The House with Laughing Windows 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		0.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		3.5

The House with Laughing Windows 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 30, 2025

An outsider arrives via boat to an isolated village and soon discovers a web of secrets that ultimately leads to the stranger becoming an integral part of a larger, horrifying conspiracy. The Wicker Man, right? Well, yeah, but also The House with Laughing Windows, a giallo adjacent Italian offering from 1976 that shares certain plot elements not just with the celebrated Robin Hardy film, but with a number of others, as some of the supplements on this disc at least allude to. Still, The Wicker Man may be the most "convenient" entry point for curious folks not overly acquainted with this effort, since this film has undeniable similarities in general tone and sensibility if not always in exact plot machinations. In this particular instance, an artist named Stefano (Lino Capolicchio) makes an entrance much like the hapless policeman in The Wicker Man, namely in a boat, ostensibly to help restore a badly degraded fresco in the local church of an isolated village in Northern Italy. The fresco supposedly depicts the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, but there are of course nefarious secrets that Stefano ultimately uncovers, secrets at least hinted at by an opening credits sequence which shows a man being repeatedly stabbed while "hung" by his wrists from a chain, in a depiction that obviously mirrors what's left of the fresco's imagery and which could easily have come from any given Saw film.

What's kind of ironic and maybe just a little humorous, at least for those who take their religious history with a grain of salt, is that whereas The Wicker Man posited a return to (or continuance of, as the case may be) the "Old Religion", The House with Laughing Windows has the audacity to more or less indict the Catholic Church, or at least this particular vestige of it, even if it's not completely overt. While a major reveal (in more ways than one) late in the film may be ridiculous enough to provoke laughter in the more jaded viewer and which is a major difference between this film's overall formulation and that of The Wicker Man, there's the same sense of a sinister community keeping something secret, and the same unrelentingly foreboding feeling that the outsider's investigations into what's being hidden is only going to lead to disaster. In terms of the aforementioned potentially funny reveal as well as more general denouements, the film offers several none too subtle clues in the very artwork that's being restored, as well as other imagery that enters the fray.

The reason I used the term giallo adjacent above plays into this film's rather interesting stylistic approach, which is miles removed from what would probably be called a "traditional" giallo. There's relatively little gore, other than what's depicted in the opening scene, the actual fresco (which is pretty bloody), and a late vignette, but there's no gloved killer per se, even if that aforementioned reveal late in the film leads to a bit of carnage. The House with Laughing Windows probably most matches The Wicker Man in its palpable sense of doom, which permeates the film virtually from the get go, almost exactly like the earlier story.

The House with Laughing Windows 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: While this is a standalone 4K release without a 1080 disc, I am offering screenshots from Arrow's standalone 1080 release of The House with Laughing Windows, as I think it actually provides a better representation of the look of the palette in particular, rather than offering screenshots from the 4K disc which are by necessity downscaled to 1080 and in SDR. Because this release does not include a 1080 disc, the 2K video score above has been intentionally left blank.

The House with Laughing Windows is presented in 4K UHD courtesy of Arrow Video with an HEVC / H.265 encoded 2160p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the presentation:

The House with Laughing Windows / La casa dalle finestre che ridono is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with mono Italian audio.

The film is presented in 4K resolution in HDR10.

The original 35mm camera negative was scanned and restored in 4K 16 bit at L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna.

The film was colour graded at R3Store Studios, London.

All materials sourced for this new master were made available by Acek and SND.

This is a very appealing 4K presentation, especially in some of the more brightly lit outdoor sequences, which are relatively numerous. Those scenes typically offer excellent detail levels and a very nicely suffused palette that is especially impressive courtesy of the HDR grade. Overall color timing struck me as just a bit too flushed looking at times, so that flesh tones tend to be on the pink side, but that said, the general palette certainly looks natural when assessing things like bright blue skies or green foliage. One kind of interesting sidebar to the HDR presentation (at least for me) is how the opening credits sequence may actually have a bit less of a sepia tone in this version and actually may come a bit closer to traditional black and white. Similarly, some of the material in an attic bedroom Stefano finds has a somewhat surprisingly desaturated or at least slightly monochromatic appearance in this version. Fine detail on everything from fabrics to the actual texture of the fresco is commendable. Grain can be a bit on the thick side at times against brighter backgrounds, but resolves without any issues.

The House with Laughing Windows 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The House with Laughing Windows features an LPCM Mono track in the original Italian. The film has a nicely evocative score by Amedeo Tommassi, which is one of the stronger elements of the sound design. Ambient environmental effects are often suitably moody, and the outdoor material offers good background sounds. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The House with Laughing Windows 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson


• Commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth
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• Painted Screams (HD; 1:34:30) is a newly produced documentary about the production, with a ton of really interesting interviews, including with Pupi and Antonio Avati. Subtitled in English.


• La Casa e Sola (HD; 19:12) is a new visual essay by Chris Alexander.


• The Art of Suffering (HD; 14:59) is a new visual essay by Kat Ellinger.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:39)

This is another very nicely packaged limited edition from Arrow, with a slipbox enclosing a keepcase, illustrated perfect bound collector's booklet and a double sided foldout poster offering the same two art options as the reversible sleeve. All of the above is enclosed in an O ring type slipcover.

The House with Laughing Windows 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fans of The Wicker Man who haven't seen this film will probably intuit the broad outlines of the tale even if some of the specifics may come as a surprise. This is a film long on mood but rather interestingly kind of restrained in terms of style. Technical merits are solid and as usual Arrow has assembled really interesting on disc supplements and a nicely produced compilation of non disc material. Recommended.