Stirring suspense and an incredibly creepy location lose out to a routine story in Pupi Avati's return to the horror genre. Lei (Laura Morante) returns to her former residence of Davenport, Iowa after 15 years in a mental institution following her husband's suicide. She intends to fulfill their dream of opening an Italian restaurant and realtor Mueller (Burt Young) finds her a place called Snake's Hall out in the country. It is the ideal place in that it has lots of space, a fully furnished kitchen and low rent. Of course, it also has a dark history and the Lei can't decide if the voices she hears at night are from someone else in the house or if she is going crazy again. This has a lot of things going for it, but ultimately fails when you figure out the plot about 30 minutes in. Sure, there might be an extra twist here and there, but you know the gist of it, especially with poorly delivered lines like, "The night of the murders there were no footprints in the snow leaving the house. What happened to the two girls who killed those people? IT IS LIKE THEY VANISHED!" Also, titling your movie the freakin' HIDEOUT might be a huge giveaway. Avati's set ups for how Lei gets info are astonishingly bad. For example, her big in on finding out about the house's history is almost randomly running over a young boy crossing the road whose mother just happens to be married to the son of the judge whose presided over the case of the murders in the house in the 1950s. The anti-climatic ending is a huge botch job too. And it is a shame because Avati captures Iowa in a unique way and builds the suspense perfectly. Random co-stars include Treat Williams (as Father Amy!?!), Yvonne Scio, Giovanni Lombardo Radice (as a wine expert with two scenes; you flew him over for that?), and Rita Tushingham (looking more and more like Anthony Perkins).

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.

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.

*Il Nascondiglio Degli SPOILERS* A woman (Laura Morante) finally leaves the psychiatric hospital in which she has been for 15 years, following her husband's suicide.She resolves herself to get on with her life and open an Italian restaurant in Davenport, Iowa, and precisely in the old building called Snakes Hall, which hides a horrible secret; on Christmas Night, 1957, when the house was used as a pensionate for old women run by nuns, the Mother Superior and the lone two guests were horribly murdered, while the two Novices that were also there vanished into thin air...And as she delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, everything seems to become more and more dangerous, and not only for her...An intense, taut thriller which genially exploits the 'haunted house' theme, 'Il Nascondiglio' ('The Hideout' in the USA) is also helped by an expert director, Pupi Avati ('La Casa Dalle Finestre Che Ridono') with actors such as Laura Morante ('Un Viaggio Chiamato Amore'), Treat Williams ('Hair', 'Everwood') and many many others, and a well-written, suspenseful script.For the fans of suspense and terror, a movie not to miss!Il Nascondiglio: 9/10.