Today I am going to recap and explain a recently released mystery horror film called The Piper. The movie opens with an artist named Katherine who is a famous musician and composer. She had composed many songs in her lifetime but recently she was living obscurally. We see her talking on the phone with someone. In a scary voice, she says the tune you are seeking is dangerous. You don't understand the reality behind it. It must never see the light of the day. In her fearfulness, she decides to burn the music sheet. She poured petrol on it and ignited it but for some strange reason, the box closed on itself. She saw two glowing eyes in the dark which started moving towards her. Soon some unknown entity attacks her and pushes her into the fire. The fire catches on to her and she dies on the spot.
One month after this incident we see a young single mom by the name of Melanie. She too is a musician and a composer, presently working as a flutist in an orchestra conducted by one conductor Gustafson. This guy is a hot-headed one who demands excellence from everyone. He was especially angry at Melanie after the performance as it was not up to the mark. He warns her that if she doesn't improve it then he will remove her from the group. Melanie was under immense pressure financially. This job was everything to her.
On the anniversary of this orchestra, Mr. Gustafson had planned to conduct a piece of Katherine's missing marvel. Since she had refused to share her music and now she is dead, he started working on alternatives. we see a guy by the name of Franklin who was eager to put forward his piece of work for consideration, as he too was qualified for the job and it was ready. Melanie too wanted to put her piece of music for consideration and she used to be a student of Katherine. Mr. Gustafson was not sure about Melanie, he said you are still young and you have time on your side, you are music is good but we need something muscular something provocative and aggressive but yours is soft. He was inclining towards Franklin's piece.
Here we see two kids Zoe and Colin. Zoe was Melanie's daughter and Colin was Nancy's. Nancy is Melanie's friend and co-artist. These kids used to play hide and seek at the auditorium's back end. Underground Cellar was Zoe's favorite place of hiding. Colin had always disliked this area as he was a little bit scared of dark places. There is an interesting thing about this auditorium. About 50 years ago there was a massive fire in this hall and many people died, most of them were children. There is a rumor that the ghosts of all those people are still here and they roam here.
Zoe is a partially deaf girl, she uses hearing aids. She aspires to be a musician but due to her hearing issues, her practice was not going well. The next day, Melanie offers an idea to Gustafson where she says I could bring Katherine's missing music sheet. She was my teacher at the college and I knew her writing very well. She had composed that particular music in 1975 inspired by European folk music. Years ago she was performing the same music piece when the fire broke out. After the incident Katherine felt, guilty and something triggered inside her which made her reclusive from music.
Melanie then travels to Katherine's house where her sister Alice refuses to entertain her. She repeats the same thing that she said to Gustafson. Katherine didn't want that music to be performed ever. She refused it many times. She was so scared of it that she died while trying to burn it. Alice says rudely shoos off Melanie who leaves in frustration. But she was determined to find that copy by any means, so she parked her car in the bushes and when Alice left the house, she sneakily entered the house. She searched for it in Katherine's house where she felt someone's presence. She found the first two pieces of the music and a recorder. As she listened to the tune she got some visions where she saw someone burning and someone drowning. As she decides to steal the recording as well as the sheet music, a reven bird crash lands on the window symbolizing something fishy. Melanie saw and felt some strange entity while trying to start the car.
Late at night, she gave the sheet music to Gustafson who was unhappy seeing only two pieces of the concerto. The third and final act was missing, without it performing this music at the fundraiser was impossible. Since Melanie was a student of Katherine and understood her style of composing, she now offers to complete the piece by next week. If by any chance Gustafson was able to pull it off then that would mean a huge deal. As this piece of music had gathered legendary status, people would flok to listen to it. He makes a deal with Melanie by saying if she completes it in time then he will make her permanent and will perform her piece in the future.
As Melanie starts to work on this, the music makes her uneasy. She again gets visions of a lake, someone drowning, and someone playing flute. At the end of the recording, there was a distorted sound pattern which intrigues her. She now decides to take the help of her friend Philp who was a professor at a music college. Philip too felt unease at hearing this as this was completely different from Katherine's earlier works. On the sheet music, she had written something in Latin. Bring discord to harmony, bring chaos to the cosmos. Philip with the help of a harmonograph explains that in the olden days, people used to believe that adding a few notes of discord to harmonious music would affect one's soul. Certain incantations played in a musical form may put someone in a trance state or cause hallucinations. Philp calls this demonic music. Melanie laughs at this and asks him to clean the last portion of the music.
At Zoe's house, Colin sees the recorder and listens to the music. He too felt uneasy gets some visions. He says he saw a lake. Later these kids started playing hide and seek where Colin was seeking Zoe. Suddenly he heard the tune out loud and his ball started rolling along the floor. He went into a trance-like state where an entity appeared in front of him. This scared the shitt out of him as he was always a bit nervous about dark. It seemed he was gripped by the tune as he started repeating it often. Later he wakes up at midnight from a nightmare where from somewhere a rat had invaded his room. He tries to run from it but soon we see him getting possessed. This means some evil force or entity is behind this tune that is possessing or affecting the listeners. The kid's minds are fragile so it may affect them more easily.
The next morning Nancy, Colin's mom was terrified as Colin was missing. Melanie consoled her as she was her deer friend. Then she calls the cops and the investigation starts. Melanie later confronts Gustafson by saying this music is a bit dark for kids. May not be an ideal choice to play for kids. Gustafson didn't care for the emotion, he was going to play it even if kids ran from it in fear. For him raising the funds and securing the finances were of utmost importance. Franklin was frustrated hearing this decision as the music was still unfinished. Whereas his music was ready. As the team starts to rehearse this, Melanie again gets some visions. She was standing in front of a lake with a manor on the other side covered by snow. She saw a girl drowning and heard the distorted voice of an entity. This time she starts to bleed from her nose. This music affected everyone, especially Franklin who fell with a nosebleed. Gustafson blames his staff for the heat but Melanie starts to worry about it.
She asks Philip about this demonic music stuff and whether it would affect people's minds. Philips terms it as bullshit stories and beliefs of the olden days. Melanie was shocked to see the poster where Katherine was in front of the same lake with a manor that she saw in her visions. The place was Lake Weser in Germany. Katherine had traveled there in 1973 to get the folk music of the famous Piped Piper of Hamelin. Back at the house, Melanie starts to read the famous story.
In the year 1284, the town of Hamelin was plagued by rats. These rodents infested the town, causing great distress to its inhabitants. In their desperation, the townspeople sought a solution to rid themselves of the rats.
Then enters a mysterious piper, dressed in multicolored clothing. He claimed to be a rat catcher and offered to solve the rat problem using his magical pipe-playing skills. The mayor of Hamelin promised to pay him 1,000 guilders for his services.
The piper played his enchanting tune, and the rats followed him willingly. They followed him all the way to the Weser lake, where they drowned. The town was finally free of the rat infestation.
However, when it came time to pay the piper, the mayor reneged on his promise. He reduced the payment to a mere 50 guilders and accused the piper of bringing the rats himself as part of an extortion scheme.
Enraged by this betrayal, the piper vowed revenge. On Saint John and Paul’s day, while the adults were attending church, he returned to Hamelin. He played his pipe once more. But this time instead of rats, he attracted the town’s children. One hundred and thirty children followed him out of Hamelin and into a cave, never to be seen again. According to other accounts, Piper transported the children to Transylvania, a region associated with folklore and mystery. There they found a new life. In yet another variation, the Pied Piper made the children walk into the Weser River, just as he had done with the rats. The moral of the story is the deal is a deal. If you break it you own it.
Melanie here wonders about the ending and the story itself. What if this could be true? She then told Zoe to go to bed as she was going to work all night to complete the score. On the way, Zoe listens to the music in her innocence where we clearly see an entity's hand behind her. It vanished in the air the moment Zoe turned. Melanie fell asleep while working and when she woke up the next morning, the score was ready. Someone has written it which terrifies Melanie. She starts to dig at Katherine's last performance where in the fire some hundred-odd kids had died mysteriously and somehow she was unharmed.
In the next scene, we see Zoe at her school where her ball was mysteriously moving towards the bus. As she followed it she started hearing the tune in a very low voice as she was off her hearing aids. Soon she saw the entity dressed like the Piper outside the bus playing the tune. Suddenly all the windows of the bus shattered which terrified her. She screamed like hell. She narrated the whole story to Melanie and even told her about Colin's experience. He too had seen the lake. Later in the day, Melanie finds a rat in her cabinet which attacks her. She gets possessed by the same entity and starts writing fanaticly. To save her Zoe toured the music score and said this is making you sick. After this incident, Melanie too is convinced that something is seriously wrong with this music and she must stop it at any cost.
At the auditorium, Gustafson was talking with Franklin who was ready to write the ending in case Melanie didn't finish it in time. Just then we see Nancy there, she seems to be in some sort of possessed state. Melanie rushed here and started arguing with Gustafson by explaining the history of this score. But Gustafson was not ready to listen to any of this nonsense, in his opinion all this was a children's tale and hogwash. He was desperate to perform as the future of his orchestra was dependent on it. Meanwhile, Franklin again repeats that he could finish the score in his own style. Gustafson finally decides to go with Franklin and he removes Melanie from the orchestra. As the orchestra starts to practice the tune, we see Nancy in a possessed state at the top of the auditorium. She sees her son Colin in a lake where he is calling her name. Of course, all of this was an illusion that she believed to be true. Hence to save him she jumps from the top and gets injured. Melanie screams for help but nobody from the orchestra helps her as all of them are in a state of trance as all of them are possessed.
After taking Nancy to a hospital Melanie pays a visit to Philip who too was sick. He had seen the lake and the tune was repeating in his head. He had cleaned the remaining part of the music in which there was a very demonic voice. That says in Latin, chaos is my world. Meaning there is certainly an entity that is not from this world. It wants to spread Chaos through his music and Katherine was the vessel through which it came to this world. Zoe reads her children's book where one version says at the end villagers captured the Piper and killed him. The kids were safe. But the Piper warned them that he would live in his music. If anyone ever plays it then he will return. Just then she hears the voice of Colin and as she follows it, we clearly see the entity Piper who kidnaps her.
Melanie was again at Katherine's house to find some clues to get rid of this thing. She finds the missing piece on the wall covered by the wallpaper. Seeing her again here Alice says you should have stayed away from this. My sister struggled for fifty years with that tune. She tried everything to get rid of that tune but failed. She was the last one standing between his world and ours. He will bring chaos here and if you have listened to the tune then you are in his prison. he will take his revenge. Melanie gets an idea from all of this. Since his world is chaos and ours is harmony, if we reverse it then there could be a chance. This means by playing his tune in a harmonious way one might finish him.
She now rushes to Philip who has already damaged his one ear to stop hearing. Melanie stops him damaging the other.At the auditorium, the 50th fundraiser event starts and Gus proudly presents this rare piece. As Franklin starts the music we clearly see him possessed. As the show goes on the artists and listeners too get possessed. Melanie rushes backstage to stop the lights and sound system but it is late. We see Piper getting out of Franklin's body, he then kills Gustafson and many other artists. A portal opens on the stage which is a gateway to his world. He now plays his tune which attracts the kids from the audience. As he took them away to his world Melanie too followed them, there she saw Zoe who was walking like a sheep. She quickly grabbed her from behind and removed her hearing aid, which forced Zoe to gain consciousness.
As these two were escaping from his world, Piper saw them. He returned to the real world to attack. Zoe quickly ran from him to the cellar where she used to hide while playing. Piper soon found her there but as he started grabbing her, Melanie started playing his tune in harmony. This caused immense pain to Piper and his body started to disintegrate. Soon both Zoe and Melanie both together played the harmonious tune which forced the rats to come out of Piper and his body withered because of it. All the kids came out from Piper's world including Colin. His portal then disappears.
After a few months, we see Zoe at a music class where she is making progress. Her eyes turn yellow hinting that she is still under the possession of Piper. He still has a grip on her and may return. We see Melanie and Philip discussing the issue where it is revealed that none of the kids remembered anything. Melanie too was not sure whether the curse was over or not. With this, the movie ends. So the Piper had told the villagers that he would return whenever someone played his tune. Zoe like all other kids didn't remember the whole incident but the tune got stuck in her mind. One day if she plays the tune since she is getting better at it the Piper may return. Katherine isolated herself which affected her mind and Piper got hold of her. If Melanie keeps an eye on Zoe and remains alert then she could save her again. Overall it's an interesting movie adaptation of famous folklore. I hope you enjoyed the video. Please subscribe to the channel and visit my blog. The link is in the description. Thank you for watching.
