I know it’s been almost fifty years but if you haven’t seen this one, I recommend watching it before reading on because I spoil the hell out of things and this is one to go in blind on. A young art restorer by the name of Stefano is hired on by the mayor of a quiet village to restore a fresco concerning the suffering of St. Sebastian in the local church. The painting was done by a mentally disturbed painter, Buono Legnani, who was known as “The Painter of Agony” for his work focused on people near death and/or in great pain. Stefano was recommended by his friend Dr. Antonio Mazza who has been looking into the mysterious life and death of Legnani. Supposedly dead for twenty years, no body has ever been found. The artist was also suspected of several murders, perpetrated in a disquieting, dilapidated house with those laughing mouths painted over the windows. Stefano gets to work, even as unfriendly locals warn him against finishing the painting, and Antonio learns some disturbing information that a sudden case of murder prevents him from sharing with his friend. The police are happy to call the doctor’s passing a suicide and Stefano begins looking into the subject his friend was fascinated by. Stefano and a newly arrived teacher, Francesca (gorgeous Francesca Marciano who manages the rare ability to look good in grannie panties), begin to see each other and Stefano befriends a local mentally challenged creep who works at the church named Lidio. This becomes fortuitous when he’s evicted from his hotel and is invited to stay with Lidio and the elderly paraplegic woman he seemingly mentally tortures at an isolated house, hidden away from the rest of the village. The very house was owned by the artist’s sisters who were suspected of aiding him in torturing and killing subjects for his work. So, not fortuitous at all actually. The audio recording he finds in the cellar points in the direction that he really should be afraid of where the hell he has ended up. When the fresco is destroyed with acid, he decides it’s time to get the fuck out of the place and he plans on taking Francesca with him (not forcefully or anything, she wants out). Those plans are put on the back burner when an obviously troubled taxi driver fills him in on some key secrets about the town’s fabled artist and Stefano’s planned exit looks to be too little too late. Deeply unsettling somewhat-folk-horror/giallo/gothic hybrid from the under-appreciated Pupi Avati is hard to forget once it worms its way under your skin. The same way Avati’s interesting take on undead cinema, Zeder, remains hard to shake thanks to the intriguing directions traveled off in to. I mean, what Italian filmmaker makes a zombie movie that ain’t really about zombies in the early eighties? They both carry the same sinister atmosphere but the denouement in this one makes it just a bit more fulfilling. A near masterpiece that may be a bit too slow-going for some and definitely lacks the violent set pieces of the subgenre but that’s purposeful for the ending to hit as hard as it does.
No comments:
Post a Comment