks about the death of a talented composer, saying, well, we are very sorry for her, but ... the show must go on!
And the show goes on - even if it's a show - just plain horror. With the words-dedication in the credits: "Julian, our maestro." . ?