The Piper trailer: horror film starring Julian Sands will be released in March

Back in June of 2021, it was announced that Julian Sands, best known around here for playing the Warlock in the 1989 horror film fittingly titled Warlock and then coming back for the sequel Warlock: The Armageddon, had signed on to star in a new genre project called The Piper, which puts a horrific twist on the legend of the Pied Piper. Sadly, it was only seven months later that we heard Sands had gone missing while hiking on California’s Mount Baldy. Six months later, his body was found. He did get to work on The Piper before he passed away, though, and the film is now ready to make its way out into the world. It’s set to receive a theatrical and digital/on demand release on March 8th, and with that date exactly one month away a trailer has arrived online. You can check it out in the embed above.

The Piper may not be the last Julian Sands film we see, as he’s also in the drama Body Odyssey, which is making the festival rounds, and is said to have a role in the thriller The Last Breath, which is currently in post-production.

Written and directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen, The Piper was filmed at Millennium Media’s Nu Boyana Studios in Bulgaria. Described as a “dark re-imagining of the Pied Piper tale”, it will show a young composer getting the opportunity of a lifetime when she is tasked with finishing her late mentor’s concerto. But she soon discovers that playing the music summons deadly consequences, leading her to uncover the disturbing origins of the melody and the evil force it has awakened: the Pied Piper.

Sands is joined in the cast by Charlotte Hope, who appeared in 2018’s The Nun and played the character Myranda on eight episodes of Game of Thrones. Oliver Savell (Belfast) and newcomer Aoibhe O’Flanagan are in the cast as well.

Hellraiser‘s Christopher Young composed the score for The Piper. The film was produced by Bernard Kira, Les Weldon, and Millennium Media’s Yariv Lerner, Jeffrey Greenstein, Jonathan Yunger, and Tanner Mobley. Avi Lerner, Boaz Davidson, Trevor Short, Victor Hadida, Lonnie Ramati, and Nicole Swinford serve as executive producers.

Mobley had this to say about the project: “Erlingur wrote a chilling script that adapts the sinister tale of the Pied Piper into a modern day horror villain. The story and team, including iconic composer Christopher Young, has attracted an amazing cast led by Charlotte and Julian.“

Erlingur Thoroddsen previously wrote and directed the horror films Child Eater and Rift, and also wrote the Midnight Kiss episode of the Hulu / Blumhouse anthology series Into the Dark.

What did you think of the trailer for The Piper? Are you looking forward to seeing Julian Sands in another genre film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.