TL;DR – While Piper has a solid premise, it does not have the narrative to hold you for the runtime.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Piper Review –

Today we are looking at an interesting film, in that I think we have something with an interesting premise, is conceptionally quite sound, yet ended up feeling more lacklustre than anything else. It is an odd disconnect that I hope to explore.

So, to set the scene, Liz (Elizabeth Hurley) and her daughter Amy (Mia Jenkins) have moved across the world to a small town in Germany. The town is so quiet and charming that they didn’t need their local prison so they turned it into a school where Liz will now work. Just don’t ask about the wi-fi. But beyond the charm, this is a city with a dark secret, but secrets are everywhere, and these secrets could kill.

What I will say, is that I did like the central premise of the film. Old nursery rhymes are a perfect place to find horror motive, especially as we have sanitised them over the years. So, a pied piper character murdering people’s children as penance for their sins is an interesting place to start. The visual stylings of the Piper, the sort of stop motion rats, and some of the lore they build up all work well. Also, all the location work in Latvia very much helped to sell the feeling the film was going for. It is a stunning location and they make the most of it. Finally, I do think the cast are making the best of what they are given.

Unfortunately, while the foundations are there, the building never comes together. Some of that is due to small things, like how some of the compositing and musical score does not quite reach where they wanted. I will assume budget was behind that. They keep trying to make Liz a sympathetic character even though she is irredeemable. The film takes wild swings in tone without the strength to make that work which leaves to some very awkward scenes. We then get out-of-date representations of the Romani people and a love story between some questionably aged characters. But the central issue I think is that I am not sure they had the material needed to stretch for the full 90-odd minutes making the back half of the film drag completely.

In the end, do we recommend Piper? No, unfortunately not. You do feel that everyone is really trying here, it just does not quite come together in the places that it really needs to be to evolve from more than just its foundation. If you liked Piper, we would recommend to you The Moogai.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Piper
Directed by – Anthony Waller
Screenplay by – Anthony Waller
Story by – Duncan Kennedy
Music by – Wilbert Hirsch & Anthony Waller
Cinematography by – Roger Simonsz
Edited by – Peter R. Adam & Anthony Waller
Production/Distribution Companies – Fetisoff Illusion Europe, Cometstone Pictures & Eagle Entertainment
Starring – Elizabeth Hurley, Mia Jenkins, Jack Stewart, Robert Daws, Tara Fitzgerald & Ieva Aleksandrova-Eklone with Arben Bajraktaraj, Jurijs Djakonovs, Evija Koltone, Elizabete Liepa, Alma Rix, Madlena Valdberga & Anthony Waller
Rating – Australia: na; Canada: na; Germany: 16; New Zealand: na; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R