Synopsis[]
Struggling composer Pete Bancroft is contacted by strange Wilson Farber, who has invented a synthesizer that can read minds and may be able to help Bancroft in his career.
Cast[]
- Michael Warren as Pete Bancroft
- Lisa Bonet as Justine
- Philip Roth as Wilson Farber
- Felice Orlandi as Tony
Plot[]
Act I[]
Pete Bancroft is a successful musical composer who has been struggling with a creative block. His daughter Justine plays a new composition of his on the piano; when he voices his displeasure for the song, she adds synthesizer to “make it sexier”. As she starts working on her own original song, Pete‘s manager Tony comes in. He tells Pete the record label won‘t renegotiate his current contract until the new album is complete; however the label doesn’t like his new music. After Tony leaves, Justine asks her somber father, “what‘s wrong with getting old?”
A mysterious man named Wilson Farber calls Pete on his private home line. Farber wants to get the musician a one-of-a-kind instrument, piquing his interest. After he hangs up, Farber speaks to a corpse on a gurney and tells him that he’s “found someone much better to play”.
Act II[]
The next day, Pete reluctantly goes to Farber’s studio which resembles a mad scientist‘s lab. Farber shows him his prized possession: an elaborate synthesizer capable of turning your memories into a song. While Pete doesn’t believe it at first, he becomes captivated after the synthesizer plays a song from yesterday he thought about. Farber claims ”inspiration is a fickle vamp” and that his instrument can grab any composition as it is thought up before any memory can change it. Farber has Pete take it — perplexing him for not wanting any money — and says they will figure out a way to pay him back later.
The satanic piano
Pete enjoys success since taking the synthesizer. Anytime it grabs a memory, a square in the center of it glows blue. One day, Justine walks by and it begins playing her original song. Finding it incredible she was only thinking about her song, she questions her father on the instrument. He becomes over protective and tells her not to touch it. Later that night, the blue sphere glows as Justine sleeps on the couch. Farber, who appears to be controlling it from his lab, watches Justine from a hidden camera and declares her to be “the one”.
Act III[]
One day, Pete brings Tony over to witness the synthesizer in action. Pete casually drops Farber‘s name, which causes Tony to remember Farber was once an agent who repped a satanic metal band. He informs Pete that Farber and the band dabbled with witchcraft and that the lead singer died on stage. Pete suddenly realizes the synthesizer and Justine are both gone; fearing Farber is connected, Pete rushes to his lab. Justine is here, unconscious on the same gurney from before. When Pete tries to wake her up, Farber enters wearing a long red robe. He reveals his plans to become immortal by taking Justine‘s soul, “draining it note by note”. The synthesizer plays her song as the soul square glows bright blue.
The final showdown
Running out of time, Pete punches through the square; it saves his daughters life, but severely mutates his arm. He then destroys the synsthesizer by using his thoughts to insert a song of his into it, disrupting Justine’s song. Justine wakes up and Pete gets her out; she asks what happened to his arm, but he insists he will be ok and that his daughter “will be the music now”. The synthesizer goes haywire, revealing a mold of Pete’s arm in the soul square.