The House with Laughing Windows (1976, dir. Pupi Avati) – a moody and masterful giallo (Italian thriller / mystery / slasher film)
One of the most remarkable (albeit atypical) examples of a giallo (Italian mystery-thriller-slasher film) out there, Pupi Avati’s The House with Laughing Windows is a masterpiece of mood and ambient creepiness whose ability to stretch an atmosphere of queasy apprehension to the absolute breaking point over the course of a feature-length film is probably second only to Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, made just three years previously. A young art historian named Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) comes to a remote Italian village to restore some twentieth-century frescos that depict the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian in an old church. Some rumors suggest that the deceased artist of the works actually tortured and murdered his real-life models. Meanwhile, Stefano’s efforts to restore the frescoes get sidetracked by all the locals who have secrets they want to share with him but cannot because they keep dying under mysterious circumstances before they can actually get down to the business of telling him much of anything. This is a movie whose tensions and uneasiness build and build and build . . . Not to be missed!
Misfit Horror is a film series dedicated to one-of-a-kind horror movies whose originality and power have been unjustly neglected because they aren’t at all what you expected.

Sunday nights at 7PM in 150 Stevenson. Sponsored (or at least turned a blind eye) by the Literature Department, and produced by the usual gang of aficionados. More informative flyers to follow weekly.