La Casa dalle Finestre Che Ridono
1976 / 110m - Italy
Horror, Mystery
1.5*/5.0*
The House with Laughing Windows poster

Plot: An artist is hired to restore an old fresco in a small church. The church is in a very remote place and the artist doesn't feel comfortable there. The people are strange and the sisters living in the building are odd. The more the artist learns about the fresco and the history of the original painter, the

Watches

November 17, 2024

1.5*/5.0*

There are traces of The Wicker Man here, but the Italian setting and minor Giallo elements give this film a specific mood of its own. The build-up is excessively slow though and as a slow-burner, the tension and intrigue simply aren't strong enough to warrant the sluggish pacing and near-2-hour runtime.

The performances aren't great either, but at least the setting was kind of neat. In the first 90 minutes not much happens, it's only at the very end that the film shifts into second gear. The outcome isn't all that spectacular either, but at least the mystery was sustained throughout most of the runtime. I'm still not a fan of classic Italian horror, even though this one is quite a bit different from the typical Giallo.