The House with Laughing Windows

I love how unwieldy a lot of these Giallo titles are. The Bungalow with Farting Drains. The smaller an Italian man is in a giallo the more evil he will end up being.

It's one of the more celebrated examples of Giallo but like most of them, it's a dud. Formulaic, mediocre acting, not really mysterious or that much scary apart from a decent finale.

A horror infused Giallo that has an intriguing story that unfortunately never quite works. The film it steeped in great atmosphere and has several well framed scenes and shots. The acting fluctuated wildly not just from character to character but also scene to scene. The whole film is eerie and disquieting and had me entranced even during the long dull stretches. he music worked well but didn't really stand out and the ending was crazy even if it didn't make any sense what so ever.

A good idea that never develops the way it ought to. The story stagnates, the main actor is way too wooden, and the pacing drags. But despite these major qualms, the movie has a pretty decent atmosphere, is well directed, and has a satisfying conclusion. It's not one of my favorites of its type, but it definitely holds its place among the other horror films coming out of Italy in the 70s, albeit much more restrained than most.

An anomaly among the garish world of 70ies spaghetti horror. Atmospheric, masterfully built up with nice, sun scorched cinematography and sure, it has moments of unsettling, out-of-the-blue weirdness but compare it to the frenzied work of Argento or Fulci and it's rather subdued and also much more effective. With its mounting sense of indefinable unease, the film seems to bridge the sensibilities of Polanski and Lynch but the end result is absolutely unique. Mmmmmmmmyyyyyyyeeeeessssssssshhhhhh.

excels in the way it unravels...mostly Stefano wanders and chats (and has sex) in a nearly Kafka-esque manner. It's not your typical giallo with a linear investigation and assorted red herrings (the lurid trappings of gore and nudity are also absent -- though even without slashes of blood red the movie is EXTREMELY visually striking, particularly the titular laughing windows painted with their mocking lips)

It's got (occasionally) great atmosphere, a decent premise, and some interesting visuals (I liked the opening credits sequence and some of the paintings, in particular). But it goes on for too long, takes too many familiar implausible turns into horror cliches, and is occasionally confusing. I'll give it credit, though, for avoiding cheap thrills and attempting to create sustained terror.

Like other giallos I've seen this one relies a lot on slow build up and weird atmosphere, which can feel a bit overdone at times, but I think in this case that atmosphere is paired well with the characters and setting. There's some great imagery throughout and while the ending is a bit underwhelming I mostly enjoyed this.

Weird and creepy. One of my favorite Italian horror flicks.

Algo me diz que viajei mais do que deveria vendo esse filme. A partir do momento em que um dos personagens diz que "eles aprenderam tudo no Brasil" se referindo a incesto, passei a ver tudo isso como uma alegoria para a ditadura brasileira, o desaparecimento de pessoas, os corpos escondidos, o apoio da Igreja católica. Tudo isso pode não ser intencional, mas que cai como uma luva, isso é. DVDRip no MakingOff.

I have to confess that I don't exactly get the love that this film attracts. I think it's a decent film that gets a big boost from a really great ending, but it's also a bit slow and meandering. I enjoyed it, but it's nowhere near the top of the genre for me.