The House with Laughing Windows /

The House with Laughing Windows (Italian title: La casa dalle finestre che ridono) is a 1976 Italian mystery-horror film co-written and directed by Pupi Avati. The movie was filmed in Lido degli Scacchi, Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy (the villa where the main chararacter lives). It was nominated for the 1983 International Fantasy Film Award for Best Film at Fantasporto. Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) arrives in a rural Italian village to restore a fresco of the slaughter of Saint Sebastian which is painted on a rotting church wall. While living temporarily in a house previously owned by the two sisters of the long dead artist, Stefano begins a romance with a beautiful teacher, Francesca (Francesca Marciano). He hears from various townspeople that the painter was a madman who created his art from real life. The artist, assisted by his two equally insane sisters, had viciously tortured people to death as inspiration for his horrific paintings. Some of the villagers are brutally killed and Stefano comes to believe that the murderer is trying to stop him from learning even more of the village's depraved secrets.