This week in our All the Colours of Giallo series we’re putting on an overlooked classic from the genre, The House With Laughing Windows (1976).

Set in a small Italian village with a dark secret, Pupi Avati’s film follows Stefano (Lino Capolicchio), an art restorer who arrives in town to clean up and revive a fresco on the wall of a local church. The painting, a graphic depiction of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, isn’t exactly one the locals are fond of.

It seems the work has a reputation, stemming from dark legends about its original artist, who was known as the “painter of agony” because he supposedly liked to paint dying models who may or may not have been dying naturally. The more Stefano digs into these local legends in an effort to understand the mysterious artist, the closer he gets to danger, as a mysterious killer starts picking off townspeople one by one.

If Argento, Fulci, and Bava are the more obvious names introduced audiences to the black leather and brighter blood which would eventually shape the genre, director Pupi Avati opened up new, suspenseful avenues with his magnificent The House With Laughing Windows; a brilliant subversion of the Giallo formula with heavy doses of folk horror and genuine social-political subtext.

■ Downstairs at The Ill Repute
■ 7:30pm Start
■ Free Entry
■ Drinks and snacks available at the bar upstairs