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Although not nearly as acclaimed as his colleagues Dario Argento, Mario Bava or Lucio Fulci, Pupi Avati is another important and hugely influential director of the legendary Italian horror industry. His mid-seventies masterpiece "House with the Laughing Windows" almost single-handedly embodies everything the Giallo sub genre is all about and his still vastly underrated "Zeder" is probably the most unique zombie movie ever made. Personally I was enormously thrilled and excited upon hearing the news that this great filmmaker returned to his roots with the internationally produced horror-mystery-haunted house thriller "The Hideout", and even more excited when I found out the film would tour around the world's most prominent Horror Film Festivals in 2008. My initial enthusiasm cooled down a lot already by now – because what I saw was a deeply flawed and too slow-moving film – but still I'm more than happy to announce that Avati still remained a gifted storyteller and he definitely hasn't unlearned to involve his viewers into an absorbing (albeit overly convoluted) spider web of intrigues, twists and surreal elements. The film opens with an extended flashback of macabre events that took place in an Iowa orphanage during the winter of 1957. Three of the female staff members are brutally killed and two young girls, who are likely to have committed the vile crimes, mysteriously vanish without any kind of trace. More than half a century later, in present time, the still abandoned mansion is offered to the beautiful Lee to open her very own Italian restaurant. Lee was recently dismissed from a mental institution, where she received treatment for hearing "voices" after her husband committed suicide fifteen years earlier. Whilst working in the mansion, she senses a strange presence and hears eerie voices that actually differ from the ones during her mental instability. Lee rapidly becomes a notorious figure in town, as she intends to uncover the whole truth regarding the unsolved case even if it means harassing some eminent citizens with provocative questions.

The plot is compelling and potentially scary enough (much scarier than the majority of Asian ghost stories, at least), but far too long and unnecessarily complex. Lee involves literally half the community in her investigation and they all have dark secrets to hide or at least suspiciously behave like they do. This soon leads to numerous sub plots and detailed character drawings that eventually lead nowhere and exclusively cause confusion instead of extra mystery. There easily could have been less dead-end red herrings and supportive characters without it affecting the plot's denouement too much, in my humble opinion. Especially since the whole outcome of the mystery is fairly predictable as long as you think logically. "The Hideout" is primarily atmospheric and stylish. Given the subject matter, there's obviously very little action and quite a large number of potentially exciting scenes end with an anticlimax. Hey, I'm all for atmospheric, story-driven suspense, but *slightly* more action footage would have been welcome. The acting performances are overall decent, but practically all the Italian cast members heavily struggle with their English accents and the English top stars (Treat Williams, Burt Young) are reduced to the supportive cast. Along with director Avati, the brilliant Italian composer Riz Ortolani returns to the genre with a superb score as well. Recommended, despite of the minor defaults.

Laura Morante's slightly hysterical and whispery acting, combined with the slow pacing and the classic plot, made the vision of this movie quite annoying. Pupi Avati clearly knows how to get the job done and the general vibe is adequately gloomy, but I felt like something was amiss.

Pupi Avati is a master of world cinema, a living legend. I wondered how he could cope with a genre which I thought was alien to him. Well I was twice wrong. First he makes the most stylish and efficient thriller I have seen since the Others confirming that European directors are genius at shooting edgy American films (The Hideout is shot in the US in a small town). Second the genre is not alien to him as he wrote several thrillers and horror films in the 70s when Italian suspense and thriller was at its best. His mind has the edge and the wit to create images which scare without revealing too much, playing with the audience nerves, building slowly the feeling of uneasiness until the grand finale where hell breaks loose. Music by master of suspense Riz Ortolani (Cannibal Holocaust) adds a lot to the tension; Photography is sublime. Among the actors Laura Morante stands out as the stubborn ambitious little Italian immigrant, camera angles are a work of art every shot could be framed on a wall and the edit is fast paced. The amount of work put inside the film is outstanding. The screenplay is excellent: expect the unexpected. The ghost story ends with an unpredictable twist as we find out that there is an evil much worse than the evil we were fearing.

Laura Morante is great in the lead, and she carries the film. Yvonne Sciò has a small role, but she really looks like she could be a movie star. She has one of those faces!

Pupi Avati directs well here. There are some truly creepy sequences here that are really helped by the camera work and a standout score with some screaming violins.

However, the weakest part of the film is the script. There are parts that just don't make sense or are just not believable. There are a number of characters that never get to have an ending to their story. Threads are just left unraveled. It doesn't feel like much of a resolution.

Some of you may remember "La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono", Pupi Avati's first outing in the horror genre, that took place in a truly terrifying Italian province, and with a plot reminiscent of the best early Dario Argento movies. But like Argento's recent movies, Avati's return to horror after the disappointing "Zeder" is everything but scary. Avati had a good idea (somehow reminiscent of his first horror) and a great cast including some fine American actors: yet the execution is that of a B movie. Or worse. A missed opportunity, for sure, given that the movie is beautifully photographed and had a rather strong premise. At least, however, it is an attempt on the part of Italian movie makers, always so entangled in the comedy genre, to attempt something different. It is a pity that Avati's long awaited return to horror turns out to be a rather boring and insignificant experiment.

Quentin Tarantino was 100% right when he said the nowadays Italian movies suck! After having seen "La Terza Madre" by Dario Argento i though that was impossible to find another movie with so much nonsense on it. The Hideout seems to be a movie shot by an amateur Avati long time ago made a movie called "La casa dalle finestre che ridono" which is an Italian horror masterpiece...the Hideout is suppose to be a sort of sequel but it is nothing else that a vacation director Pupi Avati decided to do with his own family... no acting because Laura Morante plays her self as usual, hysterical and confused...no story because the story is just a way to break people ears with loud scary noises and dumb voices, no suspense and a lot of foreseen things. Avoid this movie and pray for Italian movies resurrection