Can a window laugh?

Hello, and welcome back to Eccentric Spheres!

This weeks topic is La casa dalle finestre che ridono, or The House with Laughing Windows (1976) for those of you, like me, who don't speak Italian. A good friend of mine recommended this film a long time ago, but it wasn't until last week that I sat down to watch it.

What we have here is an Italian horror movie quite unlike any other I've seen, and I've seen a lot of them. And I do mean a lot. Names like Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Mario Bava and his son Lamberto Bava, Michele Soavi and many others have created an enormous catalog of horror that I've spent a large part of my life enjoying, but The House with Laughing Windows is not by any of these power houses of Italian horror.

No, The House with Laughing Windows is by a man I had never heard of: Pupi Avati. I can honestly say I haven't seen any of his other films as far as I know. But on with the laughing windows.

Here we meet Stefano, a painter who arrives at an isolated town in order to restore a mural of St. Sebastian in the local church. He has been hired by the mayor, since the mayor thinks the mural will help boost the dwindling tourism numbers. He meets an old friend who is working in the town, who tries to warn him about a terrible danger. He also meets a pretty young girl, Francesca, who arrives at the same time to work as a teacher. Then things go wrong and nasty stuff happens. You know, horror things, this isn't a romantic comedy after all. I'm not going to spoil the plot, so I can't go deeper into it.

The House with Laughing Windows is in many ways an unusual horror movie. While it does use many conventional horror tropes, like the town drunk who spills the beans to the main character, it seems to do so with a good understanding of why they work. I didn't really find a single trope out of place here. Many directors lazily toss them in with no care for the overall effect, much to the detriment of their movies. Not so with Pupi Avati and The House with Laughing Windows. The overall atmosphere is excellent, not too heavy but constantly unsettling. There is something about this film that is hard to put your finger on. There's not that much blood and no real nudity nor are there any monsters, so the majority of he run time is filled with talking, but it never gets dull. The pacing is very good and it never hits you over the head with explanations. Most of the mystery is sort of explained, but not all. If you hate that sort of thing, be warned, you really have to pay attention the whole time.

I watched a subtitled version, and to be honest the subtitles were atrocious. I get that it's not easy but it was bad. Like when the mayor has picked up Stefano and his driver suddenly swerves, the mayor yells “Hey, are you asleep at the wheel?” and the driver, Coppola, turns around and very earnestly says, “No, not at all.” Hilarious. But bad subtitling is par for course with horror movies. I still remember trying to watch an Italian horror film (I forget which one) dubbed to french with dutch subtitling. Suffice to say that was impossible.

To sum up, I recommend The House with Laughing Windows if you want a different Italian horror movie. There are no zombies, cannibals, demons or murderers with black leather gloves to be found, but it is all things considered, excellent for what it is.

That's it for me this time. Until we meet again, have a great week!