Main cast: Charlotte Hope (Melanie Walker), Julian Sands (Gustafson), Aoibhe O’Flanagan (Zoe), Oliver Savell (Colin), Boyan Anev (The Piper), Philipp Christopher (Franklin), Alexis Rodney (Philip), Kate Nichols (Nancy), Pippa Winslow (Alice), Louise Gold (Katharine Walker), and Salomé Chandler (Miss Augustin)
Director: Erlingur Thoroddsen
The Piper is quite a cheeky, cunning thing. According to the end credits, the full name of this movie is Curse of the Piper. Oh, I am sure it is just coincidental timing that title is changed to be similar to that of another film with Elizabeth Hurley in the lead role.
The cast of this one doesn’t seem too bad. It has the late Julian Sands and… er… that lady from The Nun. Okay, to be fair, Elizabeth Hurley isn’t exactly a big draw these days either.
This one is supposed to be an update on the fairy tale The Pied Paper of Hamelin, but screenwriter and director Erlingur Thoroddsen frames his story in the context of a cursed musical piece Concerto No. 1 for Children. Wait, that sounds more like something Hastur would approve…
Anyway, in opening scene Melanie Walker’s sister Katherine tries to burn the score sheets of her latest creation, which she calls a thing of evil, while her boss, Gustafson, tries to dissuade her over the phone. Oops, the poor woman ends up immolating herself instead, while the score sheets remains unharmed.
Mel, our heroine, needs money as her daughter Zoe is suffering from degenerative hearing (ooh, plot device alert). With her Katherine’s death, Mel being promoted to her position and playing her original score for an upcoming fundraiser could be one way to get her the money she needs.
However, Gustafson opts to use the flutist Franklin’s score instead. In desperation, Mel proposes that she retrieves Katherine’s final piece so that they can all perform Katherine’s final piece in honor of the dead woman.
This is the opportunity the sinister fellow is looking for, anyway, so of course he agrees to it.
Ever the entrepreneur, Mel breaks into her sister’s place, bravely staring down jump scares to pass the sheets to Gustafson, only to learn that the finale of the concerto is missing. Have no fear, for Mel volunteers to recreate the finale based on a recording she found at Katherine’s place, her intimate knowledge of her sister’s style, and her own analysis of the score. Naturally, she wants a bonus and a promotion upon her success.
Really, though, what can go wrong when they play the completed piece?
One thing that really stands out here is just how beautiful this movie is. Every scene is artfully lit and framed, with colors and contrasts between light and dark utilized skillfully to maximize the tension and atmosphere of each scene. The music and sound also work very well in concert to bring out the most out of every chilling scene.
It’s a shame, therefore, that the movie also overindulges in predictable, even clichéd jump scares that can be seen coming from a mile away. Whether it’s pulling off a sheet to a loud screech only to reveal that it’s a nothing burger or a window smashed open on a cold and stormy night, the jump scares in this movie had been done to death countless times already and they are basically recreated here without any fresh or interesting twist.
The movie has some great gore, but sadly, they are spaced far apart for the most part.
The bulk of the movie is made up of artfully shot but slow and meandering scenes of Mel having visions or wandering slowly around the place. Julian Sands chews scenery as always in this movie, but he isn’t in it enough to keep things interesting.
The pace picks up in the last 20 minutes or so, but sadly, the movie is also at its most predictable as, surprise, the daughter’s hearing loss turns out to be exactly the super power needed to beat the big bad villain.
So yes, in the end, this is a very pretty movie that spend a lot of its time just meandering around or throwing predictable and stale jump scares at the audience. The cast, the cinematography, the music—all are wasted on a film that is content to take its time to emulate the most boring aspects of modern horror films.
