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Description

Art restorer Stefano arrives in an isolated Italian village to restore a fresco of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. The fresco's painter was a 'death artist,' a madman rumored to have tortured his models in their final moments. When people in the village begin turning up dead, Stefano is forced to consider that the artist may have returned to resume his brutal career - and that he himself is the primary target.

Description

Long ranked among the finest gialli ever made, Pupi Avati's The House with Laughing Windows (1976) takes the genre in a quieter, more artful and unsettling direction than its lurid Technicolor excesses suggest. Art restorer Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) travels to a remote Italian village to restore a fresco depicting Saint Sebastian's agonizing martyrdom. The painter, the locals whisper, was a 'death artist' so obsessed with mortality that he tortured his models to capture their final moments. When people in the village begin turning up dead, Stefano is forced to consider that the mad artist may have returned to resume his brutal career — and that the restorer himself is the primary target. It builds to an ending few viewers ever forget.