We are in the province of Romagna, in the immediate postwar period. Restorer Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) is called upon by his friend Antonio to revive a fresco in a church by local painter Buono Legnani (called "the painter of agonies"). When his friend dies falling from a window (murder or suicide?), he begins to take an interest in the strange legend of the painter and his house with the "laughing" windows. Inside he finds a tape recorder with a tape; engraved on it is a voice of a hallucinated man who seems to be Buono Legnani.
The town drunkard Coppola (Gianni Cavina) recounts what happened to the painter and his family (mother and two sisters), who left for Brazil in search of fortune and returned with the sisters without having had the success they had hoped for. But the two women were not completely right in the psyche: apparently they had learned certain necromantic knowledge and offered the brother victims to portray at the moment of death; hence his baleful nickname "painter of agonies."
But it seems that someone in the village does not welcome this intrusion into the mysteries of the mad painter and tries to obstruct the restoration work and the search. A trail of blood seems to stain the quiet province of Romagna....
Pupi Avati masterfully and skillfully directs his absolute masterpiece. He succeeds in painting the tranquil province of Ferrara in dark hues, fully succeeding in the intent to distress and frighten the viewer until the end of the film.
Worthy of mention is the soundtrack, excellent actors, with Capolicchio and Cavina often falling into the entourage of Avati's films.
A remarkable contribution to the horror/thriller cinematography of our beloved "boot."
Review by Maxena
